Aging and the seven sins of memory

Memory serves many different functions in everyday life, but none is more important than providing a link between the present and the past that allows us to re-visit previously experienced events, people, and places. This link becomes increasingly significant as we age: recollections of past experiences serve as the basis for a process of life review that assumes great importance to many older adults (Coleman, 1986; Schacter, 1996). Not surprising, then, a common worry among older adults is that forgetfulness, which may seem to be increasingly pervasive as years go by, will eventually result in the loss of the precious store of memories that has been built up over a lifetime. While much evidence suggests that various aspects of memory do decline with increasing age, it is clear that performance on some memory tasks remains relatively preserved (Naveh-Benjamin et al., 2001). Advances in Cell Aging and Gerontology