Janet CollinsAge and Memory
April 28th 2009 05:03
A recent study into age-associated brain activity at Swinburne University of Technology came to the conclusion that older males could match younger ones when it came to performance accuracy but their response time was a lot slower.
The tasks in the whole experiment varied in difficulty and the older participants generally worked the easier tasks with a lot less effort than the younger participants, although they were a lot slower on the more difficult ones.
While this is not really a revelation or any such thing, the study by PhD student Helen Macpherson compared the brain activity of two groups of males while doing different tasks. One group of participants were aged between 59 and 67, while the other were men aged between 20 and 30.
Macpherson’s findings did conclude that the brain in the older person did tend to compensate for a decline in memory performance. Older people, she concluded, generated more brain activity when they were performing more difficult tasks compared to younger adults.
We could probably compare this sort of study with our computers. In the most cases, as we work our way through our lives we are picking up all sorts of information on a daily basis which would have to clog up our memories. So the older we get the more memories we have to sort through and younger people generally will have less of this.
Computers are the same. When they get too much information that they just cannot store comfortably, they seize up on us. I should know. It's happened to me enough. What do we do when this happens? We either get more memory for the poor thing or we get a new one.
It’s a pity scientists haven’t come up with some way of installing new memory capacity into our brains, almost like a new broadband brain or something. Then we could all grow older without the fear of losing brain power and then we would be more accurate and just as fast as anyone half our age.
Source: Swinburne University of Technology: Brain and Cognition: April 2009
Image credit: wikimedia commons
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Comment by Morgan Bell
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and Olivia Newton John agrees!
Comment by samaritan
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Comment by Janet Collins
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I have never really been into computer games even though I believe they really help your computer skills. It sounds like I should try these - at least to sharpen the brain if nothing else.
Comment by Janet Collins
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You probably sneak in and play them when the kids are out now do you?
All jokes aside, sounds like these games would be pretty good for older people too.
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Comment by Morgan Bell
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i think the theory is that if you use your brain you wont lose it . . . its quite fun for all ages!
Comment by Janet Collins
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Really does sound like I am going to have to try these out.
About the kids today and storing knowledge, I am not so sure about that one. I think there is too much information floating around and with most things they just flitter from one thing to the next.
Look at the number of toys they have for example. I don't think most of them could even remember all the toys they have now. In other words, these things aren't with them long enough to become a memory.
I could be way off when I say that but that's what I am thinking now.
Comment by Janet Collins
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I think I do remember them being advertised some time ago but forgot all about them. I will have to keep my eyes out.
Comment by Wilson Pon
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Comment by Janet Collins
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Yes, exercising the brain is always a good idea. I just wish they could also inject more memory space just as they can do with computers
Comment by colocountry
I'm not so sure that it is the memory, but the savvy with the process thats important. I've said before that I'm an ancient teacher, but I surround myself with Gen Y enthusiasts who are only too willing to be the 'techos' when our class is accessing an IWB (interactive WhiteBoard). Thank God I really know my subjects well so I'm semi-useful when directing the learning,, but the shortcuts I leave to my brain[nerd]trust. It also lets them have a moment in the sun on a regular basis. I'm interested to see what your Orble family makes of this issue.
Col
Comment by Janet Collins
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I just wish we could add more memory into our brains just as we do with computers when the memory is full. Wouldn't that be nice?
Thanks.