Page 162 - Mind Games The Aging Brain and How to Keep it Healthy

146 • Chapter 5

those brain cells and practice remembering. Glenn Austin,
77, thinks that “there is no other lifestyle” than retirement!

COGNITIVE ASPECTS OF AGING

Several types of attention (concentration) abilities are com-
promised by age. We have trouble listening to two different
things at once. If more than one person is trying to talk to us,
we have trouble following either conversation. This may be
due in part to a decrease in our hearing acuity. One of the
conversationalists needs to wait.
We also have greater difficulty dividing our attention be-
tween two tasks. For example, we may experience greater
difficulty trying to talk on the phone while hunting for an
address in the phone book, or trying to talk to the cashier

All the time!...
I go to a room and
Sally,...do you
say, "Now what did I
ever think about come in here after?"
the hereafter?

From Tal D. Bonham, The Treasury of Clean Seniors’ Jokes, Nashville:
Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1997, 72.