If you struggle to remember names and numbers or frequently fail to follow the plot of a film, help could be at hand。

　　Scientists say the problem is that you know too much - and you need to declutter, or spring-clean your mind。

　　Experiments show that the memory lapses that come with age are not simply due to brain slowing down. Instead, they can be blamed on the well-used brain finding it more and more difficult to stop irrelevant information interfering with the task in hand。

　　The first step in the study was to compare the working memory of the young and old。

　　In the context of the study, it involved giving the volunteers groups of sentences and asking them to work out whether each line made sense - and to remember the last word of each sentence。

　　Overall, the younger people, who had an average age of 23, did better。

　　Researchers then did a second experiment to see what was hindering the older volunteers, who had an average age of 67. This involved being shown pictures of eight animals and being asked to memorize the order in which the creatures appeared。

　　The volunteers were then shown dozens of the pictures and asked to click on their computer mouse when the first animal in their memorized sequence occurred, then the second and so on. The older adults found it more difficult to progress, suggesting the previous picture was stuck in their mind。

　　Mervin Blair, of Montreal's Concordia University, said: "We found that the older adults had more difficulty in getting rid of previous information, which accounted for a lot of the working memory problems seen in the study."

　　A third study confirmed that the memory problems were not simply due to a simple slowing down of the mind。

　　Mr Blair, a PhD candidate, says that the older mind appears to have trouble suppressing irrelevant information. This makes it more difficult to concentrate on the here and now. For those who have trouble remembering, he suggests relaxation exercises to declutter the mind。

　　"Reduce clutter, if you don't, you may not get anything done."

　　Keeping the mind young, through learning a language or musical instrument can also help。

　　如果你觉得自己平日里很难记住人名和数字，或者电影看着看着就忘了前面的故事情节，下面这篇文章就能帮你解决这个烦恼。

　　科学家称记不住东西是因为你记住太多东西。你需要对你的大脑进行一次大扫除，删除多余的记忆。

　　实验显示，年纪大的人记忆力差并不是因为脑子不够用，恰恰相反，正是因为他们头脑运转灵活，处理手头工作时，不相干的记忆会不停地冒出来干扰他们。

　　第一项实验是对比年轻人和老年人的短期记忆能力。具体的试验内容包括给实验对象一组句子，让他们判断这些句子是否有意义，并且记住每句话的最后一个单词。

　　结果显示平均年龄为23岁的年轻实验对象做的更好。

　　研究人员进行了第二项实验，目的在于找到影响这群平均年龄为67岁的老年实验对象的原因。实验内容包括给他们看八幅动物图片，并记住图片出现的先后次序。

　　实验结束后，研究人员要求这些老年人根据自己的记忆在电脑屏幕上按图片出现顺序点击动物图片。这些老年人表示这个实验很难，因为上一幅图片在他们脑子里挥之不去。

　　蒙特利尔肯考迪亚大学的马文•布莱尔说：“我们发现老年人不太容易忘掉过去的事情，正是这个原因导致了短期记忆障碍。”

　　第三项实验证明记不住东西并不是因为思维速度减缓。

　　即将获得博士学位的布莱尔称老年人似乎很难摒除无关信息，这让他们很难集中精力处理眼前的工作。他建议那些记不住东西的人放松身心，忘掉那些不重要的事情。

　　他说道：“忘掉不重要的记忆，才能做好当前的事情。”

　　通过学习语言或乐器都能保持大脑年轻态。