Neuropsychology of Aging

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Video Runtime: 78 Minutes; Learning Assessment Runtime: 47 Minutes

How do we know what the underlying neurological causes of cognitive impairment (or unwanted behaviors) are? How do we know when a patient is capable of learning a new compensatory strategy or motor skill? In this course, we will discuss how and why cognitive abilities change, with normal aging and various types of dementia. How executive functioning (e.g., attention, inhibition, awareness) is related to one’s ability to learn, remember, and control his/her behavior is explored. Strategies for therapists and others to modify their interventions to maximize cognitive ability and therapeutic outcomes will be presented. This course is the second of a five-part series.

Meet your instructor

Rob Winningham

Dr. Rob Winningham has 25 years of experience researching human memory and has largely focused on older adults and ways to enhance their mental functioning and quality of life. He creates brain stimulation activities for more than 10,000 retirement communities and rehabilitation facilities as a part of Dr. Rob’s Cranium…

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Chapters & learning objectives

1. How and Why We Successfully Encode New Memories

In order to understand why we sometimes fail to make new memories, we must explore how we successfully make them. A classic memory study that launched modern memory research and understanding will be explored in an effort to build foundational knowledge that can be used to customize interventions. Making new memories requires rehearsal and attention, requirements that can be targeted.

2. Don’t Overwhelm Clients’ Working Memory

It is easy to overwhelm clients’ working memory, especially if they are experiencing cognitive impairment. It is important to understand the limits of working memory and other cognitive resources, in an effort to maximize therapeutic outcomes. We will explore how instructions and feedback need to be altered when working with cognitively impaired individuals.

3. Three Memory Processes

The three memory processes are explored, as all memory failures are a failure of one of those processes. First, we encode new memories. Second, we store them over time. Third, we retrieve previously encoded memories. Any memory failure is a failure of one those three processes. Being aware of the above not only help us understand why memory failures might be occurring but also suggest possible intervention approaches.

4. Three Types of Memory

There are three types of memories and two classes of memories. It is important to understand how these types and classes of memories are affected by dementia and cognitive impairment. Choosing the best intervention often requires knowledge a client’s ability to make each of these types of memories.

5. Taking Advantage of Intact Procedural Memories

One of the three types of memories, procedural memory, can be made in most clients who have dementia. Often this ability is the only way to help more cognitively impaired clients learn new behaviors and compensatory strategies. Thus, the possibilities and limitations of making new procedural memories, including looking at a client’s approach to tasks and assessing their sequencing in Activities of Daily Living, will be examined.

More courses in this series

Overview of Memory and Cognition Changes with Aging

Rob Winningham