Is it With Age?

I have been experiencing working memories lately. Aside from the post about forgetting my eye contact lens solution, there are many other instances that I suffered like the following:

1. Every morning I do this ritual: open the eye contact lens canister, get the eye contact solution, get the contact lens, cleanse them with the solution, put them on. Each night, the ritual is this: throw away the solution which was left in the morning, remove the contact lenses, put them in the canister, pour eye contact solution into the canister. Guess what, I followed the evening ritual one morning with the contact lenses still in the canister! Lucky the eaves are there to receive the soft lenses.


2. I discovered I was not wearing a bra on my way to work. Good thing I was still halfway to work.


3. I placed the pack of sanitary napkins on the dresser and told myself not to forget it after putting on my contact lenses. We were meters away when I remembered that I have to bring the goddam sanitary napkins.


4. Because water supply is scarce, we always go to sleep late at night. We have to fill up all the big water containers (drums) and the two washing machines. One night, Papsie asked me to close the faucet at the wash area for a while because he had to use the CR. I forgot to open the faucet afterwards and thinking I was done filling up the washing machine, I continued watching teevee. Two hours were spent. All the drums could have been filled up that time.


5. I forgot to switch off the stove while cooking rice. The time I recalled I was cooking, the rice was overcooked with the sides burnt. We had to eat with small rations of rice. Daryl was very sad he had not eaten much.

And here is my question: Is it with age? Or because the brain cells are decaying? But I read that this Decay Theory had not earned that much support or credence yet.

Perhaps, there are reasons. Just think about an officemate, 10 years younger than me, and she had put toothpaste on her comb instead. Or Daryl, who forgot where he kept the P1,000 peso bill that his grandma had just handed over. And many other instances that have nothing to do with ‘aged’ or ‘aging’ people’s memory lapses.

Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2004 has this to say (Memory):

Forgetting can occur rapidly from working memory.

Working memory has a basic limitation: It can hold only a limited amount of information at one time.

Studies have also shown that working memory changes with age.As children grow older, their working memory capacity increases. Working memory declines in old age and in some typesof brain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Working memory capacity is correlated with intelligence. . . The more capacity people have to hold information in mind while they think, the more intelligent they are.

Forgetting - fact of life, or a phenomenon we have to anticipate.