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In recent years, a number of theories and frameworks have emerged that try to address both the potentials and limitations of effective cognitive and social functioning during the adult years (e.g., Baltes & Staudinger, 2000; Baltes, Staudinger, & Lindenberger, 1999; Hoyer & Rybash, 1994; Lemme, 1999; Rowe & Kahn, 1997; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Staudinger & Pasupathi, 2000; Wapner & Demick, this volume). Such frameworks have aided the articulation of the characteristics of adult development by integrating observations that would otherwise have been disconnected pieces of a puzzle and less meaningful. In the study of adult cognitive development, for example, much of the available data and theory address the description and explanation of age-related cognitive decline. However, everyday observations and the results from some studies suggest that there are improvements or stability as well as declines in cognitive function during the adult years. The aim of the present chapter is to describe what is known about the potentials as well as limits of learning during the adult years.

Impairment of memory is a ubiquitous symptom of neurobehavioral disorders, appearing most prominently in the amnesic disorders, but also in the dementias associated with head trauma and the degenerative diseases of the elderly. Over the past few years, designing, applying, and, to a lesser extent, evaluating various memory rehabilitation methods have become a growth industry. Memory disorders associated with different types of brain damage vary both qualitatively and quantitatively; therefore, rehabilitation strategies are frequently developed to address the memory deficits that are characteristics of a particular disorder. From a conceptual standpoint, the rehabilitation of memory might be compared to the rehabilitation of aphasia, a diverse condition requiring various rehabilitation techniques that consider both type and severity of language disruption. That is, an effective technique for one form of aphasia is unlikely to be appropriate for other forms.

In his 1984 APA Division 40 Presidential Address, Nelson Butters presented evidence of a double dissociation in the memory function of patients with Huntington’s disease and alcoholic Korsakoff’s syndrome (Butters, 1984). The Huntington’s disease patients were found to have relatively normal verbal recognition memory but poor skill learning, while the reverse was true for the alcoholic Korsakoff patients. Of particular interest for our present purposes was that the skill learning of the alcoholic Korsakoff patients, using a mirror-reading task, was accomplished at a rate comparable to that of the normal controls. Despite their failure to recognize features of the task following training, their performance nevertheless improved over three days of training.

The reader of this chapter will be helped to plan and carry out memory therapy programmes for patients whose memory problems result from acquired brain damage.

Therapists are invariably short of time, and one way of dealing with this situation is to treat people in groups rather than singly. A more important reason for working with groups rather than individuals is the possibility that memory-impaired people may benefit from interaction with others having similar disabilities. Many memory impaired people believe they are losing their sanity, and this fear may be alleviated by observing others with similar difficulties. Participants in a group may also give advice to each other and may be more likely to use aids or strategies if their peers are seen to be using them. The influence of a peer group on an individual’s behaviour is likely to be stronger than the exhortations of a therapist, however well intentioned the latter may be. It has also been observed that memory groups have face validity: participants (and their relatives) believe that treatment given in groups is effective, and this in itself may have indirect therapeutic value. Furthermore, it is nearly always possible to ensure that each member of a group succeeds at something during a meeting because group therapy provides such a wide range of tasks of varying difficulty. For people used to failure it is no bad thing to provide an element of success in front of their peers.

The previous chapter discussed methods of improving memory and provided a conceptual framework for their categorization. The present chapter examines these and other memory strategies in more detail, with particular reference to the rehabilitation of brain-injured people. It is emphasized that although a given memory strategy may be beneficial to one individual it may be of no value to another and indeed in some cases may actually prove to be detrimental. Varying responses to treatment will be largely dependent upon the nature and extent of a person’s brain damage. As the process of selecting the most appropriate memory training strategies for a given individual will be described in the next chapter it will not be discussed further here.

Human aging is associated with a fundamental slowing of central nervous system processes. The evidence is based on changes, often decrements, in the function of a wide range of perceptual, motor, cognitive and memory processes. Two of the most vulnerable processes are the short-term storage of information and the transition of new information to and from long-term memory storage. It has been estimated that about 10–20 percent of older adults show additional, often disease related, impairments in these processes. Behavioral and neuropharmacologic interventions have been proposed and to some extent tested for the remediation of memory deficits. The application of computer technology to these and related problems of the elderly offers considerable promise, but thus far has generally lagged behind applications in younger populations.