Even with advanced degrees in physics and mathematics, iTunes and the iPod Touch did her in.

My mother recently sent me an iPod Touch that she could not figure out how to use. She is a very intelligent woman in her seventies with advanced degrees in physics and mathematics. But iTunes and the iPod Touch did her in. The instructions were so arcane and confusing she just gave up and sent the thing to me.

I’m no genius – just younger than she is – and able to figure the iPod Touch out after some time with the instruction manual and lots of trial and error (mostly error). And the iPod Touch is not the only thing I find confusing as I get older.

My telephone has become a subject of considerable confusion as it adds more and more “features” – when all I want to do is talk on it. Now my phone tells me where I am (here), keeps my calendar (so I won’t forget), shows me pictures of my family (the same pictures I keep in my wallet), takes lousy pictures and video (“is that a picture of me?”), does text messaging (numbers to letters – no kidding!!), and plays my music (isn’t that what the iPod is for?). It has so many features I forget sometimes how to place a simple phone call – and that’s why I have the damned thing in the first place! I’m so confused!! Is it my age? Am I just “getting older?”

The problem of confusion is the subject of a new study into memory loss associated with aging. Psychologists Nash Unsworth from the University of Georgia, Richard P. Heitz from Vanderbilt University and Nathan A. Parks from the Georgia Institute of Technology investigated two theories to pinpoint the main cause of forgetfulness over the short term.

Their conclusion: temporal confusability, and not decay, is important for forgetting over the short term. “It is possible to alleviate and even reverse the classic pattern of forgetting by making information distinct, so that it stands out relative to its background” say the study authors.

Perhaps it’s not so much that we lose short term memory as we age – as we become more easily confused when information is not clearly set out from the “noise” surrounding it.

Consider:

1. Blah
2. Blah blah
3. Blah blah blah

compared to: 1blah2blahblah3blahblahblah…

By the way – I finally gave my new iPod Touch to my daughter. Let her be confused.