Hypermnesia in older people and its relationship with successful ageing / La hipermnesia en personas mayores y su relación con el envejecimiento exitoso

Abstract

This study analyses the phenomenon of hypermnesia and its relationship with variables associated with successful ageing such as age, sex, cognitive status and cognitive plasticity in older people. The sample consists of 124 institutionalized and non-institutionalized participants, whose ages ranged from 65 to 91. A specific task was used to evaluate hypermnesia; a cognitive screening test and a verbal fluency test were used to assess cognitive status, and the AVLT-LP test was used to measure cognitive plasticity. The results show significant improvements between the hypermnesia recall tests for the total sample and for all the groups, according to the variables studied. Participants with successful ageing characterized by a younger age, a high level of cognitive functioning and a greater cognitive plasticity showed better results than the other participants in the hypermnesia task with the exception of sex, which did not present differences between groups. This study confirms that hypermnesia occurs more significantly in older people with successful ageing regardless of whether they are male or female.