Page 74 - The Memory Program How to Prevent Memory Loss and Enhance Memory Power

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despite my having trained and worked for many years in both countries, is very important. I now
think of “compound learning” in the same way that I view compound interest in an investment
portfolio. A 10 percent annual increment in knowledge does not merely double the effect of a 5
percent annual advance. An annual 5 percent knowledge gain leaves you with a 70 percent increase
in knowledge after ten years, whereas an annual 10 percent gain leaves you with a 180 percent
increase after ten years. For an annual 20 percent knowledge gain, the increase after ten years is
approximately 420 percent, which is literally six times the 70 percent increase seen with a 5 percent
annual growth rate. So you should view learning as a lifelong and continuous process, and not sit
back and vegetate after reaching a permanent position.

A Cliché That Works for Your Brain

Use it or lose it.

How Education Affects Memory: Rosa's Story

Rosa Gonzalez, a sixty-four-year-old woman from the Dominican Republic, was brought by her
daughter into our Memory Disorders Center for evaluation of her declining memory. Rosa Gonzalez
had forgotten to turn off the stove on one occasion and had begun to forget the names of distant
relatives. Otherwise, she was functioning quite well at home, managing her daily chores without any
difficulties. The neurological, psychiatric, and brain imaging workup revealed no significant
abnormalities, but her neuropsychological test results threw us into a quandary. She scored in the
range that would merit a diagnosis of dementia. However, her subpar scores were most prominent in
naming, language, and general knowledge. She couldn't name any of the past five American
presidents. From a set of ten pictures of objects, she couldn't name five: a camel, dominoes, a pretzel,
a tennis racquet, and an igloo. On the Selective Reminding Test, which requires repeated learning
and recall of a list of common nouns (like apple, chair, sky), she scored slightly below normal for
someone of her age.

Rosa was tested in Spanish by a native Spanish-speaker. We expected Rosa to have difficulties in
general knowledge and naming,