Goals and Motivation to Remember Important Information in Old Age

ABSTRACT
Changes in memory are one of the most common concerns of older adults. The proposed research examines
how goals can motivate and improve memory in older adults through a strategic focus on selectively
remembering important information. We first test how older adults can learn to focus on what is important
when experiencing stress or arousal from rushing. Relative to younger adults, older adults may feel greater
stress and anxiety due to rushing, when rapidly presented with large amounts of information, but can still
engage in selective encoding of important information with practice under some conditions. Indeed, older
adults can be motivated by responsible remembering and a fear of forgetting (such as when needing to
remember a child's allergies). We will determine if older adults can engage in the control of selective
forgetting and updating information using a directed forgetting task, where one has to selectively remember
items that they are responsible for bringing on a trip. By being able to forget outdated information older adults
can use memory in an efficient manner, and remember when information has changed in value, especially in
terms of positive and negative values. We will also examine how older adults may focus on selectively
remembering changes in financial gains, possibly at the expense of remembering losses, such as changes in
stock prices or updated to a retirement plan. There are practical applications of selective memory in older age,
as one consequence of selectively focusing attention and memory is a potential bias toward gains and
rewards. For example, older adults may be particularly susceptible to financial fraud and related scams
because they selectively focus on positive outcomes and frequently experience loneliness. Thus, older adults
may focus on the enticing opportunity presented in a scam, and the potential rewards, but fail to attend to or
later remember risks or suspicious aspects of the proposition. We will examine how selectivity can lead to
bias in older adults and how selective memory can be effectively redirected toward critical aspects of a
potential scam with repeated testing, thus reducing susceptibility to financial victimization. A memory-testing
program to identify scams will be developed to determine if training can transfer and assist older adults in
effectively identifying other forms of scams, by enhancing selective memory away from potential positive
outcomes and towards signs of deceptive offers, such as advance-fee fraud. Overall, the proposed work can
help older adults selectively remember important information, learn how to selectively forget outdated
information regarding gains and losses and help older adults identify features of scams, providing several
novel and innovative avenues of research that integrate theoretical and translational aspects of memory and
aging.

Grant Number: 5R01AG044335-10
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: Alan Castel