I just love the way they think we older adults should write things
down---that's great advice if you can remember where you put the
list after you wrote it down!!!
just me,
Marjorie
Absent-minded as you age? It's not just you
BY ROBERT S. BOYD
Herald Washington Bureau
Older adults have a rich base of
information and a wealth of experience
that may provide a buffer against the
effects of processing declines.' DENISE PARK, University of Michigan in
Ann Arbor
WASHINGTON :
We've all heard folks lament as they age,
"I'm not as sharp as I used to be.... I can't think as fast ....
I don't remember things as well."
Now, in a series of striking experiments, scientists have
demonstrated that certain mental powers decline in almost
a straight line from our 20s to our 70s.
The slowdown doesn't wait till we reach senior status.
"Across their life span, people get slower, said Denise Park,
an expert on the psychological problems of the elderly at the
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. "The decline from 20 to 30
is the same as from 60 to 70. There's nothing magical about
turning 60 you don't suddenly fall off a cliff."
Experiments in laboratories around the world show a
steady deterioration in two key mental tools, the speed
with which people process information and their ability to
remember things in the short run.
The decline happens to everybody rich or poor, male or female,
college grad or not according to German psychologist Paul Baltes,
director of the Center for Lifespan Psychology in Berlin.
"Being highly educated, affluent or of high cognitive
ability does not protect an individual from agerelated decline,"
Baltes reported after completing a study of aging Berliners.
A similar study by Richard Nisbett, a University of Michigan
social psychologist, found that Chinese lose their mental
agility at the same pace as Americans.
That's the bad news about growing old. The good news, researchers
say, is that people build up a store of knowledge and practical
wisdom that partially compensate for the loss of memory and
mental quickness.
"Older adults have a rich base of information and a wealth of
experience that may provide a buffer against the effects
of processing declines," Park said.
"With age come growth and experience, which can be useful in
solving complex moral and social problems," Baltes said.
Consequently, the researchers say people are at their peak
capacity in their 40s and 50s, before the relentless slowdown in
brainpower overcomes the benefits of maturity.
In middle age, you're a little slower, but you know more," Park
observed.
"But at some point, you really don't have enough" mental capacity to function
effectively, such as remembering to take your medicines.
Timothy Salthouse, a psychology professor at Georgia Tech in Atlanta,
compared the elderly mind to an outdated computer.
"It's almost as if older adults are to young adults as the computers of five
to 10 years ago are to current computers," said Salthouse,
who has studied the aging process for decades.
Although human brainpower diminishes at a steady pace, the loss
seems greater in later years because so much of the pool of
mental resources is depleted.
Park used the analogy of a person who starts out with $1,000 in
the bank,
earning no interest. Each decade, starting at age 20, she withdraws $100.
At age 30, she has lost 10 percent of her resources. By age 70, she has
$500 left,
and a $100 withdrawal reduces her now eager account by 20 percent.
"The proportionate loss of the 69 year old is greater than for the 29 year old,
given that a 20 year old has more processing resources left than a 6- year old,
Park observed.
These insights into tie shrinking reserves of mental energy come from
experiments with people of all ages in various laboratories in the United
States and Europe.
STEPS FOR COPING ;
Given the inevitability ,of this decline, Park recommends that instructions
for older people such as taking medicine or finding the way. to a new
restaurant
be written down rather than left to their memories. '
"It is always best to design instructions and other information for older
adults
so that the memory load is as low as possible," she said. "Teach older adults
to write down information that they might be likely, to forget."
