PROSPECTS FOR COMPUTERIZED MEMORY TRAINING IN NORMAL ELDERLY - EFFECTS OF PRACTICE ON EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT MEMORY TASKS

We gave 12 cognitively normal, elderly adults (mean age = 76.33 years) training and practice on the Colorado Neuropsychology Tests, a comput erized battery of explicit and implicit memory tasks. Half the subject s practised on the explicit memory tasks for 1.5 hours a week for 9 we eks with the assistance of a psychologist, while the other half practi sed on the implicit tasks for the equivalent amount of time. Subjects in both training conditions showed significant improvement within and across training sessions, with those in the implicit memory condition showing the most overall improvement, as indicated by standardized cha nge scores. However, the improved performance on the training tasks di d not result in more positive self-assessments of memory capability. I n general, subjects displayed favourable attitudes toward the computer technology and were capable of learning to operate the computer softw are. The results support the practical application of computerized mem ory training with normal elderly adults.