How Does Age Affect The Memory - amazonia.fiocruz.br

We often assume that when we get older, we start to lose our ability to remember things. But have you forgotten your lunch in the fridge before?

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Or forgotten your homework on your desk? Is age really an important factor in how well we remember things? Is memory loss directly related to age, then? Scientists and psychologists generally divide memory into three types— sensory memoryshort-term memoryand long-term memory.

Sensory memory is what you use to instantly within a few seconds recall impressions made on your senses. If someone were to quickly flash a picture in front of you, even if it was only for less than a second, Memorj a brief time you would be able to recall the colors and shapes that you saw. Sensory memory begins to degradeor fade, immediately and rapidly. Short-term memory is what you use to recall information within a period of several seconds. Studies have found that you are able to hold about things in your short-term memory at one time.

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Both sensory and short-term memory have very limited capacities and operate in the frontal lobe of the brain. Long-term memory has a much larger capacity. It includes all of your memory capacity beyond short-term memory—all the way to your earliest childhood memory! Long-term Memogy uses a greater area of the brain.

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Things in your sensory and short-term memory can settle into your long-term memory with the help of sleep and the part of your brain called the hippocampus. When you sleep, your brain files through all the memories of the day and converts the important stuff into long-term memory.

In this study, you will test the short-term memory capacity of different age groups and examine your data to determine if younger people really have a better memory than older people. Your results will vary.

You will likely find that generally, older test subjects will take longer to complete the memory game than younger test subjects. However, you may also find that there are exceptions to this trend. Your data might show that older people will not always have poorer memory capacities than younger people.

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There are many more factors that go into memory capacity than just age. An older person who has an active lifestyle, including regular physical activity, mental activity, and social interaction, could have a short-term How Does Age Affect The Memory as sharp as someone several decades younger. And older person with a more sedentary and isolated lifestyle will likely show poorer short-term memory retention. Happier people also have a bettery memory than people who are stressed or depressed. Other physical factors influence short-term memory capacity include blood pressure and amount of sleep.

High blood pressure limits blood supply to the brain, which makes it harder for the brain to retain and recall information. Because high blood pressure is more prevalent in older adults, this is another factor that leads us to the assumption that older people have trouble remembering things. Did your study include a sleep-deprived student? Lack of sleep will be common in college-age subjects, and is a significant contributor to memory loss, although the effects are temporary.]