ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the effectiveness of visual mnemonics for responding to the memory problems of the elderly. Toward this end, a review of both published and unpublished research efforts is presented first. Then several salient issues associated with utilizing imagery as a clinical tooi are identified and discussed. The imagery effect primarily has been demonstrated with college subjects. Because imagery mnemonics facilitate recall of single items and paired associates for healthy college individuals, it is reasonable to investigate whether imagery techniques can improve the memory functioning of patients with dominant hemispheric lesions. It was concluded that in order to facilitate performance the young needed the longer anticipation time only when imagery instructions were not provided, but the elderly needed the time to benefit from imagery instructions. This chapter has focused on evaluating the state of the art of imagery mnemonics as a tool for responding to memory concerns.
