Aging and Memory

That older people have memory problems is a given and the object of endless humor. And like many other cliches, stereotypes and random bits of conventional wisdom, this one is at least partially true, but the question is why? 

Ironically, 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 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 often people tell me that my own memory is noticeably better than when I was younger.

And two…

Oh dear, I can’t remember the second reason.

(I’ve posted earlier versions of this piece several times. Please note that I am not referring to of the cases of dementia that beset some older people. That is a separate, much more tragic matter.)

HEADLINES:

• Who was Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the suspect in New Orleans truck attack? (Reuters)

• Fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel used in Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside Las Vegas Trump Hotel (CNN)

• Montenegro shooting spree sees gunman kill 12 people including 2 children before turning gun on himself (CBS)

• Elon Musk changes his name to Kekius Maximus on X (BBC)

• Where the Panama Canal Quarrel Is Heading (WSJ)

• At least 3 dead, multiple injured following massive New Year's Eve fireworks explosion in Hawaii (NBC)

• Duelling arguments take shape in the TikTok-ban case (Economist)

• Scientists make troubling discovery while researching alligators in the Florida Everglades: 'We need to get ready' (Yahoo)

• Majority Of Americans Prefer Sprawl To Walkable Cities (The Onion)

• Meet The ‘Living Fossil’ That’s Older Than The Dinosaurs (Hint: It Also Survived A Nuclear Blast) (Forbes)

• Elon Musk gets new support in growing lawsuit against OpenAI (WP)

  Man Just Having One Of Those Decades Where He Doesn't Feel Like Doing Anything (The Onion)