Current demographical patterns predict an aging worldwide population. It is projected that by 2050, more than 20% of the US population and 40% of the Japanese population will be older than 65. A dramatic increase in research on memory and aging has emerged to understand the age-related changes in memory since the ability to learn new information and retrieve previously learned information is essential for successful aging, and allows older adults to adapt to changes in their environment, self-concept, and social roles. This volume represents the latest psychological research on different aspects of age-related changes in memory. Written by a group of leading international researchers, its chapters cover a broad array of issues concerning the changes that occur in memory as people grow older, including the mechanisms and processes underlying these age-related memory changes, how these changes interact with social and cultural environments, and potential programs intended to increase memory performance in old age. Similarly, the chapters draw upon diverse methodological approaches, including cross-cultural extreme group experimental designs, longitudinal designs assessing intra-participant change, and computational approaches and neuroimaging assessment. Together, they provide converging evidence for stability and change in memory as people grow older, for the underlying causes of these patterns, as well as for the heterogeneity in older adults' performance. Memory and Aging is essential reading for researchers in memory, cognitive aging, and gerontology.

Divided into four parts, the first section of this book deals with levels of processing and memory theory, the second addresses working memory and attention, the third deals with cognitive aging, and the last addresses neuroscience perspectives.

A characteristic feature of the aging process is a decline in episodic memory, that form of memory related to a particular time and place in an individual s personal history. This volume gathers together articles by leaders in the field exploring aging and episodic memory in healthy adults. These articles provide interesting and novel findings on different aspects of episodic memory, including patterns of decline and sparing, heterogeneity in older adults memory performance, and cognitive and non-cognitive factors that potentially improve older adults memory performance. This volume presents a state of the art account of episodic memory function in older adults.

Human memory and cognitive aging have been the subject of intense scientific research during the last decades. Numerous advances have been made in explaining the cognitive processes and the neuropsychological mechanisms underlying human memory, and in outlining age-related changes in them. This new volume includes an up-to-date collection of chapters written by authoritative researchers in these fields. The chapters were originally presented in a conference held in May 1999 to mark the retirement of Fergus Craik from the University of Toronto. Craik's contributions in these two areas were at the center of the discussions held. These discussions were related to the history and current status of the influential levels of processing approach (Craik & Lockhart, 1972) as an explanatory framework of memory performance and to Craik's self-initiation/environmental support hypothesis of cognitive aging. Behavioral, as well as neuroimaging data, were brought to bear in evaluating these ideas as well as of others which are central to theories of both memory and cognitive aging.
The volume is divided into four parts, each preceded by introductory comments and followed by a discussion chapter. The first section deals with levels of processing and memory theory, the second addresses working memory and attention, the third deals with cognitive aging, and the last addresses neuroscience perspectives. With the breadth and depth of the topics discussed, the volume will be of interest to any student or researcher interested in human memory and cognitive aging.

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