I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! Seniors moments vindicated

[eridani]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/27/1309936/-I-knew-it-I-knew-it-I-knew-it-Seniors-moments-vindicated

New.Ever walk into a room, stop halfway in, and wonder why you were there..in that room?

Sure you have.

Or forgotten a word for a few minutes? Even a whole phrase?!

These times are laughingly called "seniors moments" or "brain farts" and they happen to most older people. They are, however, damned annoying and embarrassing when they happen... especially in the middle of a conversation and there you are saying" ohh, you know that thing where..."

You can't remember where your keys are more times than you care to count, nor what you had for supper two nights ago. Sometimes you forget your dog's name ..or worse..your wife's!

A recent study by Dr Michael Ramscar and a team of linguistic researchers from the University of Tubingen, Germany have found that the older brain has accumulated so much information during the course of a lifetime, that it's simply slower because the brain has to sift through all that info to find the answer

Think that's funny youngsters? The news isn't good for you either. Memory begins to slip at age 25...and keeps on slipping. At 25 you've reached your prime. It's all downhill from there.

Now comes a new kind of challenge to the evidence of a cognitive decline, from a decidedly digital quarter: data mining, based on theories of information processing. In a paper published in Topics in Cognitive Science, a team of linguistic researchers from the University of Tübingen in Germany used advanced learning models to search enormous databases of words and phrases.

Since educated older people generally know more words than younger people, simply by virtue of having been around longer, the experiment simulates what an older brain has to do to retrieve a word. And when the researchers incorporated that difference into the models, the aging “deficits” largely disappeared

[OKNancy]

1. Hey! that's what I have been telling my children

My main irritation is recalling names. Not names of people I know, but usually movie or tv people.

[Scuba]

2. This is so true. I have to forget something old every time I want to learn something new!

Why can't I just erase all those old TV commercial jingles from the 1950's? Do I really need to know "Mr. Clean will clean your whole house and everything that's in it!"?

[Arkansas Granny]

4. Gee. Thanks for the earworm.

[Scuba]

5. Could be worse ...

[trumad]

7. Seriously one of my favorite shower songs of all time.

[Enthusiast]

15. ...

[valerief]

23. I totally agree. Here's another fab-fab-fab song.

On edit:
I just realized that the lyrics to this song could be construed as 'stalkerish'. Ha!

[Jazzgirl]

34. Gee..... I had that 45 when I was a kid!

[Arkansas Granny]

16. Arrrgh!! Now you've done it.

[Scuba]

20. Yeah, that was kind of mean. Here, maybe this will help ....

[AAO]

18. I've never been able to shake "knock on any Norge" (bud-duh, bum-bum!).

[MindPilot]

36. Boy I hear ya!

"Suddenly it's Springtime!"

"see the USA..."

"Winston tastes good..."


But I'm not real sure where I left my car.

[AAO]

38. Oh yeah!

Nice to know someone from my generation still has a memory! My Dad has Alzheimer's but still remembers details of his childhood, which I will admit is more than I've got! Thanks MindPilot. Keep keepin' on!

[hobbit709]

3. CRS is normal, it's when CRAFT starts you have a problem.

[Scuba]

8. Thank you Urban Dictionary.

[valerief]

12. Ah, I knew CRS. CRAFT is new to me--but quite obvious now that I looked up the meaning. nt

[my2sense]

14. I once knew

what CRS was although today I had to look it up. . CRAFT is a new one. I'll be using it quite often.

[freshwest]

6. I'm cognizant of this and say so. But processing speed is an issue few understand. And prioritizing.

[monmouth3]

9. What is it we're talking about?? Oh yeah, sorry....n/t

[Gman]

10. Fragmented hard drive.

[progressoid]

22. Doesn't help if you're running Vista.

[Gman]

28. Sometimes I feel like windows 3.1

[Gormy Cuss]

29. I'm running DOS

and have little trouble finding data in my head.

[valerief]

11. OMG, I've said that for years! As you get older, retrieving info is like trying to navigate a

hoarder's house.

[Squinch]

13. Seems, then, that the trick would be to get busy forgetting stuff...

[ieoeja]

27. I have always been a big fan of doing just that.

I do not remember nearly as much about my childhood as do my siblings. A lot of the things they remember are incredibly inane. I often wonder why they bothered retaining it.

Of course, they did pretty much remain "down home" while I moved off to Chicago. I have probably accumulated a lot more experiences and need to make room for more. Reminiscing is a major hobby of theirs. "Remember when...", they ask to which I respond, "no, why would I".

[Elwood P Dowd]

32. Republican voters don't seem to have much of a problem forgetting stuff.

Their favorite politicians have been fucking them over for years, but its totally forgotten by the time the polls open every election cycle.

[Arkansas Granny]

17. My problem seems to be senior moments compounded by blonde moments.

I am double screwn.

[Fuddnik]

19. Like I was sayin'

........Oh....... nevermind...........

[Javaman]

21. I was going to make a comment...

but I forgot why I opened this thread.

[packman]

25. Seniors, hell - began for me a long time ago

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[The Blue Flower]

26. I've always said it was because my discs were full

Funny that the research now agrees with me. I'm 65, btw.

[LWolf]

30. It began for me

at about age 40, when a skull fracture and severe frontal lobe concussion interfered with memory. I had to learn new paths to where information, including words, were stored. My son described it well to someone: "It's like you dumped out everything in her filing cabinet and threw it all around the room. It's still there, it's just harder to find.

When I first got home from the hospital, I would get frustrated because I couldn't remember a word, and have to find a circular way to say what I needed to. I looked at the many walls of books and didn't remember reading any of them. So I went through them all one at a time again. At some point, sometimes early, sometimes late, I'd "find" the memory of that story. I also found my vocabulary. It took about a year to feel fully "recovered," but I've had those frustrating "can't find it" moments ever since.

Not quite the same as aging, but a similar process to find the information.

These days I've got both, lol.

[carolinayellowdog]

31. Thanks for this-- at 60 I'm juggling 7 book projects and can't remember what day it is

I looked forward to feeling less overwhelmed and distracted in retirement. Might have worked if I could say no to "would you contribute a chapter to this collection... co-edit this project... serve as an officer on this board..." etc. But at least I won't worry that it's driving me into early senility-- just slowing down my processing along with all those useless old memories!

[eridani]

33. You'll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent n/t

[MindPilot]

35. What a relief!!

I thought it was the weed!

[Rhiannon12866]

37. So I guess I shouldn't be proud of having a good memory...

[AAO]

39. You should feel blessed. If you are not religious, you should just feel thankful.

Best to you!

[Rhiannon12866]

40. I feel both! Thank you!

[Ilsa]

41. Now that I'm older, I know that I'm much more interesting.

But I don't remember how that fits in with the OP.