Age-Related Memory Loss Is Partial, Language-And-Skill-Related Memory Is Maintained

As you grow older, your ability to remember certain facts deteriorates with age, but other types of memory remain strong, according to medindia.

Alaitz Aizpurua from the University of the Basque Country, Spain said: "In old age, deterioration appears in episodic memory but not in semantic memory. Episodic memory preserves the facts of the past in our personal life, and it is more specific in terms of time and space, we can remember the last time we went to a restaurant, who we sat next to, what we ate. Semantic memory is related to language, to the meaning of concepts and to repetitive facts. This type of memory and procedural memory are maintained, and in some cases they even improve whereas episodic memory in which detailed memories are retained is reduced. Procedural memory is the one to do with skills, the one we need to do things, to drive, for example."

When the participants were asked to recall three facts from their personal lives, the researchers discovered that any person, whether old or young, can recollect some information related to their private lives in detail. Aizpura said, "The main difference between older adults and younger adults is as follows, the younger ones remember more episodic details."

The study appeared in Consciousness and Cognition.