Question: do memory's expand as they get old

Alex Reid answered on 14 Nov 2018: last edited 14 Nov 2018 10:42 am

Hi memory is now, great question. You are actually born with most of the brain cells you need, and as you go through life the connections between brain cells will increase in complexity while ‘redundant’ connections will be trimmed. As a result your memory will get more sophisticated and optimised as you get older. For example this can be seen in a type of memory called ‘semantic memory’, which is your memory of concepts (like ‘what is a school’ or ‘how an engine works’). As you learn more new memories will merge into your concepts of things, increasing their complexity (and usefulness). Despite some memories becoming more detailed as you grow older, there is also an increasing degree of memory failure in later years. This happens at both the ‘formation’ level (acquiring new memories) and ‘retrieval level’ (recalling them in the right context). This is natural to a certain extent, and may explain why my dad has to hunt for his car keys for 20 minutes each time he needs to leave the house!