As for learning new things, and the ability to remember, studies by Dr. Jarvik and others show that the old are equal to the young. It is true that older people themselves often complain that their memory is not as good as it once was. However, much of what we call “loss of memory” is not that at all. There usually was incomplete learning in the first place. For example, the older person perhaps had trouble hearing, or poor vision, or inattention, or was trying to learn the new thing at too fast a pace.