How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castel
7/13/20262 hr 29 min
Dr. Alan Castel, PhD, is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and one of the world's foremost experts on human memory and cognitive aging. We discuss what science actually tells us about how to improve our learning ability and memory at any age. We also discuss how memory works, why all planning and imagination about the future is based on the past, false memories, and how to leverage curiosity, emotion, and self-testing retrieval practice to stamp in memories for the long term. We discuss what "superagers"—people who actually improve their cognitive capacity with age—do differently than everyone else. This episode is for anyone interested in the science of memory and tools to maintain and improve your memory across the lifespan.
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Timestamps
(00:00:00) Dr. Alan Castel
(00:02:41) What Is Memory?, Reconstruction & Metacognition
(00:04:49) Mnemonics, Remembering Names & Deeper Learning
(00:08:22) The Penny & Apple Logo, Noticing vs Seeing, Learning Through Mistakes
(00:10:43) Sponsors: Wealthfront & Helix
(00:14:05) Neuroplasticity, Frustration, Curiosity & Mindset
(00:17:42) Maintaining vs Learning New Things, Habits, Novelty & Emotional Memory
(00:24:28) "Mental Photographs," Photo-Taking & Imagining the Future
(00:29:28) Eyewitness Memory, the Ronald Cotton Case, Confidence vs Accuracy
(00:35:07) Medium-Term & Prospective Memory, Hotel Fire Exits
(00:40:28) Sponsor: AG1
(00:41:47) When Habits Turn Lethal, Aviation & Human Error
(00:49:01) Why Memory Changes With Age; Alzheimer's & the Nun Study
(00:52:34) Exercise & Hippocampal Volume, Falls & Balance
(00:57:14) SuperAgers & Athletes; Regret, Balance & Being Driven
(01:12:08) Sponsor: Function
(01:13:45) Age Stereotypes, Subjective Age & Positive Age Beliefs
(01:20:02) Goals & Plans, Scams; Anterior Midcingulate Cortex & SuperAgers
(01:26:23) Culture, Resilience, Blue Zones & COVID
(01:29:18) Adversity, the Positivity Effect & Intergenerational Learning
(01:36:31) Sponsor: Lingo
(01:38:00) Limitations & Purpose; Time, Family & Connection
(01:44:58) Deliberately Building Memories; the ABCs of Successful Aging
(01:51:02) Following Your Interests; Castel's Path & Older Adults
(01:57:16) Mental Simulations, Curiosity Studies & Selectivity
(02:01:19) Socioemotional Selectivity Theory; Steve Jobs & Lifespan
(02:07:10) The Secret to Successful Aging; State vs Trait Curiosity
(02:11:04) Scams & AI Voice Cloning
(02:14:31) John Wooden, Wisdom, Love & Balance
(02:17:41) Learning Through Mistakes; Does the Brain Get Better With Age?
(02:25:00) Conclusion, Better With Age
(02:26:00) Zero-Cost Support, YouTube, Spotify & Apple Follow, Reviews & Feedback, Sponsors, Protocols Book, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsAlan Castel· Guest0:00
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, and I do this in my class, 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, again, failures. I'll have you draw it without looking at it, and you struggle, and you wait, is it on the left or right? And is it a stem or a leaf? And you're starting to question all of these things. Then when you look at the logo again, you're gonna engage in better learning than if you hadn't done that error-full kind of trial beforehand.
Andrew Huberman· Host0:35
Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life. [guitar music] I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. My guest today is Dr. Alan Castel. 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. Today we discuss what determines if we remember something, like a name or an event or how to do something, and we discuss how to improve our ability to remember information of all kinds at any age. We also discuss how any time we plan or imagine something about our future, we are always building that on memories of our past and what that means for our ability to come up with new ideas and plans for our lives. And we discuss how our memory changes across the lifespan and why some