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Memory, aging and external memory aids : Two traditions of cognitive research and their implications for a successful development of memory augmentation

The topic of this thesis is how the decline of cognitive abilities and memory functioning in elder people can be assisted by external memory aids. This issue was approached through a combination of methods. The starting point was a literature review of two approaches to the study of memory – the traditional where memory functions are located in the brain and the situated where remembering transcends over external resources, and by a literature review on declining memory abilities in elderly people. An ethnographic study of everyday remembering in an older population, aged from 72 to 91, found many instances of the spontaneous use of the environment to support a declining memory ability, which in turn suggest that the traditional approach to memory research is of limited value when studying everyday memory abilities in older people. A study on existing memory aids, as well as memory aids currently under development in research laboratories showed that these technologies are primarily based on an explicit or implicit traditional view of memory that disregard several aspects of remembering in the natural world. It is therefore suggested that future development of memory aids could fruitfully benefit from a distributed and situated approach, where the individuals‘ current use of external memory aids are used as the starting point, with the goal of extending and amplifying methods and artefacts already spontaneously in use.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-71616
Date January 2011
CreatorsKristiansson, Mattias
PublisherLinköpings universitet, Filosofiska fakulteten, Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för datavetenskap
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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