Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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SENIOR CORNER Destination Amnesia by MARTHA OWEN & SUSAN GUY He said: “Where were you? I was worried.” She said: “I told you this morning I was going shopping after work.” He said: “You did not tell me.” She: “Yes I did!” He: “No you didn’t!” The reality was that she had really told her daughter in the morning, not her husband. Did you ever have one of these conversations? Well, if you did you are certainly not unique. We prob- ably all heard the phrase “stop me if I’ve told you this before.” We all forget things now and then but telling the same story to someone more than once really can be a sign you are getting older. Destination memory is remembering who you have told things to. Dr. Nigel Gopie from Baycrest’s Rotman Research Institute in Canada conducted a study comparing older and younger adults’ destina- tion memory. He said, “What we’ve found is that older adults tend to experience more destination amnesia than younger adults.” Destination amnesia is defined as incor- rectly believing that you gave or shared information with one person when, in fact, you really told another person. One reason for this condition is that people, especially as they get older, have a decreased ability to focus. They use up most of their attention resources in just providing the information. As a result, they don’t always concentrate as much on who the person is that they are sharing the information with. While generally this is not a big problem, there are times when it can be very disruptive to everyday living and can result in unnecessary stress and arguments. This can also be a problem Reducing Energy Use From the Editors of Environmental Magazine Dear EarthTalk: With all the talk of the need for safe, renewable energy sources, isn’t the elephant in the room really that we should use far less energy than we do? Wouldn’t more rules about conservation (like not leaving commercial building lights on all night) make the chal- lenges easier? — Jennifer B., New York, NY In short, yes: Scaling back our energy consumption significantly, whether voluntarily or as a result of laws and regulations, would go a long way toward achieving our pollution reduction and air and water quality goals. But Americans — and to a lesser extent those in many other developed nations — have never been very good at using less of anything, let alone the energy that makes everything in our whiz-bang modern world possible. That said, con- servation is going to play an increasingly important role in all of our lives as we struggle to reduce our collective car- bon footprints in a quickly warming world. President Obama has repeatedly highlighted the need A recent study released by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory predicts annual spending on energy efficiency and conservation to quadruple to as much as $12 billion a year by 2020. for greater conservation efforts when it comes to shoring up our existing and future energy reserves and reduc- ing our dependence on foreign sources of oil. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 set aside upwards of $3 billion to bolster efforts across the country to weatherize existing buildings in order to conserve energy. Grants to local communities for such projects, along with calls for voluntary reductions in energy consumption, are part of the plan. The White House is also betting on technology by subsidizing various initiatives aimed at reducing energy use and making our existing power network more efficient overall. Research has shown that investments in energy efficiency that promote conservation are cheaper and provide quicker returns than building new, cleaner power plants. 14 UCW MAY 25-31, 2011 Earth Hour 2011 saw the participation of millions of individuals in 135 countries who turned their lights off for one hour to make a statement about the need to conserve energy to fight climate change. Credit: Reway2007, courtesy Flickr. As for what you can do to promote conservation, lead by example — and you’ll see your energy bills go down, too. Turn lights, computers and TVs off when you are done using them. If you’re remodeling or building a new home, occupancy sensors that turn lights on and off as people enter or leave rooms is a good investment, as is making use of natural light in more overt ways to obvi- ate the need for artificial lighting in daylight hours. Also, purchasing appliances rated for good energy efficiency under the federal government’s Energy Star program will save energy. Likewise, driving a hybrid or elec- tric vehicle, or foregoing a car altogether in favor of public transit, biking or walking, is a great way to conserve energy. One way that awareness about the importance of energy conservation is being promoted around the world is through “Earth Hour,” which began in 2007 when two million individuals and 2,000 businesses in Sydney, Australia turned their lights off for one hour to make a statement about the need to fight climate change. Within a year, the concept had spread to more than 50 million participants in 35 countries. In 2011 Earth Hour drew participants in 135 countries; organizers expect the 2012 event (March 31 at 8:30 p.m., wher- ever you live) to be even bigger. Similar but unique “Lights Out” movements in San Francisco and other American cities will align with Earth Hour as well. CONTACTS: Energy Star, www.energystar.gov; Earth Hour, www.earth- hour.org; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, www.lbl.gov; Lights Out San Francisco, www.lightsoutsf.org. WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM leading to miscommunication in the doctor’s office which is a good reason that someone should accompany an older adult to a doc- tor’s appointment. Dr. Gopie also stated, “Older adults are additionally highly confident, compared to younger adults, that they have never told people particular things when they ac- tually had. This over-confidence presumably causes older adults to repeat information to people.” On the other hand, source memory is not vulnerable to age-related decline. Source memory is the ability to recall which person told you certain information. Dr. Gopie offers a couple of tips if you sus- pect you are forgetting who you share information with. First, refocus attention on the person that you’re talking to by inserting their name when you tell them things (“James, you wouldn’t believe the trouble I had with...”). Second, integrate them into the story (“Remember the problems you had at the dry cleaner, Sam? It happened to me...”). Telling the same story to someone more than once really can be a sign you are getting older. So, next time you have one of those “no you didn’t — yes I did, but you weren’t listening” discussions, just say: “I’m sorry honey, but I think you are having one of those “destination amnesia” moments. At least now you have a clinical term to use in your defense. Then again, if you are like me, maybe you really weren’t ef- fectively listening. MARTHA OWEN & SUSAN GUY, Contributing Writers. COMMENTS? editor@upand- comingweekly.com