Commentary: Is Memory Something We Have or Something We Do?

This chapter presents a commentary on a study related to memory. As Cohen observes, the focus in much of the published research on memory and aging has been to characterize the conditions that engender age deficits in performance. An assumption underlying is that memory is an endogenous trait, something one has. The chapter discusses Cohen's chapter as a starting point from to argue that memory is not only something we have, but that it is also something we do. Our memory systems have certain limits; at a younger age these tend to be limits of knowledge base, while at an older age these tend to be limits of processing capacity, but somehow we manage to live within these limits so as to function in everyday life. Cohen aptly notes the wide variety of methods used in the study of memory and aging, categorizing them into phenomenological, psychometric, and experimental approach. The Inhibition Hypothesis might also be useful in accounting for age differences in prospective memory. The diversity of methodologies applied to the study of adult age differences in—prospective memory and discourse memory. The startling fact about these two domains of functioning is that, in many ways, they appear to be fairly well preserved into later adulthood.