Knowledge of Normal Versus Pathological Memory Aging Among Police Officers

Knowledge of Memory Aging in Adulthood

“…First, we found that the oldest-old adults performed more poorly overall compared to the other two age groups, suggesting that the relationship between memory knowledge and age is non-linear in adulthood. Our results also indicated that participants had greater knowledge of pathological memory aging in comparison to normal memory aging, replicating our earlier work (Cherry et al, 2003;Hawley et al, 2005;Reese et al, 2000). Second, we found that response accuracy was comparable for men and women, although men were more likely than women to answer dk for pathological aging items.…”

“…Mean proportion correct for the oldest-old adults (0.65) was lower than the middle age and young-old groups who did not differ from each other (means of 0.70 and 0.69, respectively). The gender main effect was non-significant, replicating Hawley et al (2005). A significant main effect of question type also occurred, F(1, 144) = 13.99, p < .001.…”

“…We found that response accuracy on the KMAQ was comparable for males and females generally, although males endorsed dk more often than females on pathological memory aging items (see Figure1). In Hawley et al (2005), female police officers had greater knowledge of pathological memory aging than did the male officers. The female officers also endorsed the "don't know" response option more than did the male officers.…”

“…Our second goal was to provide new evidence on gender differences in knowledge of memory aging issues. Recent work by Hawley, Garrity and Cherry (2005) has shown that police officers were more accurate on pathological compared to normal memory aging questions. In addition, Hawley et al found a significant interaction effect between gender and question type, where females answered more pathological memory aging items correctly than did the males.…”

Assessing accuracy of knowledge of cognitive effects of normal ageing and mild stage of Alzheimer's disease

“…The KMAQ has demonstrated low internal consistency (a ¼ .55), which Cherry et al (2000) argued may be due to the breadth of topics assessed for both normal and pathological memory ageing. The KMAQ has been used to compare the knowledge of normal and pathological memory changes between various samples including police officers (Hawley, Garrity, & Cherry, 2005), students (Cherry, Allen, Boudreaux, Robichaux, & Hawley, 2009;Cherry, Allen, Jackson, Hawley, & Brigman, 2010;Jackson et al, 2008), caregivers, senior service providers (Cherry et al, 2009), and mental health professionals (Cherry et al, 2010;Jackson et al, 2008).…”