Our memory becomes more selective with age

 


As we get older, our memory starts to change in many different ways. These include the ability to remember names, the combination of a lock that we haven’t used in a while and why we just walked into a room.

Faces may feel familiar, but we can’t recall how we know the person, let alone their name. When we meet people, we usually move past introductions into more interesting conversation, so we often don’t even pay attention to the name or even notice if the person actually said their name. Sometimes it is simply easier to ask people to repeat their name, if we are having trouble remembering it.

Could you now recall which day it is forecast to rain? If you just went to the store and bought bread, bananas and milk, you might later recall the prices of these items (especially if the bananas were on sale for 29 cents a pound). These are the sorts of things we do well, and perhaps our memory becomes more geared to what is essential as we get older.


Maybe as we get older, we have too much stored in memory, and this leads to interference. Much like an overstocked library, it is great to have this information, but it then takes longer to find things, and other things can get in the way when we try to recall something specific.

Our surroundings can influence how and when we remember something. Hearing a song from long ago, or smelling perfume, freshly cut grass, or wood burning in a fireplace can bring back a flood of memories, sometimes one we hadn’t thought of in years. Imagine going back to your high school reunion. When you walk into the room, there are many triggers for things you hadn’t thought about in decades.

Have you ever walked into a room and forgotten why you went into that room? We know that we were looking for something or that we needed to walk into the room to get something, but we are here now, and it is forgotten.

Our minds are often wandering as we go to another room or we start thinking about something else. Anxiety about memory? Forget about it! Don’t get upset when you forget something.. just wait and it will come back!

This is actually common for seniors and we become accustomed to it and deal with memory challenges in simple ways, such as just allowing more time to remember something or writing down things that are important to remember. A “selective memory” can still work well in our Senior years!

For more information, contact Lewis County Senior Health and Fitness at 931-796-5564.

 

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