Psychobiological modeling of age-related memory changes

Useful models of age-related human and animal memory changes should simulate specific features of cognitive impairment associated with aging. It is necessary but not sufficient to demonstrate that manipulations such as these produced by lesions and drugs cause impairments in some cognitive function such as memory. A useful model should be able to reproduce a pattern of cognitive changes in which islands of spared versus impaired functioning resemble those associated with aging and differ from those produced by other conditions. This requires the use of research strategies utilizing multivariate treatment and dependent measure designs. The papers in this section illustrate the value of such a research approach.