Perceptual Implicit Memory: Young People Remember in 'High Definition'

A new study shows that young people may actually think in high definition. According to researchers, they found this that this new class of memory demonstrates their ability to remember things more vividly.

You're probably wondering how exactly this works. According to the study authors, younger people have more of what's referred to as 'perceptual implicit memory.' This is a different kind of visual memory that gives youth a 'boost' when they are trying to recollect stored information, according to the study.

For the study, researchers examined two groups: One consisting of 13 adults aged around 23 years and a second group of 11 individuals aged around 67. They were all asked to memorize the sequence and colors of a series of dots. Study results showed that the younger children had an easier time memorizing the color of dots than the older group.

However, scientists found that both groups were able to remember the number of items in the study.

 "We don't know why older adults perform poorly when their neural activity suggests their memory capacity is intact, but we have two leads," said Dr. Philip Ko, the lead researcher on the study, according to TG Daily. "First, further analysis of this current dataset and other studies from our laboratory suggest that older adults retrieve memories differently than younger adults. Second, there is emerging evidence from other labs suggesting that the quality of older adults' memories is poorer than younger adults. In other words, while older adults might store the same number of items, their memory of each item is 'fuzzier' than that of younger adults."

More informationr regarding the study can be found via the journal Attention, Perception & Psychophysics.