How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castel
In a Nutshell
Dr. Alan Castel emphasizes that the best learning occurs through effortful retrieval, making mistakes, and correcting them—passive exposure is far less effective. Memory is reconstructive and prone to distortion, especially under stress or when confidence overrides accuracy, as shown in eyewitness cases. As people age, cognitive abilities diverge widely; maintaining memory and function depends on physical exercise, social connection, purpose, novelty, and a positive attitude toward aging rather than inevitable decline.
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Good learning happens through making mistakes. Just seeing something many times doesn't mean you'll remember it well. You've seen the Apple logo so many times, of course, you know all the features, but then when you quiz people and test them, people aren't sure. Is the bite on the left or the right hand side? Is there a stem or a leaf? The best way to remember something is to draw it without looking at it and you struggle. Wait, is it on the left or right? And is it stem or a leaf? And you're starting to question all of these things. Then when you look at the logo again, you're going to engage in better learning than if you hadn't done that errorful kind of trial beforehand. Even if you don't redraw it correctly.
Dr. Alan Castel is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is one of the world's foremost experts on human memory and cognitive aging. The discussion covers what determines if we remember something like a name or an event or how to do something, and how to improve our ability to remember information of all kinds at any age. The discussion also covers how anytime we plan or imagine something about our future, we are always building that on memories of the past and what that means for our ability to come up with new ideas and plans for our lives. The discussion covers how our memory changes across the lifespan and why some people retain exceptional cognitive abilities well into their 80s and 90s and even beyond and what any of us can do to improve our chances of maintaining or even getting better at memory as we age. The discussion covers one of the more powerful and perhaps surprising influences on our rate of cognitive aging, which is your beliefs about aging itself. The discussion also covers so-called superagers, which is the name given to older adults whose memory performance rivals that of people decades younger.
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