Reinforce Seniors’ Responsible Forgetting

Since late room service qualifies for me as roughing it, I’m not the ideal study participant when asked to imagine going camping. UCLA researchers conducted such a study in exploring how older adults accommodate their memory deficits.
     Groups of younger and older adults were presented a list of items to bring on a camping trip and told which of the items were their responsibility to bring and which were the responsibility of a friend. Each item name was presented in turn on a screen for three seconds followed by, for two seconds, the cue as to whether the participant or the friend was responsible for bringing the item.
     As expected, participants considered items they were to remember as more important than items the friend was to remember, and the older adults later remembered fewer of the item names than did the younger adults.
     Both age groups remembered more of the names of the items they were responsible for bringing. The researchers call this strategy responsible forgetting. The researchers cite prior research which indicates that forgetting of unimportant information enhances memory for important information.
     Importance influenced the use of responsible forgetting to a greater extent than did whether the individual or their friend had responsibility for bringing the item. The researchers attribute this to two related factors: First, the participants may have had experiences of friends who are responsible for remembering essential items, such as water on a camping trip, ending up forgetting. Second, if the item was central to the individual’s comfort, such as their favorite type of pillow, they might choose to refrain from delegating responsibility.
     Participants were instructed not to write down the words to remember. The study has implications for when seniors are presented information quickly without the opportunity for review. In those situations, reinforce responsible forgetting by stating when an item is important to remember. In the marketplace situation, also encourage people to write down the important items, or give them a list of the important items.
     Psychologist Shepherd Ivory Franz, who studied brain plasticity and flexibility, testified to the value of memory aids. Professor Franz was also an amateur ichthyologist who complained that each time he learned the name of another fish, he forgot the name of a fish he’d previously known. This may not have been literally true, but it does seem that for ichthyologists, a list of fish names would be handy.

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