Fear Drives “Senior Moments”
Thu, July 27, 2006 at 03:53AM Many of us older folk have what are delicately known as a “senior moment”. In my case, it usually involves forgetting someone’s name, although I can nearly always remember the first letter. And, if I stop worrying it, the full name will pop into my head a short time later – often too late to be useful, though.
The important thing is not to worry about it, as a recent study in Social Cognition has shown. Men and women in late middle age underperformed in a memory test when they were told they were part of a study including people over 70. Results were even worse in those of them who were most worried about getting old. Conversely, if the boomers were grouped with 20-year-olds for the test, their memory scores went up. See the International Herald Tribune for a fuller description of this ‘negative feedback cycle’.
The answer is to stop worrying about getting older and mix with younger people, if possible. Or do what I do – rely on my wife’s memory for names.
Reader Comments (1)
I'am sorry for posting this message i've just took a ploit LSD(bycicle drawed..), and realized that all troubles of humanity from lack of Love.
Please love and forgive yourself and your brothers and sisters. We are just on love.
i would ike to recommend you a book which can give good psychological mood-up: http://www.amazon.ca/You-Can-Heal-Your-Life/dp/1561706280
Sorry for flooding and offtopic, you can just delete this message, if you've read it, the mission is done...