Researchers at the University of Arizona are exploring a new vision of what cognitive aging looks like.
Vannia Puig Rivera led a study published last January that asks the difference between “healthy” and “non-healthy” aging. She noted that older people were able to recall people and events from their past with an attention to detail that went against popular opinion.
“Not only keeping up with their younger counterparts but in some cases, they are even surpassing them in terms of vividly and specifically they recall their life events,” she said.
Puig Rivera suggests the study’s findings back up what many people already know: elders in the family are the best storytellers.
“Even in my own family they often offer these rich, vivid recollections of stories from their past,” she said. “So, I think what we are capturing in this work maps very well on not only what we as family members experience, but what these seniors themselves experience about their aging journey.”
Puig Rivera says the results also give a more accurate view of how our minds work as we get older, and could add to the ability to diagnose and treat aging disorders like dementia.
The research utilized smartphone applications that made it different from a lab-based study. The app sent alerts to participants at random times and asked them to recall their thoughts at that moment, with a direct aim at details that made memories stand out.
The research team did not set out to measure peoples' ability to accurately recall the memory, but instead focused on how specific their recollection was.
