That older people seem to have memory problems is a cliche and the object of much humor. And while many cliches, stereotypes and other random bits of conventional wisdom are at least partially true, 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.
A study from the the journal Trends in Cognitive Science posits an intriguing theory to bolster this view.
The study suggests 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 like this study for two reasons — one, because it has been my experience that my own memory is noticeably better than most of the younger people I know.
Second…oops, I can’t remember the second reason.
(I posted an earlier version of this piece a year ago. On a more serious note, I am in no way making light of the tragic cases of dementia that beset some older people. That is an awful disease, one I hope medical science finds a way to eliminate as soon as possible.)
LINKS:
U.S. jobs report: Economy added 517,000 jobs despite recession risk; unemployment fell to 3.4% (USA Today)
Google CEO Says Its ChatGPT Rival Coming Soon as a ‘Companion’ to Search (Bloomberg)
Colombian judge says he used ChatGPT in ruling (Guardian)
Paging Dr. AI? What ChatGPT and artificial intelligence could mean for the future of medicine (CNN)
OpenAI’s Sam Altman Talks ChatGPT And How Artificial General Intelligence Can ‘Break Capitalism’ (Forbes)
China's Baidu developing AI-powered chatbot to rival OpenAI, report says (CNBC)
ChatGPT reaches 100 million users two months after launch (Guardian)
How to Block ChatGPT From Using Your Website Content (Search Engine Journal)
Americans’ Climate Migration Has Begun (American Prospect)
Ilhan Omar’s removal from panel was ‘stupidest vote’, says Republican – report (Guardian)
McCarthy says he’s forming bipartisan group to write lawmaker code of conduct following Omar vote (The Hill)
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), who has repeatedly promoted the work of the prominent white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, on Thursday voted to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, falsely saying she “has expressed a deep hatred for Jewish people and Israel.” The GOP succeeded in booting Omar in a move that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said was "about targeting women of color." [HuffPost]
The GOP is Just Obnoxious — It’s why the party keeps losing elections. (Atlantic)
Americans Are Lonely. That Has Political Consequences. (538)
A U.S. appeals court declared unconstitutional a federal law making it a crime for people under domestic violence restraining orders to own firearms. The decision is the latest victory for gun rights advocates since a Supreme Court ruling last June granting a broad right for people to carry firearms outside the home. (Reuters)
Blinken cancels trip to China following discovery of spy balloon (Financial Times)
Balloon bursts Blinken’s trip (Politico)
Biden Aims to Deter China With Greater U.S. Military Presence in Philippines (NYT)
Biden wants to avoid a clash with China. Can his top diplomat succeed? (WP)
Taliban detains professor who protested ban on women’s education (Al Jazeera)
Under pressure from Afghanistan's Taliban administration, the United Nations is delivering some food aid using men only, prompting warnings from donors and humanitarian groups that it could be seen as giving in to an internationally condemned ban on most female aid workers. (Reuters)
South Sudan violence kills 27 on eve of pope’s visit (Al Jazeera)
Joe Biden Offered Vladimir Putin 20 Percent of Ukraine to End War: Report (Newsweek)
Air raid alerts sounded across Ukraine as European Union leaders were in the country's capital to discuss further sanctions on Russia and Ukraine's prospects of joining the European bloc with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. (Reuters)
Along Ukraine-Belarus border, a war of nerves — and drones (AP)
China and the U.S. Are Wooing Indonesia, and Beijing Has the Edge (NYT)
Who's most likely to save us from the next pandemic? The answer may surprise you (NPR)
The discovery of an asteroid the size of a small shipping truck mere days before it passed Earth on January 26 - an object that posed no threat to humans - highlights a blind spot in our ability to predict those that could actually cause damage. (Reuters)
What made George Santos lie so much? Experts weigh in on his deception. (WP)
How many times can you wear pajamas, jeans and other clothes without washing them? Experts weigh in (CNN)
Astronomers discover potential habitable exoplanet only 31 light-years from Earth (Space.com)
Tom Brady Retires Again (The Onion)
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