That older people have memory problems is a cliche. Many cliches, stereotypes and other random bits of conventional wisdom are at least partially true, but I’m not sure this is one of them.
It may be that older adults (60-85) actually have better memories than younger people, but we have to sort through so much more information that the retrieval process becomes an occasional issue.
Now a new study from the the journal Trends in Cognitive Science posits an intriguing theory to bolster this view.
The study suggest that the problem may be brain “clutter,” i.e., older people are trying to form too many associations between too many pieces of information.
Or in a shorthand formulation I prefer, maybe we just know too much.
“It’s not that older adults don’t have enough space to store information,” lead author Tarek Amer said. “There’s just too much information that’s interfering with whatever they’re trying to remember.”
Older adults may have a harder time focusing on one piece of information because irrelevant information can be “stored in the same memory representation as the one that contains the target information,” Amer said.
Anyway, I liked the NBC report on this study for two reasons — one, because it has been my experience that my own memory is noticeably better than most younger people I know.
I can’t remember the second reason.
(NOTE: I am not talking about tragic conditons of dementia or Alzheimer’s here.)
***
One frequent suggestion from readers to my daily news summaries is “why can’t you include more examples of good news?”
The only way I can think of to respond is to remind people that I don’t make the news, I collect it.
Think of me as a guy with a paper bag (called Substack) walking through a forest collecting acorns, aka news headlines. I don’t make the acorns and I don’t make the trees. I may shake the occasional tree to help an acorn fall, but there’s nothing criminal in that.
And I may choose a specific acorn to make a comment because not all acorns are created equal in my eyes. In this I am rather like a squirrel — I hide some away for later consumption.
The thing about acorns is they are not inherently good or bad, they are just acorns, doomed to fall and wait to be collected or ignored by the squirrels like me, and doomed also to rot one way or another, either where they fall or inside the squirrels’ digestive system.
Either way, their long-term job is to make more trees.
So maybe the real question to ask me is not why the acorns can’t be nicer are but whether I can see any trees among all those acorns any longer, or even more importantly, whether I can see the forest for the trees.
TODAY’s NEWS (40):
Rapid Inflation Stokes Unease From Wall Street to Washington — Consumer Price Index data showed prices climbing faster than expected, picking up across a broad array of goods and services. (NYT)
How inflation and tangled supply lines are gripping economy (AP)
Pressure increased on the Federal Reserve to take a stronger stand against inflation after an unexpectedly large jump in U.S. consumer prices defied hopes that the pocketbook squeeze would ease and bolstered the view that the U.S. central bank is behind the curve. (Reuters)
High energy prices send Europe’s businesses, homes reeling (AP)
NATO warns of ‘dangerous moment’ in Ukraine crisis as Biden tells Americans to leave ‘now’ (WP)
Russia Could Invade Ukraine During Olympics, U.S. Officials Say (WSJ)
French President Emmanuel Macron refused a Kremlin request that he take a Russian COVID test when he arrived to see President Vladimir Putin this week, to prevent Russia getting hold of Macron's DNA. (Reuters)
With Buildup on Land and Sea, Russia Closes in on Ukraine (NYT)
VIDEO: Protesters Opposing Covid Vaccine Pass Head to Paris (Storyful and Reuters)
Why do some people get COVID while others in your household might not. (HuffPost)
U.K. lifts all testing requirements for vaccinated travelers (NPR)
Angry Customers, More Work and Longer Hours Strain Pharmacists (NYT)
The ongoing truck blockade in Canada, which began over COVID-19 restrictions, is forcing the shutdown of U.S. auto factories relying on transit between the two countries. U.S. officials are urging Canada to resolve the standoff amid threats it could soon spread to major U.S. cities ahead of events like the Super Bowl. [AP]
Trucker Blockades in Canada May Just Be the Beginning — If a crackdown on protesters goes bad, the negative consequences may not be confined to the country. (Atlantic)
Spurning Demand by the Taliban, Biden Moves to Split $7 Billion in Frozen Afghan Funds — The president intends to use the Afghan central bank’s assets to fund humanitarian relief in Afghanistan and compensate victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. (NYT)
Taliban Are Holding Westerners in Afghanistan, Including One American (WSJ)
C.I.A. Is Collecting in Bulk Certain Data Affecting Americans, Senators Warn (NYT)
With watchers on ground and drones, U.S. zeroed in on Islamic State leader’s hideout (WP)
The Australian government is listing the country’s iconic koalas as endangered in several states and territories, saying the growing threats of climate change and habitat loss had led to dramatic declines in populations of the marsupials. The shift comes after the “black summer” bushfires of 2019 and 2020, which some estimates say left upwards of 60,000 koalas dead or injured. “It is a dark day for our nation,” an environmental group said. [HuffPost]
Federal judge restores protections for gray wolves in the Lower 48 (WP)
Why cage-free eggs becoming norm: It’s what people want (AP)
More than 100 nations take action to save oceans from human harm (Guardian)
How Billions in Infrastructure Funding Could Worsen Global Warming (NYT)
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said his GOP colleagues were being “demeaning” and “offensive” toward President Biden’s court picks who are people of color. The senator made the comments amid a vote on a Black nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals after a fellow lawmaker said the pick had a “rap sheet.” [HuffPost]
How the G.O.P.’s Censure Fight Exposes the Party’s Deeper Divide — Upcoming primaries will test whether embracing Donald J. Trump’s election falsehoods is a litmus test for Republican voters. (NYT)
New Republican splits over Trump and riot (BBC)
Abortions in Texas fell by 60% in the first month under the state’s restrictive new law, which prohibits the procedure after around six weeks of pregnancy. Figures show there were more than 5,400 abortions statewide in August 2021 but just 2,200 when the law went into effect in September. Planned Parenthood said the figures were “the very beginning of the devastating impact of the law.” Other states have introduced bills that would mimic Texas’ effort. [AP]
The United States, Australia, Japan and India pledged to deepen cooperation to ensure the Indo-Pacific region was free from "coercion", a thinly-veiled swipe at China's growing economic and military expansion, as their top diplomats convened to also tackle climate change, COVID and other threats. (Reuters)
Why Some See Web 3.0 as the Future of the Internet (WSJ)
#MeToo bill poised to shake Silicon Valley (Politico)
Life could exist on planet orbiting 'white dwarf' star (BBC)
SpaceX's Elon Musk says 1st orbital Starship flight could be as early as March (NPR)
Sarah Palin bombs on witness stand in New York Times trial (WP)
How G. Gordon Liddy Bungled Watergate With an Office-Supply Request (Politico)
Police solve 1964 rape, murder of girl with DNA, volunteer (AP)
Memory issues for older people could be the result of 'clutter' (NBC)
Texas: Voters must finish a 72-ounce T-bone in under an hour for their vote to count (The Onion)
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