Age Related Changes in Auditory Memory and Sequencing

Abstract

The study aimed at investigating the effect of age and gender on auditory memory and sequencing abilities in individuals with normal peripheral hearing. The study also evaluated the relation between perceived memory problems (evaluated using a checklist) with actual memory problems (evaluated using 'Auditory Memory and Sequencing Test in Kannada'). Sixty participants, divided into three groups based on their age were recruited Group-I and Group-II included older adults in the age ranges of 50 to 64; 11 years and 65 to 80 years respectively: Group-III included younger adults in the age range of 20 to 30 years. The results of the study revealed a significant Decline in memory and sequencing abilities with age. In all three groups, higher scores were obtained on the memory sub test compared to the sequencing sub test. In both the older adult groups, males performed superior to the females on the sequencing sub test. Such a gender difference was not seen in the younger group. The gender difference in the older groups was attributed to the educational difference between the males and females in these participants which was not present in the younger group. Also, in all but Group-I, the self-report scores regarding their memory abilities corresponded with their actual memory abilities.