Art Study, Relaxation Aid Memory
The average person loses about 30% of memory between ages 20 and 75, but a program using relaxation and Impressionistic art can help reduce the loss, according to a Stanford psychiatrist.
A two-week class at Stanford University for up to 30 people aged 55 and older teaches how to develop a childlike perception, a perception that can lead to an improved memory, according to Jerome Yesavage, a geriatric psychiatrist at the university.
“The average older person does not do what a younger person does spontaneously--organize thoughts and visual images,” said Yesavage, who talked about the program during a recent four-day conference of the International Psychogeriatric Assn. in Chicago.
“The problem for older people is that they don’t ask questions like younger people do. They don’t dream as vividly and they cannot see the images,” he said.
Memory loss beginning around age 20 is considered inevitable, and no one knows what causes it. “It could be partly psychological, or partly chemical,” he said.
Danielle Lapp, a memory training specialist who teaches the two-week course, decided to use 19th-Century Impressionistic paintings to help the participants improve their memory because the art is colorful and interesting.
Her students are asked to look at a scene, close their eyes, and then describe what they see. She asks them to analyze details and give their emotional reactions. By studying the paintings, they remember details about them.
“At the end of the course, you see some people who are auto mechanics talking about Impressionistic art,” Yesavage said. “But it has nothing to do with art. It has to do with increasing their visual imaging ability.”
Then, the class goes on to work on three common memory problems: names and faces, lists and general absent-mindedness. Students learn to associate names and lists with images, and their memory improves, Yesavage said. Of about 200 students over the last five years, he said, 85% increased their memory skills from 30% to 50%.
The course begins with relaxation techniques because relaxation also is a factor in memory, the researchers said.
