The Preservation of Memory

An increase in average life expectancy has given rise to a number of pressing health challenges for the 21st century. Age-related memory loss, whether due to a neurodegenerative condition such as Alzheimer?s disease, or as a product of the normal process of aging, is perhaps the most significant of the health problems of old age presently confronting our society. The Preservation of Memory explores non-invasive, empirically sound strategies that can be implemented to ensure long-lasting and effective retention of information.

The chapters in this volume describe and evaluate both well-established and novel methods for improving and strengthening memory, for people with and without dementia. They also look at ways in which effective detection and care can be implemented, and describe empirical findings that can be translated into everyday practice. The contributors take a multidisciplinary approach, motivated by the desire to look beyond and across boundaries to find new areas of knowledge and new opportunities.

The Preservation of Memory will be useful reading for students and researchers focusing upon memory, aging and dementia, and also for mental health practitioners, social workers, and carers of persons living with dementia or other memory impairments.

Part 1: Introduction to remembering: The basics of memory 1. The effects of normal and pathological ageing on memory, Andrew Rutherford and Davide Bruno 2. The aging hippocampus: a cross-species examination, Stephanie Leal and Michael Yassa 3. Recognition Memory, Tina Chen, Caren M. Rotello and Paul Verhaeghen 4. Remembering the source: Directions for intervention in ageing, Noeleen M. Brady and Richard A. P. Roche Part 2: Assessment and prediction 5. From Click to Cognition: Detecting cognitive decline through daily computer use, Gemma Stringer, Peter Sawyer, Alistair Sutcliffe and Iracema Leroi 6. The Memory Education and Research Initiative: A Model for Community Based Clinical Research, Chelsea Reichert, John J. Sidtis and Nunzio Pomara Part 3: From the laboratory to the home: Practical applications for ageing populations 7. Using the background to remember the foreground: The role of contextual information in memory, Gerasimos Markopoulos 8. Can Survival Processing Help to Preserve our Memories? Daniel P. A. Clark 9.The effects of ageing and exercise on recollection and familiarity based memory processes, Richard J. Tunney, Harriet A. Allen, Charlotte Bonardi and Holly Blake 10. Memory Training for Older Adults: A Review with Recommendations for Clinicians, Robin L. West and Carla M. Strickland-Hughes Part 4: Facing the Memory Challenge in Dementia 11. Keeping Memories Alive: Creativity in Dementia care, alternatives to Pharmacotherapy, Niamh Malone and Donna Redgrave 12. Remembering to remember – the living lab approach to meeting the everyday challenges of people living with dementia, Grahame Smith 13. Cognitive approaches to enabling people to live well with dementia, Sarah Jane Smith and Jan R. Oyebode 14. Augmenting familiar appliances to assist people living with dementia, Damien Renner, David Reid, Mark Barrett-Baxendale, Davide Bruno and Hissam Tawfik

Davide Bruno is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Liverpool Hope University, UK.