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.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
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.
Memory is a mental representation of the past and by its very nature it's reconstructive. It's never always accurate and that's why it's so mysterious and fascinating that you and I can see the same event and then remember it differently a week or a day later. It starts kind of almost at the sensory level and sometimes our mind plays tricks on us. This is called metacognition or awareness of our own cognition.
In fifth or sixth grade, Dr. Castel had one line in the play The Wizard of Oz: "Listen everyone, there's a cyclone on the way. Hurry and get into the cellar." On opening night he said: "Listen everyone, there's a seller on the way. Hurry and get into the cyclone." In high school, he memorized a lot of things using pneumonics, little rhymes or songs, and almost memorized the entire periodic table. In his first year of college he realized he really didn't have a strong understanding of chemistry even though he could use all these terms.
Mnemonics are almost a workaround. Names used to be descriptive of person's occupation. Someone's a baker, we call them Mr. Baker. But that's of course evolved with time. If you can't remember someone's name, that's probably a natural forgetting, but you remember if you had an interesting conversation or you remember if you can trust them, that's probably more important. To engage our kind of knowledge base so that we can remember names, we need to make this arbitrary link. Dr. Castel tells people his last name is Castel, Castel rhymes with pastel and his grandfather used pastels. People can then make this link. But that's effortful. It takes time. It takes time away from the essence of something else we could talk about. It also leads to these kind of predictable memory errors. People say, "Oh, I remember his name was Pastel." When in fact, it's Castel. We have to almost trick our memory into remembering things that might be somewhat arbitrary. That becomes more pronounced as we get older. There's more Davids, there's more Andrews, and it's just more interference. To get around that, we have to use deliberate practice, retrieval practice, use the name several times.
Deeper semantic learning has been referred to as levels of processing. Working at a very low level of processing involves making up happy Henry for hydrogen and helium. If you can start to visualize things or interact with them, that's why we want to have chemistry labs or places where chemistry is not abstract. Psychology was something we were interacting with every day.
A lot of good learning happens through making mistakes. Playing piano involves struggle, but when you make a mistake, you have to work on this. You learn a lot by making these mistakes. Just seeing something many times doesn't mean you'll remember it well. The classic demonstration is you've seen a penny many times. You don't remember all the features on the penny. The Apple logo is an updated demonstration. 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? If you make people draw it while they're looking at it, they're going to remember it better. Or the best way to remember something is to draw it without looking at it and you struggle.
Retrieval failure with some corrective feedback is really beneficial and that's kind of how you learn through life. You make mistakes and then you correct them. But if you're constantly just doing it the right way, you're not really noticing these features. This has been extended to other domains like habituation. You stop noticing things around you, like where the nearest fire extinguisher is. You've probably walked by it many times, but you stop noticing it. Only until you need it, you'll realize, wait, where is it? In one study, instead of being told where it is, you have to get up and find it. Now you're engaging with the environment, you're going to go look for it and be like, gosh, it's been there the whole time. I have walked by it so many times and never noticed it. That's the difference between seeing something and noticing it. A lot of information reaches the retina, but then how much of it reaches our kind of more conscious level. Not all of it does.
If you can perform a mental or physical task, there's no reason for your brain to change. You clearly already have the circuit. So it's the gap between desired performance and current performance that actually triggers the opportunity for plasticity. Those can be uncomfortable positions. I don't know this. Am I going to be able to learn it? A lot of learning now is unsupervised learning. It's not that you're going in classrooms and teachers are telling you what to do. You want to learn a new instrument, you might do a lot of it on YouTube. You're going to try and figure it out. You want to learn new language, you want to learn how to communicate with people, there's going to be a lot of trial and error. The best learners are the ones who persist who are curious because that's how you're going to get a lot of feedback asking not just lots of questions but the right questions. The frustration and agitation is the release of catecholamines, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and those change the milieu around synapses and let them change. All the things that we want to avoid are the things that actually allow us to learn.
People that are very good at learning have this willingness to embrace so-called beginner's mind. They're excellent in one domain and they're perfectly happy to be a raw beginner in a different domain. They may experience agitation the same way that anyone else would, but they don't have the same relationship to it. Our goals can play a big role. A lot of the learning we do is sometimes learning to take a test or learning something because it'll be on a test. But as we get through life, we realize you're interested in bird watching or music or skateboarding. A lot of this is going to be observational learning. It's going to be talking to other people. It comes down to curiosity, which is almost closing this knowledge gap where here I am, but I want to be here. How can I get from here to here? Some of it is there's a strong motivation there.
Memory declines happen with age, but not all things change equally. In fact, there are certain memory systems that might actually remain stable or even improve. Some of the keys here are curiosity, being interested in listening to a podcast, talking to someone else, closing that knowledge gap, and then extending that and going further. As we get older, we're more selective about what we focus on. That can be beneficial. Maybe you don't waste as much time on trying to learn everything, but you're more focused on the things you want to learn about.
It's a little bit of both and you want to have that sort of balance. If you play piano, my father in his 80s, 90s still plays piano. He doesn't think he's learning new pieces, but he's strengthening the pieces he knows and that keeps him sharp. On the other hand, being exposed to new things, if you're traveling, if you're talking to different people, that can be really important for things like even neurogenesis. You want to develop new brain cells, which we know doesn't just stop as we reach a certain age. It's probably a bit of both. People ask what's the best thing to keep my brain sharp as crossword puzzles? As we get older, our actual verbal knowledge is maintained, if not improved. So in a way you're strengthening a strength and that can be beneficial but probably the other things to do are do new things. Go outside and appreciate the birds or talk to someone who has a different perspective or you go to a different restaurant even. As I get older, I have a lot of routines. But it's when I start to violate these routines, take a different way to work or try something different at a restaurant, I can almost feel like, wow, that was a different experience today. I did something else. Both are really important.
We do get set in our ways. Habits can be healthy. Those routines, you drove this way and you didn't get into a car accident or you even noticed your students in your classes after the first couple of weeks, they all sit in the same seats. Why is that? Well, I didn't get attacked by a snake here, so it's safe. Maybe evolutionarily it makes sense. But sometimes halfway through the quarter, everyone gets up and switches sides and sits somewhere else. Students are like, "This is terrible. Like, I have to move." But there's some benefits to having a different perspective both physically and possibly mentally that you're going to then remember things differently. If you've taken a class in a different classroom every year, you can almost revisit each of those rooms and try and recall what you learned. But if you learn all in the same spot, there's a lot of interference. There can be benefits to changing our habits. But it can be uncomfortable, especially at first. Going to a lot of scientific meetings early in my career, I would change seats after every break. It was the only way I could stay awake through all the talks. Some talks would naturally keep me awake and some just wouldn't. Later in my career, I gave myself permission to get up and take a walk. One learns differently even if you just change the novelty of seat position. As you've gotten older, more experienced, you give yourself the leeway like, hey, I can get up if this isn't working for me or I want to see something else. But I've also learned I learn better if I sit over here and then over here and then over here. Those are some principles of memory that when you have this metacognitive insight, you can use it effectively. I've learned and I've seen my children learn sometimes through mistakes or sometimes this works better for me.
Almost everybody has an experience of saying a gaffe like saying something stupid or getting the wrong answer publicly and the shame and the arousal that comes with that means we're never going to forget the right answer, but we tend to remember the experience of embarrassment more. It sort of swamps the information somehow. A part of our brain like the amygdala that's involved in processing emotions is very active and is maintained throughout age. It's other parts of the brain tend to decline. There can be an emotional attachment to a lot of our memories. Some of them are bittersweet. Some of them are things we go back to for comfort. Sometimes we even change them a little bit so they fit the way we might have thought they happened. That can be part of our emotional tuning like what makes us feel good. Some memories we don't want to revisit. Some PTSD there's a lot of research on how we can try and help people.
Memory can be tuned with an emotional valence, and those are often the memories that people cherish or fear. Dr. Castel recalls a personal experience from when he was in The Wizard of Oz as a child. During a dress rehearsal, he forgot his line when he saw the audience watching. Though he was embarrassed at the time, he reflects that most people probably didn't remember the mistake, and even his parents may not have been present. The experience became a lasting memory because it forced him to think about how memory actually works. He noticed that many people study in ways that aren't always effective.
Colleagues at UCLA studied desirable difficulties - how making learning somewhat uncomfortable can lead to better retention. This goes against intuitions, as many teachers aim to make learning easier. Dr. Castel suggests that learning should be a challenge rather than a struggle, so people appreciate how difficult it is. From his Wizard of Oz experience, he now visits presentation venues the night before to familiarize himself with the space, which raises arousal but increases comfort on the day of the event.
Dr. Castel does not have a photographic memory. He describes an intentional memory exercise from a picnic with his first girlfriend, where he consciously decided to "take a picture" in his mind of the moment. About a year and a half before the interview, he tried the same technique with a random street scene in Manhattan involving a construction scaffold and a passerby. He still remembers these self-selected images. The key difference from other visual memories is that these were not emotionally salient events, but the conscious decision to encode them came from within.
The selection process is important - making a conscious decision that a moment is special and choosing to timestamp it. Research on visual memory shows that even people with strong visual memory make errors, so it is not truly photographic. Dr. Castel notes that deciding to remember something involves some emotional valence, whether it is a special personal moment or a random scene. It would be interesting to test the accuracy of such memories later, as people sometimes misremember details. For example, someone might confuse the season of an event or mix up details between similar occasions.
With smartphones, people often offload information by taking pictures rather than trying to remember. Research shows that the act of deciding to take a picture can actually improve memory for the event. However, it can also make memory worse if the decision signals that remembering is unnecessary. The selection process matters: deciding something is mundane and offloading it versus choosing to capture a special moment internally. Dr. Castel sometimes takes photos of family moments but at other times chooses not to interfere with the camera so the memory remains internal.
Memory is reconstructive, and the more a memory is retrieved, the stronger the feeling of remembering becomes. The brain's reconstruction of the past has a similar neural signature to imagining the future, which explains why misremembering can occur. Imagination must be based on past experiences. For example, when asked to imagine a space alien, people of similar age might picture the ET version, while younger people might have a different representation. Memory involves reconstructing the past, and imagining the future draws on those same past experiences.
A Russian quote states: "The past is more unpredictable than the future." This raises questions about eyewitness testimony and spousal arguments. Dr. Castel avoids getting involved in debates between spouses about whose memory of events is correct. People do not intentionally distort memories, but they constantly interpret past events through current knowledge and state.
Eyewitness memory provides a clear example of memory distortion. After a traumatic event, people may feel confident they remember details like clothing, smell, and weather, but research shows frequent misremembering. Classic cases demonstrate that faulty eyewitness identification has led to wrongful convictions later overturned by DNA evidence. These are not cases of intentional lying. When someone identifies a person in a lineup, that identification can replace the original memory. Replaying the memory then replays the identified person rather than the actual perpetrator. Memory can be contaminated like any other form of evidence.
The Ronald Cotton case illustrates these principles. A woman survived a traumatic attack and made a deliberate effort to remember her attacker's face, having extended interaction with him. It was a cross-race identification, which research shows is less reliable. She took her time during the lineup, felt confident in her choice, and identified Ronald Cotton. He was convicted despite an alibi, but DNA evidence decades later exonerated him. The woman felt terrible and later met Cotton to apologize. Factors included the cross-race identification, high confidence despite lower accuracy, and the way identification contaminated the original memory of the face.
Memory should be treated as one source of evidence alongside DNA and other forms, with awareness that it can be contaminated. Cameras and phones now provide additional evidence that can reduce reliance on potentially faulty memory. Dr. Castel emphasizes that metacognition - understanding how memory works - is often inaccurate. High confidence does not necessarily mean high accuracy. People assume that seeing something more often improves memory, as with the Apple logo, but this is not always true. Overexposure can reduce attention to features.
The podcast host describes a practice of studying hotel fire escape maps and mentally rehearsing routes before sleeping, creating a mental map for emergency situations. This is neither working memory nor long-term memory - it is information needed for a specific period and then discarded. Dr. Castel identifies this as everyday memory, which is tuned toward survival needs like knowing where to eat, sleep, and escape danger. He had a similar hotel fire alarm experience where he thought he saw smoke and chose an alternate route.
Forgetting serves a purpose by clearing space for new information, such as remembering a new hotel room number. When studying a fire escape map, active learning is more effective than passive viewing. Dr. Castel describes research where people were asked to find a fire extinguisher rather than being told its location. On airplanes, flight attendants typically point out emergency exits, but it would be more effective to have passengers locate them themselves. The host notes that he actively looks for exits when this instruction is given.
In high-arousal situations, people default to trained routines rather than thinking through problems systematically. The host shares a scuba diving incident involving air failure where he defaulted to share-air procedures. He references a documentary about Dean Potter, a free solo climber and base jumper. In one scene, a seasoned base jumper borrowed different gear with a different ripcord location. Under the stress of a jump gone wrong, she repeatedly reached for the location she was accustomed to rather than the actual one, with fatal consequences. The brain does not work in regimented, analytical ways during emergencies.
A concerning phenomenon occurs where people leave infants in the back of their cars, sometimes with tragic outcomes. This happens even in simple situations, not just extreme ones.
Parents sometimes forget infants in the back seat of a car, and this occurs even among responsible, intelligent people. The pattern typically involves a change in routine, such as when it is the parent's turn to drop the child at daycare instead of going straight to work. The driver enters an automatic habit loop, drives to work, parks, and proceeds to their office before receiving a call asking about the infant. This phenomenon is discussed in terms of prospective memory—remembering to perform an action in the future rather than recalling something from the past. Modern cars now include voice reminders asking drivers to check the back seat, reflecting how common and dangerous this lapse can be.
Mind wandering while driving is common; people frequently arrive at destinations without recalling the route or miss turns because the brain operates on autopilot. Similar risks appear in activities like scuba diving, where certification cards remain valid for years without requiring updates or refreshers. The lack of mandatory skill brush-ups for driving and other potentially dangerous activities can lead to harm for both the individual and others.
Older adults often repeat the same stories or jokes. This behavior stems partly from declines in source memory, making it harder to recall where a headline was read or to whom a joke was previously told. Some repetition occurs because the storyteller genuinely enjoys the anecdote and wants to share it again, while other instances reflect nostalgia and the oral tradition of passing down family histories. At gatherings such as Thanksgiving, families routinely retell familiar stories. Pathological repetition—such as asking "What's for dinner?" every five minutes—signals more serious cognitive decline and warrants concern.
Cognitive aging shows remarkable diversity; a 100-year-old may function well while a 60-year-old may not. A study of nuns revealed that some individuals whose brains displayed the plaques and tangles characteristic of Alzheimer's disease remained behaviorally high-functioning. This suggests that factors beyond brain pathology influence outcomes. Potential protective elements include a sense of purpose, social connections, physical exercise, and sleep quality. A positive attitude toward aging also appears beneficial; believing decline is inevitable can reduce motivation to act.
Walking three to four times per week for 30–40 minutes can enhance hippocampal function. The hippocampus, critical for declarative memory, normally shrinks approximately 1–2% per year after age 50. In a randomized study, participants assigned to walking showed a 1% increase in hippocampal volume after one year, whereas a stretching-only group did not. Memory performance improved in the walking group. Exercise likely improves sleep and mood as well. Quality of sleep tends to decline with age even when total sleep time increases. Activities such as biking, swimming, or dancing produce similar benefits; the key is sustained cardiovascular effort at a brisk pace.
One in four adults over 65 experiences a fall, often leading to fractures and subsequent inactivity that accelerates hippocampal shrinkage. Many people overestimate their balance because they have not yet fallen. A simple test involves standing on one leg for at least 10 seconds; adding the condition of eyes closed increases difficulty because visual cues contribute heavily to balance. The cerebellum plays a major role. Balance is highly trainable through single-leg stands, yoga, or tai chi, with noticeable improvements possible within one to two months. Poor sleep is associated with worse balance, creating a feedback loop: a fall reduces activity, which further impairs memory and stability.
Older athletes who maintain skiing, surfing, or similar activities often display good posture and balance. Spontaneous movement decreases with age; many older adults sit or lie down whenever possible. Choreographer Twyla Tharp, in her 80s, continues daily two-hour workouts at 5 a.m., including boxing, and maintains an upright, active posture with nasal breathing when not speaking. Mouth-open breathing at rest becomes more common with advanced age and may reduce oxygen delivery to the brain. The speaker notes a personal tendency to lean against surfaces or sit more readily with each passing year.
Age-based stereotypes suggest that knee pain is inevitable, yet one knee can hurt while the other does not, implying modifiable factors rather than simple chronological decline. Physical therapy and varied movement help preserve muscle mass beyond what repetitive daily activities maintain. Walking itself functions as repeated controlled loss and recovery of balance; hiking on uneven terrain recruits additional stabilizing muscles. Placing oneself in mildly uncomfortable situations—such as taking stairs faster, avoiding escalators, or teaching large classes—builds resilience. Breathing awareness becomes important under stress; forgetting to breathe properly reduces oxygen to the brain.
Midlife often represents a low point in happiness and life satisfaction, after which well-being can improve. At younger ages, physical recovery from injury is faster, but internal stress and uncertainty are frequently higher. At age 50, many individuals report greater contentment despite accumulating aches and pains. The speaker notes being happier at 50 than at 40, attributing the shift to changed perspectives on stressors.
Dr. Castel shares that he feels differently about stress in general than many people assume. He notes that for many, the teen years, 20s, and 30s were not necessarily the best years of life. While there are fun parts and novelty during those periods, they can also be rough and challenging. Many older adults he has interviewed for his book report that their 60s or 70s are actually the best time in their lives. From a psychological standpoint, aging shows nonlinear dynamics rather than simple linear decline. Happiness does not automatically improve with age, and there can be a midlife dip.
Dr. Castel references Erikson's work on developmental stages, noting that every decade presents a conflict, and how one resolves it allows movement to the next stage of life. Midlife often receives less attention than youth or old age, yet how people handle what happens during middle years can determine how well they age later. When discussing aging, Dr. Castel finds that most older adults he speaks with are already aging well. It is often middle-aged people who seek advice because they have older parents and want to understand the process.
Dr. Castel describes working nonstop during his 30s and 40s, which he now views with some regret and would not recommend for most people. He acknowledges that more balance would have been healthier. Currently he works a lot but deliberately takes time to meditate, pray, and spend time with people in his life, trying to savor experiences more. He notes that the academic world constantly presents deadlines and revisions, and once someone realizes there is always something to do, it changes perspective.
Dr. Castel recounts interviewing legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden in his 90s. Wooden considered himself a teacher rather than just a coach. When asked the two most important words in the English language, Wooden identified "love" as the first: be around the people you love and do the things you love. Wooden lost his wife well before he passed away and continued writing her a letter every month while refusing to sleep on her side of the bed. He displayed report cards from his grandchildren on the wall next to letters from presidents, demonstrating the importance of surrounding oneself with a great community.
Wooden identified "balance" as the second most important word. Physically, this refers to balance that prevents falls. Wooden had a fall in the middle of the night that broke his collarbone and wrist. Despite having a life alert button around his neck, he did not press it due to pride and not wanting to bother anyone. He waited until morning when his caretaker arrived. Dr. Castel notes that technology can help prevent falls, but psychological factors like pride, guilt, and shame also play roles. Mentally, Wooden recognized that his intense drive and success in coaching meant significant time away from family. As he aged, he achieved greater balance by spending more time doing what he wanted and being with people he valued.
The conversation addresses how younger people (35 and under) often seek direction, while older listeners ask about maintaining memory and health and whether they should revise notions of age-appropriate physical and mental ability. Twenty years ago, people assumed decline would begin at 70 or 80, but now many wonder whether feeling great at 50 could continue at 60 or 90. Dr. Castel clarifies he is not primarily focused on longevity but on living vibrantly. Subjective age, the age someone feels, differs from biological age. After age 40, most people feel about 20% younger than their actual age. Subjective age predicts longevity better than biological age.
People sometimes feel their age during injuries or fatigue, yet at other times feel young. Dr. Castel experiences feeling young when coaching his son's baseball team or being on a college campus. Age-related stereotypes exist but do not need to be subscribed to at all times. Having mentors for aging is valuable. When Dr. Castel asks students about people who have aged well, responses often point to grandparents, parents, aunts, or uncles. These role models share genetic overlap but also provide stories and examples of continued activity and connection.
Dr. Castel notes that some people cannot fully retire and instead make career shifts that revive them. His father transitioned from theoretical physics professor to editor of a literary arts journal, a change that revitalized him. Similar shifts can occur at 60 or 70. While age discrimination exists, older adults can pursue activities that provide purpose. Dr. Castel observes that academics often operate on 3-to-5-year plans aligned with grant cycles, though he finds it difficult to plan beyond five years.
Plans can motivate people. When Dr. Castel first took his UCLA position, he gave himself a 3-to-5-year window to see if it would work out. He had long wanted to write an accessible book and mentioned this to his wife early in their relationship. Ten years later the book was published. Research shows that articulating plans increases the likelihood of realizing them. Dr. Castel is interested in how older adults can be protected from scams and fraud, and how technology can be made more accessible. Attitudes matter: younger people often experiment with new devices without manuals, while older adults may worry about breaking things.
Dr. Castel discusses the anterior midcingulate cortex, a structure involved in pushing into friction and doing difficult things. Research by Joe Parvizi using electrode stimulation showed that activating this area creates a sense of challenge and readiness to lean into it. Super-agers maintain or increase volume in this region as they age while preserving memory. Dr. Castel wonders whether having goals activates a will to live at a cellular level. Blue zones research shows that healthy aging is often built into daily life through enjoyable food and natural movement rather than deliberate gym routines. Dr. Castel bikes two miles uphill to work and two miles downhill, finding it sometimes the best part of his day and a time when ideas emerge.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, initial expectations were that older adults would suffer most from social isolation and technology barriers. However, psychological research showed older adults were more resilient than younger adults. Younger people experienced their first major disruption to normal behavior patterns, while older adults demonstrated greater adaptability.
Older adults often demonstrate greater resilience due to having lived through wars, financial meltdowns, changes in family structure, and deaths of close people. When interviewed for the book, the most interesting people were those who had lived through the Holocaust, who expressed appreciation for every day. One person shared practical advice to stay present: when going up or downstairs, think "I'm going up or downstairs" to avoid mind wandering, which could lead to accidents. This mindfulness extends to activities like bike rides where presence is important.
Ryan Suave, a trauma therapist who treats addiction, shared that he occasionally works with patients who were suicidal after a breakup in high school or their 20s. Initially, he wanted to tell them they had their whole life ahead and there were other opportunities, but he realized that to young adults, a breakup feels like the loss of their entire future because they haven't experienced that future yet. Approaching therapy by acknowledging that it truly feels like the whole world is coming to an end made him more effective clinically.
As people age, they gain perspective from having navigated ups and downs. One personal mantra shared is "I'm hard to kill"—recognizing survival through challenges. This leads to reflecting on lessons learned and applying those principles again. The struggles are necessary to realize resilience, and in retrospect, difficult periods often lead to something better or become the best parts of life.
There is a positivity bias that emerges with age: older adults are more likely to focus on positive things, positive information, and positive events, while younger people tend to focus on negative things, possibly for survival reasons. This shift may not benefit mental health when young, but as people age, focusing on the positive enhances mood and may contribute to the uptick in happiness observed in later life. It is not merely rose-colored glasses but a deliberate choice to focus on positive elements and be around people who make one feel good.
Older adults commonly state they no longer have time for negative things or people who bring them down. When young, being around varied people and complaining may be beneficial for recognizing problems and rising above them. The nonlinear changes in perspective have a memory component.
Older adults may tell the same story multiple times, often with a positive spin even when the content involves hardship, such as walking far to school. This may stem from the positivity bias and a desire to relay positive information to counterbalance negative experiences. Some of the happiest older adults interviewed in South Florida had lived through the worst times in Eastern Europe, yet maintained positive outlooks. Their brains may show changes that make them appear less sharp, but they often become less inhibited, sharing jokes and interesting perspectives.
Teaching at UCLA offers contrast between students and older adults. The senior scholars program allows older adults to take undergraduate classes, creating an enriching intergenerational component. In a psychology of aging class, four older adults (some therapists) participated. Students reported learning the most from these older adults despite the professor's efforts. Western culture lacks built-in intergenerational interaction compared to other cultures, though some grow up with grandparents in the household. Time spent with grandparents can be highly informative due to shared genetic overlap combined with wisdom and knowledge.
A Stanford Medical School course on neural regeneration featured two individuals with spinal cord injuries. The younger man in his 20s focused on all the things he hadn't done yet and now couldn't access, which was heartbreaking. The older man accepted he would never walk again but focused on what he could do. He noted he wasn't much worse off than his peers unless he became a pessimist; as an optimist, he was doing better than many able-bodied peers. This illustrates how accruing experiences allows people to "bucket list life"—recognizing what has been done and accepting limitations on remaining desires.
It is valuable to write out at any age the things one absolutely does not want to leave life without having done and actively pursue them. The real tragedy occurs when people are limited early on. Life satisfaction and happiness tend to be higher among older adults, while midlife individuals often report lower levels. Simple repeated experiences, such as trips to Sedona, Arizona, or coastal hikes in California, become highly valued. Earlier bucket-list items like flying an airplane may lose appeal with family responsibilities. Hobbies like drawing, which seemed unaffordable in time at ages 20 or 30, become meaningful later.
Having a sense of purpose includes sharing information. Older adults often find it rewarding to mentor rather than return to the grunt work of their former jobs. Volunteering and generativity— influencing the next generation—produce big benefits; engaged older adults feel connected and useful. Research shows people who spend five hours a week with grandchildren have improved memory, though those spending more than 20 hours a week do not show this benefit and may instead feel exhausted, especially in forced caregiving situations. The benefit appears bidirectional: children also learn from grandparents. One vivid memory involved a grandfather demonstrating how to clean a penny in Coca-Cola, sparking scientific curiosity.
John Wooden, the UCLA basketball coach, emphasized love and balance. He lectured in a leadership class and lived modestly in a two-bedroom condo in Encino, showing no interest in wealth. His approach demonstrated that a fulfilling life is possible without material excess. From this and other interviews, the ABCs of successful aging were distilled:
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A for Attitude: A positive attitude about aging correlates with living longer and lower dementia risk. More recent research indicates that a negative general attitude about aging combined with a positive attitude about personal agency—what one can do—also predicts longer life.
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B for Balance: Super-agers are not extremists running marathons or eating only blueberries; they maintain moderate habits. While genetics play a role, extremes are not required.
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C for Connection: Being around loved ones and doing loved activities matters. Social connection became acutely valued during COVID-19 restrictions. As people age, social circles shrink due to moves and deaths, but the quality of remaining relationships often improves. Technology can create the illusion of connection through numerous online friends, yet meaningful weekly contact remains limited.
The delta between where one is and where one would like to be creates productive friction without turning into cynicism. Bad things happen with age, but rising above them through action represents adaptation. The balance between attitude and adaptation is psychological. Younger generations now face more information about optimizing health and longevity than previous cohorts had, which can be both motivating and potentially daunting.
The unit of life being the day holds true in the circadian sense since biology resets every 24 hours. An occasional all-nighter for the right reasons can be worthwhile and memorable, especially when contributing to something important like finishing book edits. The experience can feel rewarding through neurotransmitter mechanisms, though recovery involves napping and longer sleep the next day. Life functions as an oscillation with periods of push followed by coming off the gas, and this balance represents an art rather than a simple science.
Growing up in Canada and Florida exposed exposure to many interesting older adults in retirement who spent significant time together. Aging parents and grandparents provided further perspective. Respect for older adults combines with the recognition that, if lucky, everyone will eventually reach that stage. This creates an investment in discoveries that will personally benefit later in life. Other cultures often treat older adults with more respect than typical Western approaches.
A popular UCLA class on aging shows students often become interested after taking it, particularly when considering how their own parents age. The contrast between grandparents forgetting names but remembering the price of bananas illustrates how focus and the era someone grew up in shape memory. This represents progressive change rather than a simple divide between old and new.
As people age, they become better at regulating emotions and taking fewer risks. Rather than trying to make older people better by making them appear younger, the goal could involve instilling some psychological qualities of older adults into younger people. The phrase "if only" represents one of the most dangerous combinations in the English language and can prove useless or even destructive. Running mental simulations of "what if" scenarios helps when young but becomes less useful later when the focus shifts to learning from what has already happened.
Observing adults aged 70, 80, and 90 reveals many at peace with themselves and comfortable discussing what matters to them. Curiosity drives recent studies showing that while memory declines in many ways with age, older adults remember prices that make sense and quickly forget those that do not. This demonstrates the benefit of forgetting information that does not fit existing schemas.
Younger adults often highlight 80 percent of textbooks yet struggle on exams due to difficulty selectively focusing on what matters. By the fourth year of study, the approach shifts toward sitting back and identifying overarching themes. Some findings make sense and become memorable while counterintuitive findings like cognitive biases require different organization strategies.
Older adults remember things they care about most and show strength at forgetting information they did not care about initially. State curiosity, triggered by interesting information without an immediate answer, actually increases with age when the topic matters. Trait curiosity tends to decline with age. This pattern guides memory toward what genuinely interests people and has implications for lifelong learning in activities like hiking, bird watching, or skateboarding that can remain engaging at 70 or 80.
Children demonstrate remarkable developmental plasticity, excelling in areas like speed of processing, planning, and rapid skill acquisition such as piano. Recovery from injuries happens much faster in youth. As people reach 40, 50, and 60, recovery takes longer and learning new skills requires more time, yet knowledge, wisdom, and metacognition allow greater focus on what matters most.
Selective optimization with compensation describes how older adults narrow their range of activities while preserving the ones they truly enjoy, such as one meaningful hike per week rather than attempting a wide variety. Socioemotional selectivity theory from Laura Carstensen at Stanford shows that as perceived time remaining decreases, people focus more on what matters most. When younger people are told they have only five to ten years left, they make choices similar to older adults.
Steve Jobs exemplified living with a sense that time was limited, maximizing every day without compromise. This attitude drove impressive achievements while creating some high-friction personality traits. The question arises whether biology provides some unconscious awareness of expected lifespan based on parents and grandparents, though accidents always remain possible.
Some individuals pack intense experience into shorter time while others follow longer, slower arcs. Neither approach proves objectively superior. Personal perspective at age 50 can include both recognition that certain goals remain unachieved and satisfaction at having reached that point.
No single secret to successful aging exists. Exercise and sleep matter significantly, yet moderation represents a key principle. One cup of coffee can be enjoyed without requiring seven cups daily. Occasional all-nighters may provide benefit when they matter, but the pattern should not become weekly. The social component of shared challenges, whether in graduate school experiments or work projects, often makes difficult periods memorable and worthwhile.
When asked what age they would return to, most people select midlife rather than 20 or 15, citing that cognition remains strong, family is present, and professional reinforcement exists during that period.
Current laboratory work examines different types of curiosity. State curiosity increases with age when information matters, while trait curiosity tends to decline. Experiments using trivia questions demonstrate that curiosity likely guides memory toward meaningful content even as other cognitive functions change.
The flip side involves scams and fraud. Older adults face particular risk because they often have more money and focus on family and emotions. Voice cloning technology has worsened the problem since callers can now impersonate loved ones convincingly. Younger adults also fall victim when rushing or not paying sufficient attention, particularly to identity theft attempts. Research aims to identify psychological mechanisms that fraud exploits and develop prevention strategies.
The conversation explores how knowledge transforms into wisdom after someone passes away, noting that advice from living individuals often becomes viewed as wisdom once they die. Examples include the track coach Bill Bowerman at Oregon, who made his runners take jobs outside of school to understand the broader community beyond the university. Coach John Wooden is mentioned as receiving significant recognition for his wisdom after retirement. Dr. Castel shares personal experiences with older mentors, including a math teacher and basketball coach who emphasized balancing academic work with sports, and older rabbis whose advice continues to resonate.
A dramatic illustration of wisdom in action involves pilot Sully Sullenberger's emergency landing on the Hudson River after both engines failed shortly after takeoff from New York City. The scenario poses a dilemma: whether to prefer a younger pilot with faster reaction times and better memory, or an older pilot with more experience. Sully succeeded by drawing on his experience flying gliders, applying principles from one domain to an emergency situation. This demonstrates how accumulated knowledge enables transformative application in critical moments, distinguishing between knowing information and understanding when and how to use it appropriately.
The discussion notes that some of the best coaches are those who struggled as players, citing Tommy Lasorda as an example. This pattern may parallel aging, where life experience provides unique value. Two older adults who took Dr. Castel's class and worked as therapists illustrate this point: when choosing a therapist, many would prefer a 50- or 60-year-old over a 20-year-old due to the difference in life experience they bring.
ChatGPT is discussed as a tool for generating self-tests rather than simply providing answers, aligning with the principle that self-testing is one of the most effective learning methods because it reveals gaps between current knowledge and desired knowledge. The conversation addresses concerns about younger generations relying on AI instead of learning material, comparing it to past generations questioning the need to learn facts when they could look them up in encyclopedias. The key distinction remains how information is used in an informed way. Basic general knowledge remains essential, as illustrated by the example of a president needing to understand foreign policy rather than claiming they could simply look it up.
Dr. Castel describes rereading a principles of neurobiology textbook by colleague Liqun Luo, noting that while he recognizes every line from his background in the field, he is thinking about the material differently now. He reflects on whether this represents genuine enrichment or simply returning to familiar territory rather than learning something entirely new like Latin. The experience is compared to revisiting a familiar language or city, where prior knowledge allows new connections to form.
The conversation considers whether brains improve with age in ways that provide access to life experience, internal well-being, and peace that may outweigh capabilities available in youth. Neuroplasticity continues throughout the lifespan, and development does not stop at young adulthood, consistent with Erikson's stages of development. Rather than viewing aging through a binary of better or worse, the discussion frames it as a qualitative difference. Lower expectations of old age can be revised when individuals realize it does not have to involve inevitable decline. The goal may shift from striving to be a "super-ager" to striving for contentment.
A common saying is referenced: aging is better than the alternative. Youth is described as sometimes being "lost on the young," with physical recovery happening faster and without appreciation. However, social stressors in youth are acknowledged as significant. Positive developments among younger people include greater focus on mental health, such as taking walks for well-being rather than solely for transportation. Dr. Castel expresses hope that these habits developed earlier in life will buffer challenges during midlife, when constant busyness often prevents reflection.
Dr. Castel's interest in aging stems from observing older adults who appear to be doing well and enjoying their company, leading to the question of how to emulate their qualities. This perspective frames older age as potentially offering interesting, quirky, and meaningful experiences, even when frailty requires reliance on others, provided the right support structures exist. The book Better with Age: The Psychology of Successful Aging is referenced as capturing these insights.
The discussion concludes with appreciation for research that combines rigorous science with immediate practical applicability, particularly work focusing on adults aged 50 and above. The importance of studying not only longevity and preservation but also the unique and positive aspects of aging is emphasized. If people are fortunate enough to reach these decades, they will benefit from this knowledge. Dr. Castel expresses gratitude for the opportunity to share findings and generate new research ideas.
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