Memory News Digest

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T h e M e m o r y K e y
<http://www.memory-key.com>

Your resource for information about memory and memory improvement

March 2006

<http://www.memory-key.com/newsletters/issue_78.htm>

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THIS MONTH ON MEMORY-KEY.COM:

NEWS
Repeated tests better for retention than repeated studying
Walking in older people is related to cognitive skills
Confidence in memory helps older adults remember
Depressed older adults more likely to become cognitively impaired
Learning and working memory
Chronic tinnitus and cognition
Smoking interferes with brain's recovery from alcoholism
Memory and speed of thinking get worse over time with marijuana use
Scientists find brain function most important to math ability
Nothing special about face recognition
Performing even easy tasks impairs driving
Scent of fear impacts cognitive performance
Asleep or awake we retain memory

ALZHEIMER'S NEWS
Protein identified as cause of memory loss
Reduced insulin in the brain triggers Alzheimer's degeneration
Pin1 enzyme key in preventing onset of Alzheimer's disease

PODCAST

BLOG

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Find out more about my e-book on "Remembering intentions" at:
http://www.memory-key.com/shop/intention_ebook.htm

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Find out about my new YA novel at:
http://www.fmmcpherson.com/

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NEWS
<http://www.memory-key.com/MemoryGuide/news.htm>

March 2006
<http://www.memory-key.com/news/2006/news_2006Mar.htm>

Repeated test-taking better for retention than repeated studying
A study indicates that testing can be a powerful means for improving learning, not just assessing it. Students who studied a prose passage for only one five minute session and then had three immediate free-recall tests (receiving no feedback) remembered dramatically more one week later than students who received no tests, but were allowed another five minutes to restudy the passage each time their counterparts were involved in a testing session.
http://www.memory-key.com/news/2006/news_2006Mar.htm#test

Walking in older people is related to cognitive skills
Walking speed in seniors aged 70 and older was predictable from performance on cognitive tests of executive control and memory, particularly when the participant was required to recite at the same time alternate letters of the alphabet. The findings suggest that cognitive tests could help doctors assess risk for falls, and slow gait is a sign to check for cognitive impairment.
http://www.memory-key.com/news/2006/news_2006Mar.htm#Walking

Confidence in memory performance helps older adults remember
Middle-aged and older adults who perceived greater control over cognitive functioning did better on a word list recall task, largely because they were more likely to use strategies to help their memory.
http://www.memory-key.com/news/2006/news_2006Mar.htm#Confidence

Depressed older adults more likely to become cognitively impaired
Older adults with moderate to high depression were twice as likely as those with no depressive symptoms to develop mild cognitive impairment within six years.
http://www.memory-key.com/news/2006/news_2006Mar.htm#Depressed

Learning and working memory
A 3-year research project on Working Memory and Cognition has concluded that the association between effective language learning and good short-term memory is not a causal relationship, but results because both short-term and long-term memory tasks tap the same ability. Another finding is that metaphoric language often puts greater stress on working memory and so is harder to process than literal language. Another study showed how expertise makes it possible to apparently bypass working memory limits.
http://www.memory-key.com/news/2006/news_2006Mar.htm#wm

Chronic tinnitus and cognition
Individuals with chronic, moderate tinnitus do more poorly on demanding working memory and attention tests than those without tinnitus. However, on less complex tasks, no significant differences were found.
http://www.memory-key.com/news/2006/news_2006Mar.htm#tinnitus

Smoking interferes with brain's recovery from alcoholism
In another study indicating smoking worsens the effect of alcoholism on the brain, smoking was found to apparently interfere with the brain's ability to recover from the effects of chronic alcohol abuse.
http://www.memory-key.com/news/2006/news_2006Mar.htm#Smoking

Memory and speed of thinking get worse over time with marijuana use
A study has found that the longer people used marijuana heavily, the more deterioration they had in verbal fluency, verbal memory, attention, and psychomotor speed.
http://www.memory-key.com/news/2006/news_2006Mar.htm#marijuana

Scientists find brain function most important to math ability
A finding that an area of the brain widely thought to be involved in processing number information generally, in fact has two very separate functions, may be the key to diagnosing dyscalculia.
http://www.memory-key.com/news/2006/news_2006Mar.htm#math

Nothing special about face recognition
A new study adds to a growing body of evidence that there is nothing special about face recognition.
http://www.memory-key.com/news/2006/news_2006Mar.htm#face

Performing even easy tasks impairs driving
Yet another demonstration that driving is impaired when doing anything else, suggesting that even using a hands-free device doesn’t make it okay to talk on a cell phone while driving.
http://www.memory-key.com/news/2006/news_2006Mar.htm#driving

Scent of fear impacts cognitive performance
A study has found that women exposed to chemicals from fear-induced sweat performed more accurately on word-associations involving meaningfully related threat words, but significantly slower when processing word pairs that were ambiguous in threat content.
http://www.memory-key.com/news/2006/news_2006Mar.htm#fear

Asleep or awake we retain memory
We’ve learned that skill memory is reinforced during sleep, but now new imaging technology reveals that this kind of reinforcement occurs while we’re awake too — even while we’re learning something new.
http://www.memory-key.com/news/2006/news_2006Mar.htm#awake

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ALZHEIMER'S NEWS
<http://www.memory-key.com/Seniors/Alzheimers%20news.htm>

February 2006
<http://www.memory-key.com/Seniors/Alzheimers_2006a.htm>

Protein identified as cause of memory loss
Researchers have identified a substance in the brain that is proven to cause memory loss, giving drug developers a target for creating drugs to treat memory loss in people with dementia.
http://www.memory-key.com/Seniors/Alzheimers_2006a.htm#ab56

Reduced insulin in the brain triggers Alzheimer's degeneration
A new study raises the possibility that Alzheimer's is a Type 3 diabetes.
http://www.memory-key.com/Seniors/Alzheimers_2006a.htm#insulin

Pin1 enzyme key in preventing onset of Alzheimer's disease
An enzyme called Pin1, previously shown to prevent the formation of the tangles characteristic of Alzheimer's brains, has now been shown to also play a pivotal role in guarding against the development of the plaques that are also characteristic of Alzheimer's.
http://www.memory-key.com/Seniors/Alzheimers_2006a.htm#Pin1

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PODCAST

There's a new feature available on my website -- an audio program. Designed as a companion to my newsletters, they'll briefly run through the main points of the newsletter and, more importantly, discuss some of these items in more depth. This first one is very much a "try-out" one, but as I get more to grips with the technology, they will hopefully improve! It's in mp3 format, so you can listen "on the go" if you have an mp3 player (I've just got one and find it great for learning foreign languages as I walk).

Or you can of course simply listen to it on your computer. If you haven't done this before, don't worry, it's very simple -- your computer should do all the heavy lifting! Just click where it says "Listen to the program" and everything should happen automatically. Now do be warned: sound files are considerably bigger than text files (but much smaller than video files!), so this does take a little time.

This link will take you to a schedule for the program:
http://www.memory-key.com/podcasts/podnews406.htm

And I'd love to hear feedback on this new feature, so do feel free (indeed encouraged) to email me with your thoughts.

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BLOG
www.memory-key.com/blogger.html

Latest posts:

* why failure breeds failure
* birth order doesn't affect intelligence
* gender differences in how we manage anger
* why racially diverse juries make better decisions than all-white juries
* why gender-related differences exist in certain psychiatric disorders
* the "Aha!" experience

* "social jet lag" – lifestyle and body clock
* "emotional social intelligence prosthetic" for the autistic
* knowing what our body’s doing
* more on Brain Games
* 10 months old enough to associate words to objects
* European differences in IQ
* an exceptional memory
* our view of a person's character distorts our memory
* prejudice and how to fight it

Note that the blog is indexed chronologically at
http://www.memory-key.com/indices/blog_index.htm

And by subject, at http://www.memory-key.com/indices/blog_index2.htm

You can also access my blog with an RSS feed. The URL is
http://memory-key.com/ftp.memory-key.com/atom.xml, or just click the
Bloglines button on the sidebar of my blog.

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in particular sometimes have their mail bounced back "overquota"), you can
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The Memory Key website is named after my book "The Memory Key", a
practical user-friendly handbook designed to help people achieve
genuine, long-lasting memory improvement.

http://www.memory-key.com/AboutTheSite/about_book.htm

www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1564144704/thememorykey-20

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