Social Technologies
Author: Dr Richard Roche, Dept of Psychology
Memory is arguably the most important cognitive function we possess, and its loss leaves a profound gap in many aspects of life. The progressive deterioration of brain structures responsible for memory – so common in old age, and even more so in degenerative conditions – robs people of so much: their most treasured moments, their ability to recognise friends and family, their independence, their confidence, their very sense of self. While pharmaceutical remedies for memory decline remain unsuccessful, research with lifestyle-based, non-pharmacological interventions may offer promising avenues for the future. Among these approaches in Reminiscence Therapy, whereby older people – often in group settings – meet regularly to actively recall and share memories from earlier life epochs, with the process often steered by a moderator. At one time, older adults reminiscing was considered a worrying sign, suggesting some form of regression, but since Butler’s seminal paper in 1961, the benefits of reminiscence – resolving affairs, giving meaning to life – have been well studied, leading to the adoption of Reminiscence Therapy in many care homes and hospitals.
In 2016, I led an interdisciplinary team of researchers across multiple institutions (MU, TCD, UCD, NCI, TUD, Tallaght Hospital and others) on how regular reminiscence can impact on memory and wellbeing in healthy, older, community-dwelling adults and people in the early stages of dementia. Initially called the SEAN-Key project, it was later re-branded the Recall Initiative, and received just under €220,000 in funding from the IRC New Horizons funding scheme, for a two-year project involving multiple studies.
To investigate the cognitive and psychological effects of regular, group-based reminiscence on healthy older adults, an initial study involved pre- and post-reminiscence testing of processes including memory, attention and executive function, as well as psychological variables including anxiety, depression, quality of life and social engagement. A small sub-group also took part in functional MRI brain scanning in Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience to test for structural and functional brain changes as a result of the intervention.
Groups in Maynooth, Swords, Tallaght and Dublin city centre all took part in six weeks of reminiscence. Weekly groups recalled stories from their earlier years about personal experiences and major national events, like the visit of John F Kennedy in 1963 and the Pope in 1979. During the group sessions, we recorded audio (with permission) of the stories and memories that our participants recalled, with these recordings hosted in a designated section of the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI; see https://repository.dri.ie/catalog/wp98p078n). In addition, a small group of older adults living with dementia took part in a modified version of the intervention, with a weekly group meeting in Peamount Healthcare’s Dementia Unit. These studies resulted in a series of publications (see 1-4, below), while the brain imaging data continue to be analysed.
On January 29th, we organised a launch event for an exhibition at the Maynooth Illuminations exhibition space, organised by Prof Colin Graham. Illuminations is a digital-visual exhibition space in the Departments of English and Media Studies at Maynooth University. Illuminations brings together work in the visual arts and in academia, celebrating innovation, ideas and creativity. This installation, entitled “Memory, History, Mind”, was based on the audio recordings from our participants, combined with photographs and images connected to the narrative which they supplied to us. The seven digital display spaces presented audio-visual slideshows on seven topics: first holidays abroad; hobbies (cameras); mining in Arigna; Wood Quay/Smock Alley; life on the islands; measles, mumps and scarlet fever; and emigration to the UK and US. In addition to members of the research team, many of the study participants were in attendance. The exhibition was free to all, located in the Iontas Building, and ran from January 29th until March 8th 2020, ending shortly before the first of the pandemic-induced lockdowns.
This exhibition was a powerful reminder of how the arts and humanities can work in tandem with the sciences to create a more equitable, engaging and ethical endeavour for all involved. To observe the research participants as they engaged with the digital exhibition materials, seeing and hearing their younger selves through their photographs and recordings, helped to underscore the fact that this work was conducted with them, and for them, as well as about them. It also highlighted the fact that academics from our multidisciplinary team also place a high value on the contents of their audio recordings, engaging with them for thematic analyses and discourse-based research. This ethos of participant-centred engagement was at the centre of the Recall Initiative, and will continue at the heart of the Age-Inclusive Maynooth Initiative.
The Age-Inclusive Maynooth (AIM) Initiative is a research programme which is focused on making the town of Maynooth, County Kildare, a unique ageing-inclusive environment, catering for and promoting both positive, healthy ageing and all forms of pathological ageing, including dementias and other conditions associated with old age. The initiative revolves around the promotion of positive ageing by linking with local businesses and the county council, as well as charities and ageing groups, to improve the physical infrastructure of the town, making it more age-friendly, and by engaging the local older population in a variety of university-based research projects focused towards improving their health, cognitive, mental and physical wellbeing through lifestyle and/or technology-assisted interventions. Meath County Council (the national contact point for age-inclusive societies) and Age-Friendly Ireland (AFI) have recently partnered with the University to pursue this initiative.
My ultimate goal is to bring these initiatives together under a new Centre for Age-Inclusivity and Research at Maynooth, and all activities carried out under this umbrella will ensure that the individual participant remains situated at the centre of involvement, thereby keeping the “me” at the heart of all research, not just that directed at memory.
Acknowledgements:
This work was supported by a New Horizons grant from the Irish Research Council (REF: REPRO BU 2050158). Sincere thanks to Drs Andrew Allen and Caoilainn Doyle for their work on the Recall Initiative, as well as Prof Sean Commins (MU), Drs Aileen O’Carroll (MU), Arun Bokde (TCD) and Armelle Viard (Cyceron, Caen, France) for valuable input.
References:
- Allen, AP, Doyle, C & Roche, RAP (2020). The impact of reminiscence on autobiographical memory, cognition and psychological well-being in healthy older adults. Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 16(2), 317-330. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v16i2.2097
- Allen, AP, Doyle, C, Commins, S & Roche, RAP (2018). Autobiographical memory, the ageing brain and mechanisms of psychological interventions. Ageing Research Reviews, 42: 100-111.
- Allen, AP, Tully, ML, O’Neill, D & Roche, RAP (in review). Reminiscence groupwork and autobiographical memory as part of meaningful activities. Groupwork.
- Allen, AP, Doyle, C, Doyle, CM, Monaghan, C, Fitzpatrick, N & Roche, RAP (in review). What we talk about when we talk about the past: Discursive psychological analysis of autobiographical reminiscence in older Irish adults. In: R. Van Niekerk, C.-H. Mayer & P. J. Fouché (Eds.).”Psychobiographical illustrations on meaning and identity in sociocultural contexts“, London: Palgrave Macmillan.