I'm Not Having A Senior Moment, I Am Just Accessing My Vast Database

The Times explains that my memory is not fading as I age:

The Older Mind May Just Be a Fuller Mind

By BENEDICT CAREY

People of a certain age (and we know who we are) don’t spend much leisure time reviewing the research into cognitive performance and aging. The story is grim, for one thing: Memory’s speed and accuracy begin to slip around age 25 and keep on slipping.

The story is familiar, too, for anyone who is over 50 and, having finally learned to live fully in the moment, discovers it’s a senior moment. The finding that the brain slows with age is one of the strongest in all of psychology.

And yet...

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.

“What shocked me, to be honest, is that for the first half of the time we were doing this project, I totally bought into the idea of age-related cognitive decline in healthy adults,” the lead author, Michael Ramscar, said by email. But the simulations, he added, “fit so well to human data that it slowly forced me to entertain this idea that I didn’t need to invoke decline at all.”

Too many needless scraps precious memories - sort of like the reason I can't find anything on my desk.

Comments

[matt]

first?

[matt]

I forgotten more than you'll every learn, sonny!

[matt]

Mammaries! In the corners of my mind! Misty manic magnum mammaries of the way we were!

[jimmyk]

How big a database is involved when I forget the reason I went from one room to another?

[narciso]

Of course, they would have to know that fact in the first place;

http://twitchy.com/2014/01/28/this-is-cnn-network-mistakes-s-e-cupp-for-crossfire-cohost-stephanie-cutter-pics/

the latter is the one with the serpent's tongue.

[Danube on iPad]

I could remember what I had for lunch yesterday if I wanted to. But then I'd have to delete the '75 World Series.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

"How big a database is involved when I forget the reason I went from one room to another?"

Or when you ask everyone in the room about the whereabouts of the TV remote... and it's in your right hand. Not that that's ever happened to me.

[Old Lurker]

Get off my yard!

[GMax]

75 Series can go. 68 Series must remain in RAM however.

[MarkO]

Getting rid of cookies could solve two problems.

[narciso]

Now it may be artifice, or ignorance pick one;

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/kyle-drennen/2014/01/28/andrea-mitchell-claims-iran-more-or-less-american-ally-bush-gave-axis-

[Dave (in MA) (on a MAC, yuk)]

I can't remember why I'm pissed off at this chair!

[narciso]

Well I don't know about the chair, but other things, might merit that treatment,

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/01/house-republicans-leak-their-amnesty-plan-to-ny-times/

[bgates]

It would seem an obvious question to ask whether the age deficit which is blamed on increased memory storage appears to increase among speakers of multiple languages, but despite the fact that these researchers write in English from the Universität Tübingen Seminar für Sprachwissenschaft, they don't.

[Sue]

This is so funny. My boss used to buzz me and ask fora phone number. I would rattle it off and he would just shake his head. I have trouble remembering my own phone number now. I always say just a minute my brain is running a data search.

[TexasIsHeaven]

We're freezing our butts off out here in the piney woods of east Texas. It's damn cold - so cold I fell out of bed this morning and broke my nightgown.

But we will be back up in the 70's in a couple of days - unlike the rest of y'all in the country that will still be freezing!

Remember The Alamo

[386J-I-B289]

My Belgian FIL is 86, speaks 5 languages fluently and remembers all kinds of minutae but will forget from time to time his daughter lives in America and will call and ask her to stop over to his house if she has time:)

[narciso]

Forcing them, to consult the wayback machine;

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/01/28/if-we-want-more-income-equality-should-we-return-to-the-economy-of-george-w-bush/

[Beasts of England]

Get your damn comments off my lawn, you young whippersnappers!

[Jeff Dobbs]

My memory is so good, I remember the thread not too long ago that said you should drink a lot to keep your memory strong.

Yup. That's what it said alright.

[Beasts of England]

Dang, OL beat me to it. Of course, he is 'old'...

[jimmyk]

68 Series must remain in RAM however.

Amen, GMax. And I remember it better than any of the last 45 years.

[386J-I-B289]

Mitt is on Cavuto.

What the hell is going on? He must be thinking that the GOP is candidate vacant and there is no one out there who can win POTUS this time around but him or he is setting himself up as a king-maker.

I think he wants to be a king-maker so he can have some buffering influence on a strong conservative candidate cum President.

[Old Lurker]

And don't you furgetit, BoE.

BTW, Beasts, the second best news from my visit to daughter last week to welcome my first grandchild, was to return to JOM and find you here. That makes me two for two last week.

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

Romney on Cavuto talking about the economy among other things. He knows exactly what's wrong and how to fix it. And it is wonderful to see him say it.

[jimmyk]

Before I forget, Kevin Williamson understates the case:

The annual State of the Union pageant is a hideous, dispiriting, ugly, monotonous, un-American, un-republican, anti-democratic, dreary, backward, monarchical, retch-inducing, depressing, shameful, crypto-imperial display of official self-aggrandizement and piteous toadying, a black Mass during which every unholy order of teacup totalitarian and cringing courtier gathers under the towering dome of a faux-Roman temple to listen to a speech with no content given by a man with no content, to rise and to be seated as is called for by the order of worship — it is a wonder they have not started genuflecting — with one wretched representative of their number squirreled away in some well-upholstered Washington hidey-hole in order to preserve the illusion that those gathered constitute a special class of humanity without whom we could not live.

Read the whole thing:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/369607/great-caesars-ghost-kevin-d-williamson

[386J-I-B289]

Short Williamson: Watch Duck Dynasty.

[narciso]

Or as Obi Wan put it about Mos Eiseley 'you will never find a greater den of scum and villainy;

[Beasts of England]

Thank you so much, OL! And congratulations on your first grandchild! What a blessing...

[386J-I-B289]

Damn. Just read that they are going to tear down Tinker Field in Orlando. When I was a whippersnapper, back in 1956, I was a bat boy for the Washington Senators Spring training team there. It was also my first exposure to Jim Crow laws.

I still have a Roy Sievers autographed baseball and remember Chuck Dressen yelling at me to clear the bat from the on deck circle. Eddie Yost always offered the kids a chew, ugh!

[Marlene]

My 82 year old mother-in-law is obsessed with crossword puzzles.She insists they keep her mind sharp.The only clues she has a problem with are pop culture references. Her mind is very sharp,but she has no filter on her words,which makes for some interesting conversations.

[lyle]

I can't remember what I just wrote...

[lyle]

Sounds like my late mother, Marlene. I, too, share her obsession with crossword and other kinds of word puzzles. Alas, mom's obsession didn't prevent some pretty serious dementia prior to her death.

[Sue]

Texas,

Where in east Texas are you? I'm in northeast Texas. Are we close?

[Stephanie Yes I'm in how bout you?]

I just went into the kitchen and poured a drink, threw the can away (I don't recycle :) )and left the drink on the counter and came back into the den and sat down to drink my missing drink. Doh.

Maybe I should add some liquor to it so I won't do that again.

[narciso]

Ah memories, huh hit;

http://michellemalkin.com/2014/01/26/granholm-vs-granholm-super-pacs-apparently-no-longer-a-threat-to-our-democracy/

[jimmyk]

She insists they keep her mind sharp.

There may be something to that, but I suspect any correlation is mostly reverse causation: People whose minds stay sharp do crossword puzzles. My father worked into his 80s, was playing bridge till he was 85 or so, then as his memory started to deteriorate more noticeably, he stopped.

[GMax]

“Americans trust Republicans more than Democrats to do a better job handling the economy 44 percent to 37 percent, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. It’s the first time since 2002 that Republicans have sported a meaningful advantage, and larger than any edge congressional Republicans have held over Obama during his administration

Beatdown coming!

[lyle]

"Maybe I should add some liquor to it so I won't do that again."

Huh. I thought that was what you'd done here:

"I just went into the kitchen and poured a drink"

[MarkO]

"Beatdown coming!"

Don't overlook the internecine bloodletting that seems to be required by statute.

[Thomas Collins]

Congrats to OL's daughter and OL and the entire OL clan on the arrival of grandchildL, which I'll shorten to GL. I hope GL soon joins OL and YL in being a JOM poster!

[TexasIsHeaven]

Texas,

Where in east Texas are you? I'm in northeast Texas. Are we close?
Posted by: Sue |

Sue - I'm in Liberty County. Way out in the woods with all the critters.

[Beasts of England]

I have the Lumosity app on my iPhone. I use it when I'm not actively working. Like crossword puzzles, stimulating the noodle is essential. Use it or lose it.

[Stephanie Yes I'm in how bout you?]

2002 the republicans were still feeling the solidarity effects of GWBs tough talk on the 9/11 tragedy and taking the fight to our enemies. That is some barometer that we are at that high water mark. Bad juju for dems as that mark back then required dems to hold their tongues on war, patriotism and antiterrorism tactics that they so reflexively deride. Uber bad juju.

[Sue]

Yeah. You are way south of me. I was hoping you we're closer. I'm in Hopkins County.

[centralcal]

TC: I think the JOM community dubbed OL's grandchild "Baby Lurker" or BL, already.

[narciso]

Sometimes you wish, you couldn't remember the horror, you know from other disjointed rants on other topics;

http://randompixels.blogspot.com/2014/01/fabi-watch.html

[Old Lurker]

I tried to get BL engraved on the traditional Tiffany silver rattle but my wife would have none of it.

[386J-I-B289]

BoE,

When I lived in San Francisco, I did the Sunday NY Times crossword religously. One time I came back from an extended trip to Europe where that same puzzle comes out on the weekend edition of the International Herald Tribune. So, while waiting for my flight and during the flight I completed the puzzle.

Just to piss off the little freaking leftists and hipsters that frequented my coffee shop on Fillmore, I sat down with a skinny latte and using a PEN proceeded to solve the puzzle in less than 10 minutes in front of all the gapping mouths:) One of the greatest tricks I have ever played on those doofuses.

[matt]

So Abortion Barbie is now going after Bristol Palin for her comments and Politico is all over it.

I guess they forgot what the scumbag media did to Bristol in 2008. Screw you, Andrew Sullivan. payback's a bitch.

BTW, Abortion Barbie is doubling down on her Hejira story. Hopefully she'll end up in the smallest staff lounge at UT talking to all six members of the UT Angry Transgender Lesbian Life is Unfair Clownshoes Caucus in a month or so.

[GMax]

The hits just keep on 'acoming':

A Texas citizen filed a complaint before the Texas Ethics Commission Monday afternoon, alleging that State Senator and gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth) knowingly misrepresented her assets on her annual Personal Financial Statements.

The complainant, Lou Ann Anderson of Temple, alleges that Davis failed to disclose her ownership of stocks and mutual funds, capital gains made on the sale of those mutual funds, interest earned on several bank accounts, and professional ties to registered lobbyists associated with a law firm at which she is employed.

If this is proven correct that D after her name will signify DumbAss.

[MarkO]

News I can use.

"stimulating the noodle is essential."

[Jim Rhoads f/k/a vnjagvet]

Looking out from my den bay window over the woods in back of my house here in Sandy Springs GA, it looks like a typical winter day in the old hometown, Erie, PA. Close to an inch of very light fluffy snow has fallen since noon, and is still flurrying a bit.

The major difference between the two cities is that this is the first snow here in the past year, and Erie has had had over 90 inches since last fall. That keeps it number 1 by at least a foot among US cities with over 100,000 population as of today. I do not miss that, especially with the lake winds winter brings every year. Shovel ready jobs are always available there, though from September until April even after the advent of snow blowers.

Kevin Williamson's article is wonderful.

[rse]

Stephanie-do remember it is easy to walk from med ctr station to my house next time someone is stranded. Or from 400 as long as you are inside ptr.

Hubby took 3 hours on back roads and left car in church pkg lot and walked last mile. Diva was supposed to have left with a friend's mom. I called friend to find where they were. Knew from hubby that what was ahead was not moving and suggested walking. Got a text they were now at a friend's house. Know location BUT the text said they were there waiting for friend's mom to pick up. Apparently wanting to leave she must have gone with older sister.

Red has told her I notice discrepancies in a story.

Seriously I know how hard these supers are working to destroy this country and how they do not give a fig about the damage they cause. Today they just told a bunch of people that their children are not even remotely a priority.

Will be much harder for people to exclaim "they wouldn't do that" now. Having said that and knowing the personalities and the obliviousness involved, everyone say a prayer that everyone gets home safe.

Mental and moral midgets should not have such power over our kids. Especially at our expense.

[Sue]

JiB,

Have you ever lived by me? Because you have lived everywhere.

[Old Lurker]

But on his birthday last Saturday, the WSJ had a story about vintage Harleys along with a picture of one.

I tore that out and pasted into a welcome card to BL and suggested he come talk to me on his 16th birthday.

Now THAT really got me in trouble with the wimmen, but his Dad promised to save it for him.

[Old Lurker]

Sue, I did the math once and concluded that if JiB stayed in each place he lived for six months, he is approaching 125 years old about now.

[386J-I-B289]

Sue,

Air Force brat then Air Force myself then working for large international company. Never lived more than 6 years in one spot while working and that was London.

But I did live in Texas when I went OTS at Lackland in San Antonio for 8 weeks:)

And even Saudi has noting on San Antonio in August.

[GMax]

Young millennial on Fox Business right now. Cant find a job with her journalism degree other than Starbucks. You don't need a college degree for that, she admits with some frustration.

Admits to voting to voting for Zero. Cant seem to connect dumb@ss policies of the dufus to the fact she cant find a real job.

She ought to sue the university for lack of an ability to reason. Whining about $350 a month for student loan. Facepalm.

[peter]

Marko 4;57

---zing!

[TexasIsHeaven]

Sue, I'm not real familar with Hopkins Co. Are you close to Sulphur Springs?

[386J-I-B289]

Hey OL,

14 schools before I graduated. 6 separate countries. Wonderful experience. Then the peace of college. Then back into the fire - 3 more countries in the AF. Loved it. So much I joined the big boys in construction and did 6 more countries plus the home court in San Francisco and Washington environs and Memphis and Marquette. Did I mention I joined them in Florida and had to apprentice in Ft. Meyers first?

And I am not the exception but rather the rule. I knew a guy in the AF who had been to 22 schools before he got out of high school.

[Jim Rhoads f/k/a vnjagvet]

Steph and rse remember the 1981 "snow jam" when an 8-10 inch snowstorm hit Atlanta beginning in the early afternoon. By 5:00 the roads were clogged with commuters unable to move. From what I can see on the news, and from rse's report, the same thing has happened today with even though we have had only an inch of snow. It seems that it isn't the amount of snow but the timing which causes these bad tie-ups here.

I am glad I don't commute anymore.

[Stephanie Yes I'm in how bout you?]

They just reported on wsb tv that some of the schools are having staff and kids overnight at the schools cause they can't get em home. Stoopit idjits. Stoopiter idjits are the parents that trust them to make sound decisions.

[narciso]

Oh snap;

http://twitchy.com/2014/01/28/executive-order-boom-amanda-carpenter-destroys-lawless-president-stompy-foot-pic/

[GMax]

Keep this in mind:

Only above 50% in 3 states west of Pennsylvania. Illinois, California,Hawaii.

Maybe the SOTU S/B STFU

[Stephanie Yes I'm in how bout you?]

Yes Jim I was reminiscing on my 11 hour ordeal to get from Emory to my parents house in the Lakesidr area (maybe 6-8 miles) with my 80 yo grandma in tow.

I've dubbed this snowjam 2.

[Stephanie Yes I'm in how bout you?]

Reminiscing on the thread yesterday.

What do the researchers call it when your brain goes faster that your fingers and you leave out words? Sheesh.

[Sue]

I'm in SS. Well outside the city limits but I have a SS address.

[Thomas Collins]

OK, cc, I stand corrected. Welcome to the world, BL!

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

JiB-- Tottenham-Chelsea tomorrow big boy! Chelsea desperate for points for the title, Tottenahm desperate for Champs League spot. BIG BIG game.

[centralcal]

Mark Knoller can be quite sly, sometimes:

Mark Knoller ‏@markknoller 13m

WH announces 3-day Democratic fundraising trip to California by Mrs. Obama. Tomorrow in L.A. Thursday & Friday in San Francisco.

-----

Mark Knoller ‏@markknoller 6m

Pres Obama did five fundraising events in L.A. and SF in November. Apparently, there's more Dem contributions to be had.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

BL-- welcome. have a great life, listen to your grandpa.

That is all.

[Sue]

JIB,

I was born in Dallas but my parents moved home when I was 6 months old. I live less than a 1/4 of a mile from where I was raised. Where my mother was raised. From where my grandfather was raised. From where my great grandfather was raised. I live on the land my great great grandfather bought in 1868. That is why I'm always amazed at how many places other people have lived. My childhood friends were the children of my mother's childhood and on down the line.

[GMax]

Rasmussen has this, which predicts Zero and the Commiecrats are not going to be successful with this inequality meme:

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 69% of Likely U.S. Voters consider income inequality at least a somewhat serious problem in the United States today. …

But when asked which would do more to close the income gap in America, 59% choose less government involvement in the economy over more government action. Thirty-three percent (33%) think increased government involvement in the economy would do more to close the income gap.

A plurality (48%) says society overall would be less fair if the government got more involved in regulating the economy. Twenty-nine percent (29%) think increased government involvement would ensure that society is more fair. Fifteen percent (15%) see no impact from more government involvement in the economy.

[Thomas Collins]

Thanks, H&R, for your analysis on the prior thread on what it takes to get a good thread length. It sounds to me from your analysis that, if we want to top five figures without having TM take a long vacation, we need an interesting topic occurring at a time when there isn't anything else interesting for TM to post on for a week or so. Or, a traditional [Saturday Morning] [Friday Night] [Whatever Generic Name] thread that occurs before an exciting couple of events, with TM so enthralled with our posts that he forgets to start a new thread on the events!

[Jim Rhoads f/k/a vnjagvet]

I lived near Lakeside then too, Steph. Got four people from my office downtown to my house right off Briarcliff going through Emory neighborhoods in my VW1300 bug using the sidewalks where necessary to avoid stalled/wrecked cars. It only took me 3 hours, because of the lo torque rear drive, willingness to go off road, and well-honed snow driving skills. The hardest part was on a Scott Blvd hill where I had to avoid a number of cars skidding out of control.

[boricuafudd]

Now if there was some way to defragment my brain, just think how much smarter we'd be.

[TexasIsHeaven]

Sue - Cool! I know there are other Texans that hang out here - I think Porch is one - and I'm sure there are others. It so comforting to know I'm not alone out here.

Wendy is such a losing proposition for the Dems - why in the world they would even think about letting her run for Governor is beyond me. What idiots.

Now if there was just some way to get rid of Austin without blowing up the three or four good people that live there......

[GMax]

Geraghty has the decoder ring. It aint really about minimum wage workers! Shocking!

a number of unions in the service, retail and hospitality industries peg their base-line wages to the minimum wage… The two most popular formulas were setting baseline union wages as a percentage above the state or federal minimum wage or mandating a flat wage premium above the minimum wage.”

And now you see why raising the minimum wage is such an intense priority for Democrats. A higher minimum wage means higher wages for union workers, which means higher union dues, which gives unions more money to spend during campaign

[Sue]

Porch is in Austin. Holly is in the Dallas area. GMax used to be one of us but he defected to Florida. Glynda is in Galveston. And Hit is a Texan by birth and by marriage. His in laws live in the Hill Country.

[Old Lurker]

Don't forget Bad.

[Captain Hate]

I was gonna ask if they both could lose but Hannity is marginally preferable to teh weird Savage: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2014/01/27/politico-edits-sean-hannitys-comments-about-michael-savage

[Stephanie Yes I'm in how bout you?]

There goes your grocery bill. Kroger is union, Publix is not but generally is competitively waged similar to Kroger.

[henry]

Sue, my brother is a Texan by birth and I have an uncle & passel of cousins living near Dallas.

[clarice]

Boy, is this true--and too many proper nouns. If only we could clear the memory of stuff we no longer need.

[Sue]

I never forget Bad. She is the bluebonnet of Texas.

[Sue]

Well there you go Henry. Everyone wants to be a Texan. As Marcus Luttrell said when asked if he was an American he said I'm a Texan. Hooya!

[TexasIsHeaven]

Rats! I knew there was a reason God had not rained down fire and hail and brimstone on Austin - Porch is there!

Remember the Alamo

[Stephanie Yes I'm in how bout you?]

I was in mom's Cadillac so off road, sidewalks and other tricks wouldn't have done much good. That sucker was like driving a small yacht and handled about as well as you would expect of one on land. Of course you COULD put a pony keg or two on ice in the trunk upright and operable. Not that I ever did that. Stone Mountain cops supposedly were flummoxed where the booze came from when they broke up parties of rowdy teenagers. So I've heard.

[clarice]

My mother will be 95 in April. As I believe I mentioned I am moving her u here in a few days. In part it's because she wanted to move and largely because the healthcare services there were getting impossible and too hard to monitor from here even with some in home caretakers.
This is very stressful for her and on occasion she seems quite addled though I know she isn't really--it's merely situational. In going thru her meticulously kept records, my husband teasingly said he noticed that in 1995 she failed to debit a $9.75 check. Without blinking an eye she replied,"I voided that one".

[centralcal]

Me too - Texan by birth. Parents moved away when I was 4 1/2.

[matt]

Sort of like Lot and the pillars of salt? Naw! They're weird but it adds a frisson to the state.

Several years ago we drove from Verona to a village near Kitzbuhel. The weather in Verona was spectacular. a beautiful mid November morning. As we ascended into the Brenner Pass it began to snow, and snow, and snow. By the time we got to the toll plaza at the top of the pass we hit black ice under a thin layer of unplowed snow.

It was a huge plaza and thankfully there was no traffic to speak of. I very carefully braked. And braked. and braked. It was like the puck on an air hockey table.

I found the best toll booth for my angle of attack and slid the car in at @ 3mph and caromed slightly off of a massive concrete protective post and came to a stop. I thought we were going to have significant damage. And it was a diesel Alfa Romeo sports coupe and would stall out at low rpm's. It sucked.

We then slid down the hill and through Innsbruck and finally when we got to my friend's village there was a hill up to his house, which is Sound of Music beautiful.

Yup, couldn't make it up, so he came down and picked us up in his Skoda 4WD. Parked the car in the village.

2 days later we drove through one of the worst snowstorms I have ever encountered to Munich. 40-50 mph winds and driving snow at night.

White knuckle stuff, but that's Germany/Austria for you. Occasionally some maniac in a Porsche or BMW would fly by and I would wonder how many traffic deaths there are in the snow per year.

I have had a lot of that kind of driving over the years in central Europe. In Sweden, they carom off of the snow walls. Did some of that too.

But there is a good reason I live where I live. I like to visit the cold, not have it visit me. That's what we call golden handcuffs in California.

[Sue]

Oh yeah, C is one of us too.

[narciso]

My late grandfather, said he had lost his memory when he was briefly exiled in Spain, at the outset
the post Castro era, he said he forgot, but he knew may have forgotten more then 10 people could have remembered,

[Stephanie Yes I'm in how bout you?]

The DoT didn't pretreat spaghetti junction and 18 wheelers are strewn across the flyovers from sliding around. Oops.

And these are people we're supposed to trust with healthcare and preventative care? They can't even get potholes repaired or roads properly preventatively cared for with warnings.

[narciso]

post Franco, one wishes it were the former.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Botox has eaten Pelosi Brain stem:
http://hotair.com/archives/2014/01/28/nancy-pelosi-we-democrats-certainly-never-treated-president-bush-this-way/

[Rocco]

Me too, born in Waco

[Sue]

Clarice,

Your mother sounds delightful. Does she know you are part of a cabal? ::grin::