About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about how memory research findings can improve the support for people with dementia, focusing in particular on: (i) the commonality between all forms of dementia being that they are degenerative, with Alzheimer’s being the most commonly recognised; (ii) the non-pharmacological nature of current dementia treatments; (iii) levels of processing theory, which found that more effort put into learning results in more effective remembering of that learned information; (iv) research into effortful learning which has shown to be effective at improving the memory abilities of dementia patients; (v) spaced retrieval, which involves providing the answer alongside a question, but gradually increasing the time between each presentation of the question, to solidify the memory; (vi) research into remembering in groups, finding that social remembering elicited better memory performance; (vii) Dr Jansari’s own work on a dementia diagnosis test which can detect dementia symptoms earlier than is currently possible, giving families opportunity to prepare and implement support.

About the lecturer

Dr Ashok Jansari is a senior lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London. Dr Jansari’s research interests include memory disorders, prosopagnosia, executive functions, and synaesthesia. Dr Jansari is most famous for his research into prosopagnosia, having made numerous TV appearances, including on BBC1’s The One Show, as well as hosting his own ‘Neuro Talk’ YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/c/DrAshokJansariNeuroTalk/featured

Some of Dr Jansari's recent publications include 'Acquired synaesthesia following 2C-B use' (2019), 'Using virtual reality to investigate multitasking ability in individuals with frontal lobe lesions' (2019), and 'Identification from CCTV: Assessing police super-recogniser ability to spot faces in a crown and susceptibility to change blindness' (2018).