Who ran for vice president of the United, States in 1984?
Don't remember? At the time, she was the subject of discussion over nearly every dinner table in America.

Bet you remember now her face, if not her name.

Our brains are like that: More complex and marvelous than the most powerful computer, and yet we can find ourselves with a familiar piece of information stubbornly eluding us, right at the tip of our tongues.

When you first want that piece of information, you send your memory looking for it among the tons of intelligence stored away in your head. If everything goes right, you have the tidbit you are looking for a few milliseconds later.

Of course, not everything always goes right. And it goes wrong more often as you get older because your memory begins to slow down with age. Many of us have firsthand experience of that irritating little phenomenon. The question is: What can we do about it?
Oh, by the way ... Geraldine Ferraro.

What's Going On in There?

First of all, relax. Stop worrying about Alzheimer's disease and early senility Minor memory lapses are common, expected, and easily mended.

We usually begin to experience a gradual decline in memory at about age 30, but we are talking a very mild decline, says David Mitchell, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and director of the Center for Aging Studies at Loyola University in Chicago. "Let's say you make a grocery list, and if you're like me, you forget to bring your list, but you go shopping anyway. When you get home, you're not surprised to find that you forgot to buy two or three items. As you get a bit older, you'll forget three or four," he says.

Aging isn't the only problem. You also have a lot more information to sort through now than when you were younger, and each day you add more data into your memory. With so much to remember, no wonder you forget. "The brain is a finite piece of tissue. Most people in memory research assume that as your system gets m ore and more information, it will take longer to search," Dr. Mitchell says.

As if a brain full of stuff wasn't enough, you probably also have a life full of distractions and responsibilities. Stretching yourself too thin can also lead to forgetting. "This is a time where women tend to be divided between their jobs, their families, and sometimes even their parents, as well as friends and their interests. Because of all this, there is a tendency to forget things," says Carolyn Adams Price, Ph.D., associate pro¬ fessor of psychology and chairperson of the gerontology program at Mississippi State Uni¬ versity in Starkville.