The current study explores the effects of the nature of the encoding process on the memory performance of young and old healthy adults. In the study, the subjects were guided to use two different encoding processes, sentence production and sentence construction. The goal was to explore whether or not encouraging more active encoding processing in older adults would facilitate their memory performance. The findings suggest that memory performance in healthy older adults can be improved by facilitating a more active level of processing in the encoding stage of memory formation. It is suggested that such active encoding may serve as a means to engage greater frontal lobe activity which may be the reason for the improved memory performance in the healthy older adults. The results of the study support a more optimistic view of memory rehabilitation for clinical populations with memory deficits.
Dr. Vollaro has a Ph.D. in Psychology, with a specialty in Clinical Neuropsychology, from the City University of New York. He is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Suffolk County Community College and his main clinical interest is in the long term rehabilitation from trauamtic brain injury.