Structure of Everyday Memory in Adults With Age-Associated Memory Impairment

• Published in: Psychology and aging Vol. 9; no. 4; pp. 606 - 615
• Main Authors: Tomer, Adrian, Larrabee, Glenn J, Crook, Thomas H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychological Association 01-12-1994
• Subjects: Activities of Daily Living - psychology; Adult. Elderly; Aged; Ageing; Amnesia - diagnosis; Amnesia - psychology; Attention; Biological and medical sciences; Developmental psychology; Everyday memory; Factors; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Humans; Male; Memory; Memory Disorders; Mental Recall; Middle Aged; Neuropsychological Tests; Paired-Associate Learning; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reference Values; Retention (Psychology); Structure; Verbal Learning; Wechsler Scales; Human; Memory disorder; Education level; Daily living; Memory; Structural equation model; Sex; Aptitude test; Psychometrics; Confirmatory factor analysis; Structure; Elderly; Age
• ISSN: 0882-7974; 1939-1498
• DOI: 10.1037/0882-7974.9.4.606

Everyday memory was tested in a group of adults manifesting Age-Associated Memory Impairment; a computerized battery of tests was constructed to simulate memory tasks of daily life. Confirmatory and other structural equation models were estimated for the entire sample of 273 Ss and for 3 age groups. A 4-factor model was found to fit the data well and was invariant across age and gender. After education had been controlled, only the General Recall factor was found to be consistently related to age in both men and women; the other 3 factors-Narrative Memory, Digit Recall, and Visual Memory-were related to age only in men. Confirmatory factor analyses of the everyday memory tests combined with several psychometric memory tests suggested that some of the latter (the Benton Visual Retention Test and Wechsler Memory Scale Hard Paired Associates) Ioad on more than 1 factor of everyday memory, suggesting complex relationships between the 2 types of tests.