Everyone knows that frustrating feeling: A friend has just asked you who that actor is in that sitcom you used to love in the 1990s, and you feel the answer floating around in your brain but you just can’t seem to procure it. “It’s on the tip of my tongue!” you say.
These so-called tip-of-the-tongue moments are common for people of all ages, so they should not be worrisome for anyone, regardless of their age or medical history. A new study published in Psychological Science on October 8, 2013, found no link between the frequency of tip-of-the-tongue moments and the likelihood that someone has increased memory loss.
Researchers at the University of Virginia asked questions of more than 700 participants between the ages of 18 and 99. The questions involved descriptions or photos of famous people, places or common nouns and they asked each person to name the person, place or thing, hoping to elicit tip-of-the-tongue moments, or TOTs. They also used memory tests – the type that are used to test for dementia – to assess each person’s level of memory loss and TOT moments. Though older adults were more likely to have TOTs, frequency of these moments did not correlate with level of memory loss.
So you can rest assured that, even if you’re having those frustrating moments where the answer is on the tip of your tongue, there’s no reason to think this means you’re at serious risk of any memory-related health conditions. If you are worried about your memory, here are some things you can do to maintain and improve your memory:
- Stay physically active. Research shows it’s good for the mind, not to mention the body.
- Keep your mind active as well, through things as simple as reading new sections of the newspaper that you don’t normally read, doing puzzles, going new places and visiting museums.
- Stay connected with others. Socializing and having emotional support are important for staying cognitively active. If you’re living with hearing loss, this might be difficult for you. But you can keep in touch with others through the use of a captioned telephone or assistive listening devices that help you communicate with others remotely or face-to-face.
- Eat well. Include in your diet whole grains, low-fat proteins and things rich in omega-3s, like salmon, walnuts and avocados.
- Use mnemonic devices, repetition, rhyming and other memory games to help you remember information.
