​Six Memory Boosters
How to start remembering the small stuff, and the big stuff, more easily
By LESLIE GOLDMAN PHOTO ILLUSTRATIONS BY DOUG CHAYKA

HE NEXT TIME you lose your keys or blank on the title of the movie you saw last week, resist the urge to Google “signs of early dementia,” counsels Charan Ranganath, director of the Dynamic Memory Lab at the University of California at Davis and author of Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory’s Power to Hold On to What Matters.

"The majority of what we experience will be forgotten—and that’s by design,” says the neuroscientist. Indeed, the average person processes more than 74 gigabytes of information a day—nine DVDs’ worth. We expect our memory to function as an archive of the past, Ranganath says. In reality, your brain selectively whittles and prunes what gets stored so it can perform its primary jobs, which include planning for the future (say, recalling what gave you joy as a child in order to create activities for your grandkids) while also understanding how your past shaped who you are (crucial to healing from trauma and boosting self-awareness).

Other skills on your memory’s résumé include decision-making, imagining and communicating. For most adults, momentarily blanking on a friend’s name or misplacing a credit card don’t foreshadow imminent cognitive decline, though they do become increasingly common when we get older. (Not recognizing a friend or getting lost in familiar places, on the other hand, warrants concern.)

Our knowledge of the world and our lived experience “remain relatively intact in healthy aging,” and may even increase with age, says M. Natasha Rajah, a professor of psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University. That said, “recall and memory for contextual details (for example, where you parked your car in the lot) declines significantly, and this decline arises in midlife.

Menopause negatively affects this type of memory in some females too.” Which is why so many of us are still poking around, trying to find our keys. So consider these proven strategies to boost your memory and make everyday life a little easier.

TURBOCHARGE TIP #1
Reverse the ‘doorway effect.’ ▶︎ When you enter the kitchen with a sense of purpose, only to freeze--Why did I come in here?--you’re experiencing what Ranganath calls an “event boundary,” commonly referred to as the “doorway effect.” Whether you’re leaving a store, boarding a plane, walking from one room to another—any time your perception of your environment changes—your brain creates mental bookmarks called event boundaries that divide your day into distinct before-and-after sections for easier recall later on.

If you’re in the living room when you realize you’ve left your eyeglasses in the kitchen, an event boundary is created the moment you enter the kitchen. The problem, Ranganath says, is the brain is easily distracted by the fresh sights, sounds, thoughts and emotions accompanying any new event boundary, causing it to temporarily abandon the thoughts that led up to it. Unless you’re actively mentally repeating get glasses from island as you enter the kitchen, your brain will glom on to the new colors and smells (Are those cookies?!) and, poof, there goes your memory. (The same thing happens when you’re in the middle of a task and you stop to answer a phone call; you might struggle to remember what you were doing before the call came in.) If you’ve lost the thread, try to recall what you were thinking about back in the previous room, or physically return to the room you were in.

TURBOCHARGE TIP #2
Use the pink Post-it trick. ▶︎ People often lose track of their most-used items because our novelty-loving brains tend to gloss over routine activities like plunking down a wallet. “It’s not that you don’t have any memory of where you’ve put your glasses,” Ranganath says. “It’s that you’ve put your glasses in many, many places,” so searching for them is like scanning hundreds of yellow Post-it notes and expecting one to jump out.

​Be more intentional when setting down frequently misplaced items; mindfully notice the smell of the lilies or the crumbs on the table where you’re leaving your glasses. These details act like neon pink sticky notes in a sea of yellow ones. Mindfully noticing details of where you place everyday items will help them stand out.

Mindfully noticing details of where you place everyday items will help them stand out.

​TURBOCHARGE TIP #3
Become a monotasker. ▶︎ Thanks to modern technology, you can chat on the phone as you play a word game, check the likes on your Facebook post and dismiss the weather alert warning of incoming rain. But any interruption of a conversation or a task creates another event boundary, Ranganath says. “Every time you shift back and forth between two tasks, there’s a lag as your brain reorients,” says Constance Schmidt, professor emeritus of psychology at Middle Tennessee State University, who studies media multitasking. “You need to remember where you were before you were distracted, and it takes cognitive effort to resume the original task.”

Even micro interruptions you think you’re ignoring, like a text that’s barely popped up before you swipe it away, are disruptive. “For that fraction of a second,” Schmidt says, “your attention is captured, and interruptions have cognitive costs.” As Ranganath puts it: “Even if you don’t check the text message, you’ve already lost the battle.”

Turn off all notifications and alerts except those deemed absolutely essential and practice focusing on one task at a time, blocking out time chunks for checking email or social media. If tech addiction makes monotasking feel impossible, try an app blocker like Cold Turkey (getcoldturkey.com) or Freedom (freedom.to). You dictate which sites to block and for how long; the app blocker does the dirty work for you.

TURBOCHARGE TIP #4
Read a novel. ▶︎ When evaluating new patients, one of the first questions Washington, D.C., neurologist and neuropsychiatrist Richard Restak asks is, “Are you much of a reader?” Former avid readers who’ve stopped altogether may be battling depression or vision issues. But if the patient’s response includes some variation of, “I used to read lots of fiction but not anymore,” that’s a red flag for potential cognitive decline, says Restak, a clinical professor of neurology at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and author of The Complete Guide to Memory:

​The Science of Strengthening Your Mind. Fiction, he says, “is a challenge to your working memory,” which has to follow a plot, keep track of multiple characters and engage with the text. Your memory isn’t nearly as challenged by nonfiction, which lets you skip around based on what you find interesting without compromising comprehension. Restak says you can flex your working memory by picking fiction over nonfiction (at 82, his current favorites include novels by Elizabeth Bowen and J.G. Ballard).

Outrageous images help you remember mundane things.

TURBOCHARGE TIP #5
Create a giant strawberry and make it ride a cow. ▶︎ When five-time USA Memory Champion Nelson Dellis needs to memorize as many decks of cards as he can in an hour—his personal best is 20—he turns to mnemonics, a category of memory tools that includes creating outlandish visual images, like that cowboy berry.

Other useful mnemonic tools include acronyms (Roy G. Biv, for the colors of the rainbow) and acrostics (My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Noodles, for the names of the planets).

Dellis, who was inspired to train for memory championships when his grandmother passed away from Alzheimer’s disease in 2009, says mnemonics work by turning mundane information into dazzling visuals.

A grocery list containing strawberries, milk and broccoli is boring. A giant strawberry riding a cow into a backyard planted with cartoonish broccoli trees sticks out. Try it the next time you need to memorize directions, a to-do list or what floor of the parking garage you’re leaving your car on.

TURBOCHARGE TIP #6
Take more pictures with your mind. ▶︎ The next time you’re treated to a gorgeous sunset, resist the urge to whip out your smartphone and start clicking. Filtering life through a camera lens takes you out of the moment, Ranganath says, stealing “your attention away from the parts of the experience you really want to remember later on.”

This isn’t to say you can’t film your grandchild playing soccer or your favorite band rocking out onstage. The point is to be choosy in what you document with your phone.“Photography can orient you to the moment, and it can be helpful if you use it strategically to help you pay attention to the details that you want to remember later on,” Ranganath says.

On family vacations, he tries to reserve the camera for capturing emotional high points or unique sights, like a particularly gaudy statue—although he usually insists on someone posing next to it. This way, instead of mindlessly documenting every meal or forced family photo, “you’re documenting emotions.” In other words, you’re capturing a memory.
​
Leslie Goldman writes on health for Cosmopolitan, Woman’s Day and other publications. Getty (5)

FOUR MORE YEARS AND MANY PROMISES TO FILL
Story by JUSTINE MCDANIEL and ALEXIS ARNOLD • The Washington Post • Photo by J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE • The Associated Press

​Today we inaugurate a new President of the United States.  Here's what he promises to do

​President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to forcibly remove undocumented immigrants from the United States, reshape the federal government and impose major tariffs that could drive up prices.

He has told Americans he will increase their paychecks, decrease their electrical bills and cut gas prices. He has made promises to executives who backed his campaign, including on oil drilling, cryptocurrency, space exploration and artificial intelligence. He has labeled political rivals as "the enemy from within" and said members of Congress who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot should be jailed. He has also suggested purging parts of the federal workforce and rolling back environmental regulations.

In total, the Washington Post identified 31 major campaign promises Trump pledged for his second term. Here are some of the most consequential steps Trump has said he'll take as president.

1. Carry out mass deportations
Trump has said he would launch "the largest domestic deportation operation in American history," and a 2024 Republican platform called for targeting millions of undocumented immigrants. Trump has also pledged to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — last used during World War II to intern Japanese immigrants and others — to quickly remove people the administration deems to be a threat. Trump would also target ordinary undocumented immigrants who came to the country to work, a move that led to a backlash during his first term. Trump deported fewer immigrants than President Barack Obama did during his first term but largely focused his 2024 campaign on his pledges to curb immigration.

2. Restore the 'Remain in Mexico' program
The president-elect has said he will quickly reinstate a program that required tens of thousands of migrants seeking asylum in the United States to await their hearings in Mexico, which led to thousands of asylum-seekers setting up camps over the border in his first term. Officials said the program discouraged illegal immigration and false asylum claims, but some say the Trump protocols would be less effective than the current policy under the Biden administration, which has implemented even tougher asylum restrictions.

3. Reinstate a travel ban
This policy, which Trump implemented in his first administration, restricted people from several majority-Muslim countries and others from traveling to the United States. The ban separated thousands of families before it was reversed by Biden, whose party viewed it as anti-Muslim. Trump claimed it strengthened national security, though experts said there was little evidence to back that assertion.

4. End birthright citizenship for the U.S.- born children of certain noncitizens
Trump argues that ending birthright citizenship, which many legal scholars say is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, will disincentivize people from coming to the United States to give birth or to stay illegally. He pledged to sign an executive order directing federal agencies to deny citizenship unless at least one parent is already a citizen or a permanent resident. Rescinding this right would most likely require changing the Constitution, which is difficult, and executive efforts would be certain to face legal challenges.

5. Cut federal funding to cities that don't cooperate with deportations
Trump's advisers are considering how to withhold funds from cities that refuse to participate in deportations. Trump has long wanted to punish such "sanctuary cities."

6. Institute the automatic death penalty for migrants who kill American citizens
Trump promised this to campaign rally crowds, including in October in Aurora, Colo., where he promoted false claims that a Venezuelan gang had taken over an apartment complex there.

7. Complete the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico

8. Impose tariffs on goods from other nations
Trump has proposed tariffs of at least 10% on all imports and a 60% tariff on all goods from China. In November, he said he would enact tariffs of 25% on Mexican and Canadian goods and 10% on Chinese imports on his first day in office.

9. End inflation
Bringing down prices was a top campaign pledge.

10. Cut taxes
Trump during the campaign vowed to cut taxes by more than $7 trillion over 10 years. The centerpiece of these changes would be extending the tax law he approved during his first term, much of which is set to expire in 2025. Doing so would probably add substantially to the national debt and risks fueling inflation.

11. Eliminate taxes on tips and overtime

12. Promote cryptocurrency

13. Eliminate the Education Department
Pledging to make good on a longtime conservative goal, Trump proposes dismantling the department — whose employees he has baselessly claimed "hate our children" — and assigning some of its functions to other federal agencies.

14. Cut federal funding to penalize schools
Trump has promised to cut federal funding to schools that promote what Republicans label as "critical race theory" or "radical gender ideology." That could include schools that offer support to transgender students or teach about racism in the U.S.

15. Target transgender policies
Trump campaigned on getting "transgender insanity out of our schools," rhetoric that he more often used as a political tool than a policy platform. He has pledged to ban trans athletes from participating in women's sports in schools, and his administration is expected to argue that school policies allowing trans students access to bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams are a violation of Title IX, the law barring sex discrimination in federally funded schools.

16. Fund school vouchers
Trump promised to back school-choice programs, which provide taxpayer funds to parents to pay for private school.

17. Roll back environmental regulations
Trump has promised to dismantle dozens of rules and policies designed to curb air pollution, fight climate change, protect endangered species and achieve other environmental goals. He has also pledged to scrap federal policies that aim to accelerate the nation's shift to electric vehicles.

18. Expand oil and gas production
As oil and gas executives gave millions to his campaign, Trump made "drill, baby, drill" a signature slogan. He aims to expand oil and gas drilling on federal lands and waters, resume the approval of new liquefied natural gas exports and remove regulations for oil, natural gas and coal production.

19. Pull out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement
During his first term, Trump withdrew the United States from the pact, which is aimed at limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels, a critical threshold. Biden rejoined, and Trump has pledged to withdraw again.

20. Lower health care costs and prescription drug costs
Trump said he had "concepts of a plan" to replace the Affordable Care Act during the debate against Vice President Kamala Harris in September. Trump has not detailed specifics of plans to lower prescription drug costs, and on the campaign trail, he backed away from an effort unveiled in his first administration to tie government payments for medicines to lower prices paid overseas.

21. Preserve Social Security and Medicare
Trump has pledged not to cut either program, though he has promised his administration will cut what he describes as "waste" within the agency that oversees Medicare and Medicaid.

22. Leave abortion laws up to state legislatures
Trump's campaign has said he will not sign a national ban on abortion. He also made the repeated vague pledge to "protect women" during his campaign.

23. Make IVF free
Trump promised to ensure that Americans' in vitro fertilization costs are covered by the government or insurance.

24. Retaliate against his political enemies
Trump has indicated he will seek retribution against those he perceives as his enemies, and some have begun preparing for the possibility. Trump has nominated Kash Patel, who created a list of Trump's antagonists, to head the FBI. He also said he will sue newspapers and media outlets and supports any indictments of the prosecutors who charged him with crimes. Trump also suggested using the National Guard or military against American citizens, saying the United States was under threat from "the enemy from within," including "radical left lunatics."

25. Reshape the federal government
The new administration and its allies have plans to make mass job cuts in the federal workforce and slash hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending, using an outside governmental body led by tech billionaire Elon Musk and pharmaceutical founder Vivek Ramaswamy that is sure to face legal challenges. Also on the table: closing some departments and moving others out of Washington, a return-to-office mandate, diluting the power of federal employee unions and converting thousands of career civil servants to "at-will" employees who could be fired and replaced with political loyalists.

26. Change voting requirements
Trump wants to require identification and proof of citizenship for voting. He also wants to conduct elections exclusively with same-day voting, eliminating absentee and mail-in voting, early voting and electronic voting kiosks — though at times during the campaign, he promoted mail-in voting.

27. Pardon some Jan. 6 defendants

28. Pursue isolationist policy
Trump favors what he has termed an "America First" approach to foreign and trade policy that includes shutting out imports, building an "iron dome" air-defense system over the United States and ensuring the U.S. military doesn't get entangled in foreign wars. He has strayed from isolationism in recent weeks, however, saying the United States should acquire Greenland and threatening to retake the Panama Canal.

29. End the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East

30. Target diversity initiatives in the military
Trump and those around him have promised to reverse what they describe as "woke" policies affecting the U.S. military, criticizing efforts to require diversity training and to permit service by transgender troops.

31. Carry out strikes on Mexican drug cartels
Trump has proposed using military assets to "wage war" on cartels. He suggested he would carry out strikes if Mexico doesn't "straighten it out really fast." Deploying armed forces to Mexico without its consent could violate international law.

What’s more important for longevity — genes or lifestyle?
By DANA G. SMITH The New York Times

There are countless stories about people who reach 100, and their habits can flout conventional advise on diet, exercise, and alcohol and tobacco use. Decades of research show that ignoring this advise can negatively affect most peoples and cut their lives short.

​When Dr. Nir Barzilai met 100-year-old Helen Reichert, she was smoking a cigarette. Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, recalled Reichert saying that doctors had repeatedly told her to quit.

But those doctors had all died, Reichert noted, and she hadn't.

Reichert lived almost another decade before dying in 2011.

There are countless stories about people who reach 100, and their daily habits sometimes flout conventional advice on diet, exercise, and alcohol and tobacco use. Yet, decades of research shows that ignoring this advice can negatively affect most people's health and cut their lives short.

So how much of a person's longevity can be attributed to lifestyle choices and how much is just luck — or lucky genetics? It depends on how long you're hoping to live.

Research suggests that making it to 80 or even 90 is largely in our control. "There's very clear evidence that for the general population, living a healthy lifestyle" does extend the life span, said Dr. Sofiya Milman, a professor of medicine and genetics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

One study published last year, which analyzed the lifestyles of more than 276,000 male and female U.S. veterans, found that adopting eight healthy behaviors could add up to 24 years to people's lives. They included eating a healthy diet, getting regular physical activity, sleeping well, managing stress, having strong relationships, and not smoking, abusing opioids or drinking to excess.

If the veterans adhered to all eight behaviors, the researchers found they could expect to live to about age 87. To most, that probably sounds pretty good; after all, it's almost 10 years longer than the average U.S. life expectancy. But to Milman, who was not involved in the study, the results showed that "even if you do everything right," you still can't expect to live to 100.

If you want to become a centenarian, you're going to need a little help from your ancestors.

Because the older one gets, the more genetics seem to matter.

Overall, scientists think that how long we live is about 25% attributable to our genes, and 75% attributable to our environment and lifestyle. But as people near 100 and beyond, those percentages start to flip, said Dr. Thomas Perls, a professor of medicine at the Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine at Boston University.

Indeed, studies have revealed that many people with exceptionally long lives don't have healthier habits than the average American. And yet, they live longer and have lower rates of age-related diseases, like heart disease, cancer and dementia.

In the Long Life Family Study, for instance, "We have families where there's a lot of smoking; we have some families where they're couch potatoes," said Michael Province, a professor of genetics and biostatistics at the Washington University School of Medicine, who leads the study along with Perls.

But what these families also tend to have are some special gene variants that experts think help them avoid disease and live longer.

Some genes may affect people's likelihood of developing specific conditions. For example, the APOE gene is known to influence the risk for Alzheimer's disease. Other genes appear to influence the aging process itself. One that has cropped up in several studies of centenarians is called FOXO3, which is involved in many fundamental aspects of cellular health.

The experts emphasized that many of these genes are rare, and that there isn't one single gene that offers protection against all aging and age-related diseases.

Having the right set of genes to impact longevity is "like winning the lottery," Perls said. So even if your mother made it to 100, you should still practice behaviors you know are good for you, just in case you didn't hit the genetic jackpot.

And whatever you do, don't take health advice from a centenarian.
For them, lifestyle probably didn't matter much, Barzilai said. For the rest of us, it really does.

Harv's Corner

Do chickadees speak ‘robin’? Readers’ questions answered about Minnesota birds. By VAL CUNNINGHAM For the Minnesota Star Tribune

​
Q: Do birds of one species "talk" to other bird species?
A: That's an excellent question and the answer falls into the "it depends" category. We hear birds singing loudly in the spring, but each species is communicating with others of their kind, to court a mate or establish a territory. A territory may include several different bird species, if they're not in competition for food and other resources, so a robin's "stay away" song won't discourage a cardinal, for example. Birds do listen if one species gives its alarm call when a predator is around: My backyard clears instantly when a chickadee gives its soft alarm note, for example, and blue jays can have the same effect on multiple bird species (even though the jays often are "crying wolf"). Birds know which songs and calls to filter out, and which to really pay attention to. Some birds chatter a lot when they're foraging through a woodland or a field, and this can attract other birds interested in the same diet. You see this with chatty chickadees attracting warblers, woodpeckers, brown creepers and other birds to form a brief foraging flock.

Hiding but not seeking?
Q: I sit outside at my condo and toss out peanuts (in the shell) for the blue jays. They hide them in the grass or go to a rooftop and return right away. I wonder if they ever come back later to retrieve them.
A: I like the sounds of your after-dinner entertainment, and the blue jays must enjoy it, too. They do remember where they've hidden their bounty, and return often to retrieve the nuts and peck open the shells for the prize inside. Blue jays can be very secretive, both in making sure they're not watched by other birds when they tuck a nut into a hiding place, and when they retrieve a peanut for a meal.
They often return to re-hide a food item if they feel other jays (or humans) were watching the first time. And truth to tell, they don't re-find every single nut, and many an oak tree has grown from a forgotten blue jay acorn.

Hold the salt
Q: When you mention putting out peanuts for birds, I assume you mean unsalted ones? Where can I find these?
A: You are so right, salted nuts aren't good for birds and should be avoided. I find unsalted peanuts, both in the shell and without shells, at wild bird stores, and at some hardware stores and big-box stores.
They're a fun item to offer to your backyard birds: Blue jays love the peanuts in the shell, and many other birds, from chickadees to woodpeckers to sparrows, enjoy pecking at shelled peanuts in a mesh feeder.

Lifetime bond
Q: Do cardinals mate for life? I see a male and female together in my backyard, even now, when nesting season is over with.
A: Cardinals stay together throughout the year, and this makes it easier to start the breeding season each spring. In fall and winter, cardinals no longer feel the need to defend a territory, so you might see a flock of brilliant red males and subtle taupe-colored females brightening up the backyard or woodland.

Deterring sparrows
Q: We enjoy feeding birds but house sparrows are getting us down. They eat so much seed and keep the desirable birds away. I've spent hours on all the usual suggestions, including making the "halo" with wires and washers, and none of these work for very long. Do you have any suggestions?
A: Sorry to hear you're being bedeviled by these feeder pests. I do have a suggestion, although it's not a perfect solution: Switch to safflower seeds.
House sparrows don't seem to enjoy safflower as much as they do sunflower seeds. After I made the switch, I saw a noticeable drop-off in sparrow visits to my feeders. Many other birds, including chickadees, cardinals and house finches, will eat safflower (and in the spring, the rose-breasted grosbeaks seem to seek out this seed). Sparrows will continue to visit for a while, swishing their beaks back and forth in the safflower seed, checking to see whether there's any good stuff underneath. In my experience, our winters are hard on non-native house sparrows, and their numbers decline as the season advances, if that's a consolation.

New name, same goals
Q: Why is the St. Paul Audubon Society changing its name?
A: The local organization's new name is Saint Paul Bird Alliance, aligning it with many other chapters (including Minneapolis') around the country that have dropped "Audubon" from their name. The St. Paul chapter board says that the Audubon name was creating barriers to pursuing a broader coalition of people and organizations to achieve its mission of protecting birds and their habitats. The national organization will still be known as the National Audubon Society, however.

Hands off birds' nests
Q: Now that the leaves are down, I see many abandoned birds' nests on my daily walks. I'd like to collect some to make a collage.
A: Bird nests are so beautifully made and they each tell a story about the breeding season, so I can understand how you feel. But it's best to leave them alone: Under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, it's illegal to collect any part of a bird, from feathers to eggs to nests.

Don't toss nature's foods
Q: My neighbors try to outdo each other in their efforts to make their gardens neat and tidy each fall, by cutting everything down and tossing it in the compost pile or the trash.
I don't think they approve of my habit of leaving all the plant stalks and seed heads standing, but I love to look out on a winter day and see the finches and sparrows feasting away on the seeds.
A: You are so right, many gardeners seem to think that the outside of their homes must be as tidy as the insides. It breaks my heart to see all the seed heads that end up in compost piles and yard waste sites, because this could be valuable food for birds and other small creatures in the winter.
Gardeners: Please leave seed stalks standing until spring — your neighborhood birds will thank you.

St. Paul resident Val Cunningham, who volunteers with bird organizations and writes about nature for local, regional and national newspapers and magazines, can be reached at [email protected].