korrents

Alan Castel

@alan-castel · 24 positions · 0 changes of mind

Professor of psychology at UCLA, where he studies human memory, attention and cognitive ageing, and author of Better with Age: The Psychology of Successful Aging.

Alan Castel did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

  1. Our reading

    Seeing something many times does not put it into memory: familiarity with a thing and knowledge of it are different, and people confuse the two constantly.

    Their wordsAnd I think that illustrates also how our memory works. That just seeing something many times doesn't mean you'll remember it well. And this is a classic demonstration that, you know, you've seen a penny many times. You don't remember all the features on the penny.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:08:31 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castelyoutube.com 1st of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  3. Our reading

    You learn where something is by going to find it rather than by being told, and that act is the whole difference between seeing something and noticing it.

    Their wordsAnd so we've done this study where you have to, instead of me telling you where it is, you have to get up and find it. And so 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. have walked by it so many times have never noticed it. And I think that's the difference between seeing something and noticing it.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:10:11 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castelyoutube.com 2nd of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  5. Our reading

    Learning should be made harder rather than easier, and a teacher's instinct to smooth the path is the first thing that goes wrong.

    Their wordsHow can you make learning kind of uncomfortable, but that you'll remember things better? And it goes against a lot of our intuitions. A lot of teachers will want to say, how can we make learning easier? And I think that's probably the first problem is you don't want it to be easy.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:23:44 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castelyoutube.com 3rd of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  7. Our reading

    There is no such thing as photographic memory: people with exceptional visual memory still make ordinary memory errors.

    Their wordsthe research on photographic memory does show that even people who have very strong visual memory will make memory errors. So it's not that you know it's exactly photographic but their visual memory is exceptional.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:26:26 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castelyoutube.com 4th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  9. Our reading

    Photographing a moment can weaken your memory of it, because the reason you took the picture was not to have to remember.

    Their wordsNow, it can also make your memory worse because you're realizing I want to I'm taking this photo so I don't need to remember it later. And so, you could see it going both ways, but that selection process is important.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:27:45 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castelyoutube.com 5th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  11. Our reading

    Remembering the past and imagining the future are one brain process, which is why what you can imagine is bounded by what you have already lived.

    Their wordsAnd our brain does a lot of interesting things in terms of, you know, reconstructing the past also has a similar brain signature as imagining the future. which you know in some ways makes sense. We shouldn't have separate parts of the brain for thinking about the past and thinking about the future.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:28:33 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castelyoutube.com 6th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  13. Our reading

    Picking someone out of a lineup overwrites the memory of the face actually seen, so identification makes a witness more confident and less accurate at the same time.

    Their wordsAnd as a result of identifying that person in a lineup, that person then replaces what they actually saw. So our memory can be contaminated just like any form of evidence could be contaminated.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:31:17 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castelyoutube.com 7th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  15. Our reading

    Confidence in a memory is not evidence of its accuracy, and our sense of how our own memory works is systematically wrong.

    Their wordsAnd sometimes confidence, high confidence doesn't necessarily mean high accuracy. And I think part of the reason we're fooled is usually, you know, the more you see something, the better you'll remember it, just like the Apple logo. But that's not always the case.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:34:26 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castelyoutube.com 8th of 24 in this recording

    Apple

    Interesting

  17. Our reading

    Forgetting is a feature of a working memory system rather than a failure of it.

    Their wordsIt's as simple as you you need to know your hotel room number when you're staying there. But if I ask you your hotel room number a week later, it's gone. But that's good in a way because you're going to have other numbers to remember and other hotel room numbers to remember. So there's benefits of forgetting.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:38:38 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castelyoutube.com 9th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  19. Our reading

    Loving, competent parents leave infants in hot cars because routine takes over from intention; the mechanism is habit, not negligence.

    Their wordsWhen you look at these investigations, the reason this happens is, you know, these are very responsible, very intelligent parents who will, you know, put their child in the car and then get in the car and then you just get in this mode of I'm going to work. I'm going to do my job and you're in this routine.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:44:48 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castelyoutube.com 10th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  21. Our reading

    Alzheimer's pathology in the brain does not settle whether a person has dementia: the nuns' brains were full of plaques and tangles while they went on functioning normally.

    Their wordsand you found that these nuns, how they aged, some of them certainly when they passed away, their brains had these kind of hallmark signs of dementia, plaques and tangles, but behaviorally they were still high functioning. So, it's really interesting that the hardware shows what we see as dementia and specifically Alzheimer's disease, but their behavior uh was that of a fairly healthy cognitive person.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:51:21 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castelyoutube.com 11th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  23. Our reading

    Walking three or four times a week grew older adults' hippocampus by one percent and left their memory better a year later, which no pill has managed.

    Their wordsBut in the walking group the group that was randomly assigned to walk three four times a week for 40 minutes compared to a stretching group who's still engaging in exercise but not cardiovascular exercise. The walking group their you know hippocamp is actually increased in volume by 1%. So you're changing the the brain, but you're also changing the behavior. Their memory was much better a year later.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:52:34 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castelyoutube.com 12th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  25. Our reading

    Balance, not memory, is what middle-aged and older people should be worrying about, and almost nobody knows what state theirs is in.

    Their wordsAnd I think, you know, most people when they talk about aging, they're so worried about dementia and, you know, Alzheimer's disease as a specific form, but balance is even more important, I think. And most people aren't even aware of their balance.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:54:33 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castelyoutube.com 13th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  27. Our reading

    Balance is highly trainable, and something as small as standing on one leg improves it measurably within a month or two.

    Their wordsWhat's interesting with balance is it's very trainable. And so, you know, there's parts of balance that involve visual inner ear, but if you engage in some training, and it can be as simple as standing on one leg or doing yoga or taichi, you can improve your balance considerably within a month or two.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:56:16 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castelyoutube.com 14th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  29. Our reading

    Happiness across a life is a curve rather than a decline, and its lowest point is midlife, not old age.

    Their wordsthere's some interesting work on you know happiness being more curve linear like midlife is actually some of the lowest levels of happiness and life satisfaction
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:04:39 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castelyoutube.com 15th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  31. Our reading

    After forty, people systematically feel about twenty percent younger than they are.

    Their wordsAnd actually, after the age of 40, most people feel about 20% younger than their actual age.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:16:41 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castelyoutube.com 16th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  33. Our reading

    How old you feel predicts how long you will live better than how old you actually are.

    Their wordsit's also interesting that that subjective age is a better predictor of how long you'll live than your biological age.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:17:09 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castelyoutube.com 17th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  35. Our reading

    Older adults came through the pandemic more psychologically resilient than younger adults, which is the opposite of what was expected of them.

    Their wordsBut what we found, at least at the psychological level, we did some of this research, older adults were much more resilient than younger adults.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:28:45 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castelyoutube.com 18th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  37. Our reading

    Five hours a week with grandchildren goes with better memory in older adults, and more than twenty hours a week does not.

    Their wordsI think some research, again it's correlational, shows that people who spend, you know, 5 hours a week with their grandchildren have improved memory. So that seems we don't know if it's causal, but it's interesting that those who spend more than 20 hours a week don't show this benefit. In fact, might show the opposite.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:43:57 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castelyoutube.com 19th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  39. Our reading

    Believing that ageing goes well is itself protective: people with a positive attitude to ageing live longer and are less likely to develop dementia.

    Their wordsAnd actually, more recent research shows that those who have a positive attitude live longer, they're less likely to develop dementia.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:47:46 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castelyoutube.com 20th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  41. Our reading

    Superagers are not extremists, and that is the point: what keeps them sharp is ordinary enough for anyone to copy.

    Their wordsthese super aes are not extremists. They're not like running marathons and eating, you know, only blueberries.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:49:10 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castelyoutube.com 21st of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  43. Our reading

    Older adults are not worse rememberers so much as more selective ones: they keep what they were curious about and let the rest go.

    Their wordsAnd so, in this study on curiosity, we found that older adults tend to remember the things that they're most curious about, but they're also really good at forgetting the things that they just didn't care about in the first place.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 2:00:07 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castelyoutube.com 22nd of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  45. Our reading

    What look like the priorities of old age are the priorities of a short time horizon: tell a young person they have five years and they choose the same way.

    Their wordsBut her work has shown that when you give people different time perspectives, they make different choices. So if you unfortunately tell someone who's younger that they only have 5 to 10 years left to live, they're going to make choices very much like older adults too.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 2:03:08 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castelyoutube.com 23rd of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  47. Our reading

    Curiosity does not simply fade with age: the general disposition declines while curiosity aroused by a particular thing you care about actually increases.

    Their wordsbut as you get older that tends to decline with age which I thought was kind of perplexing because I you know a lot of curious people but we found that levels of state curiosity when I give you some interesting bit of information but I don't give you the answer if it's something you care about that actually increases with age your level of curiosity and learning.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 2:09:35 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castelyoutube.com 24th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting