Improving memory in elderly adults by instructing them in professional actors' learning strategies

This study examined a new type of cognitive intervention. For four weeks, participants (ages 65 to 82) were instructed in professional acting techniques, followed by rehearsal and performance of theatrical scenes. Although the training was not targeted in any way to the tasks used in pre- and post-testing, participants produced significantly higher recall and recognition scores after the intervention. It is suggested that the cognitive effort involved in analyzing and adopting theatrical characters' motivations (and then experiencing those characters' mental/emotional states during performance) is responsible for the observed improvement. A secondary strand of this study showed that participants who were given annotated scripts in which the implied goals of the characters were made explicit demonstrated significantly faster access to the stored material, as measured by a computer latency task.

Does Age Matter? Semantic Memory in Healthy Young and Elderly Adults

Background: Semantic memory processes have been well described in literature. However, the available findings are mostly based on relatively young subjects and concrete word material (e.g. tree). Comparatively little information exists about semantic memory for abstract words (e.g. mind) and possible age related changes in semantic retrieval. In this respect, we developed a paradigm that is useful to investigate the implicit (i.e. attentionindependent) access to concrete and abstract semantic memory. These processes were then compared between young and elderly healthy subjects. Methods: A well established tool for investigating semantic memory processes is the semantic priming paradigm, which consists both of semantically unrelated and related word pairs. In our behavioral task these noun-noun word pairs were further divided into concrete, abstract and matched pronounceable non-word conditions. With this premise, the young and elderly participants performed a lexical decision task: they were asked to press a choice of two buttons as an indication for whether the word pair contained a non-word or not. In order to minimize controlled (i.e. attention-dependent) retrieval strategies, a short stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of 150ms was set. Reaction time (RT) changes and accuracy to related and unrelated words (priming effect) in the abstract vs. concrete condition (concreteness effect) were the dependent variables of interest. Results and Discussion: Statistical analysis confirmed both a significant priming effect (i.e. shorter RTs in semantically related compared to unrelated words) and a concreteness effect (i.e. RT decrease for concrete compared to abstract words) in the young and elderly subjects. There was no age difference in accuracy. The only age effect was a commonly known general slowing in RT over all conditions. In conclusion, age is not a critical factor in the implicit access to abstract and concrete semantic memory.

Loads and loads and loads: the influence of prospective load, retrospective load, and ongoing task load in prospective memory

In prospective memory tasks different kinds of load can occur. Adding a prospective memory task can impose a load on ongoing task performance. Adding ongoing task load (OTL) can affect prospective memory performance. The existence of multiple target events increases prospective load (PL) and adding complexity to the to-be-remembered action increases retrospective load (RL). In two experiments, we systematically examined the effects of these different types of load on prospective memory performance. Results showed an effect of PL on costs in the ongoing task for categorical targets (Experiment 2), but not for specific targets (Experiment 1). RL and OTL both affected remembering the retrospective component of the prospective memory task. We suggest that PL can enhance costs in the ongoing task due to additional monitoring requirements. RL and OTL seem to impact the division of resources between the ongoing task and retrieval of the retrospective component, which may affect disengagement from the ongoing task. In general, the results demonstrate that the different types of load affect prospective memory differentially.

Environmental policy and knowledge. Copying with complexity through inclusive management

Scholars agree that governance of the public environment entails cooperation between science, policy and society. This requires the active role of public managers as catalysts of knowledge co-production, addressing participatory arenas in relation to knowledge integration and social learning. This paper deals with the question of whether public managers acknowledge and take on this task. A survey accessing Directors of Environmental Offices (EOs) of 64 municipalities was carried out in parallel for two regions - Tuscany (Italy) and Porto Alegre Metropolitan Region (Brazil). The survey data were analysed using the multiple correspondence method. Results showed that, regarding policy practices, EOs do not play the role of knowledge co-production catalysts, since when making environmental decisions they only use technical knowledge. We conclude that there is a gap between theory and practice, and identify some factors that may hinder local environmental managers in acting as catalyst of knowledge co-production, raising a further question for future research.