Everyone has moments of absent-mindedness, but as we get older, we tend to view these moments as evidence of memory decline. Like the body, the brain slows in later life, but perceived memory loss may be as much to do with our preconceptions about aging as it is with actual decline inability.
Memory loss is arguably the decline that people fear most in later life, and many believe it to be biologically inevitable. Age-related changes in the brain indeed contribute in a small way to forgetful ness, but they are only part of the story. If a teenager leaves her coat on a bus, for example, she is likely to shrug it off as an irritating episode – her biggest worry is likely to be what her mum will say. But if a 70-year-old woman did the same thing, she is likely to interpret it as yet another indication of failing memory. Researchers studying memory loss in old age are increasingly looking at factors such as how we perceive forgetting and how other people’s expectations influence mental performance later in life.
Changes in memory processes
Early research into forgetting suggested that our ability to recognize previously seen information is largely unaffected by age, but that our active recall of information gets worse. This is consistent with the fact that older people tend to have more ‘ tip-of-the-tongue experiences in which they feel they know a word but cannot quite bring it to mind.
More recent research suggests that the way we take in information at different stages in life may also be an important factor. Older people are less likely to pay attention to details, such as whether something was said by a man or a woman or what color an item was. This lack of context creates difficulties when they cry to recall what happened on Monday or whether something happened yesterday or the day before. One reason for this may be that the processes that help us to remember context depend to a large extent on the efficiency of short-term or ‘working’ memory. Older people are as good as young people at simple short-term memory tests using lists of numbers but significantly worse at tasks that require more processing, such as repeating a number list in reverse order. One idea is that as we get older, we are susceptible to general cognitive slowing, which affects aspects of memory that depend crucially on fast and efficient processing, such as complex working memory tasks.
However, many other aspects of memory, such as procedural memory for skills, verbal memory, unconscious memory, and expertise acquired over a lifetime, show little or no decline. Furthermore, learned strategies can go a long way to compensate for the loss of processing speed. The many elderly politicians and women, scientists, judges, and professors who con tin to contribute wisdom and absorb and analyze complex information testify to the enduring power of most forms of memory.
Stereotypes and expectations
One line of research has looked at the effect of culture on memory in old age. In China, older people are revered for their wisdom and experience, and age is not necessarily associated with declining memory as it tends to be in the West. In one study, Harvard University researchers compared the memory performance of a group of US volunteers and a group from China. They found little difference between the young people in the two groups. However, the older Chinese outperformed the older Americans, as did those in either group with a positive attitude towards aging – suggesting that attitude can have a real effect on memory performance.
Third Age Learning
The Chinese have a traditional saying: ‘Never cease to study.’ There are more than 110 million people over the age of 60 in China today, and a network of 5,000 state-sponsored schools and universities has been developed for them. The majority of the teaching staff are themselves, elderly volunteers, as it is thought that they have a better understanding of the needs of senior students. Formal education late in life enables retired people to continue to contribute their wisdom to the community. It also provides opportunities for them to further their knowledge, share information, and maintain wide-ranging social contacts.
The Chinese institutions are affiliated with the International Association of Universities of the Third Age ( AIUTA), founded in France in the early 1970s with the aim of providing lifelong learning for older people. There are now ‘U3As’ in many countries, including Britain, where there are more than 400 local U3A groups with 85,000 members. Courses in a wide range of subjects are offered. No qualifications are required or given, and the atmosphere aims to be informal, enjoyable, and stress-free.
New growth
Some of the brain’s neurons are lost as part of the aging process, but neighboring neurons can compensate. If one neuron from a pair dies (1), the remaining neuron (2) sprouts new dendrites (branches) (3) with the potential to make many new connections.
