Geraci to speak on memory and aging

Geraci to speak on memory and aging

FROM RICE NEWS STAFF REPORTS

Lisa Geraci, assistant professor of psychology at Texas A&M University, will present “Implicit Memory and Aging?” at 4 p.m. March 18. The lecture is sponsored by Scientia and will be held in McMurtry Auditorium, Anne and Charles Duncan Hall.

LISA GERACI

Older adults have worse memory than younger adults when asked to intentionally retrieve events from the past. However, most of the time the past influences behavior through “implicit memory,” the unintentional and unconscious use of memory. Unlike explicit memory, it is not clear whether implicit memory is affected by healthy aging. Results obtained from this line of inquiry are important because they could identify some of the cognitive processes uniquely affected by aging and provide a starting point from which to distinguish these processes from those indicative of disease, such as Alzheimer’s disease. In this talk, Geraci will discuss current research and theorizing on this topic.

The lecture is free and open to the public. A reception will follow the colloquium.

Scientia is an institute of Rice University faculty founded in 1981 by the mathematician and historian of science Salomon Bochner. Scientia provides an opportunity for scholarly discussion across disciplinary boundaries. Its members and fellows come from a wide-range of academic disciplines.To learn more about the lecture and Scientia, go to www.ruf.rice.edu/~scientia.