Making a change
How easy is it for us to change our lives - and why?
In 1990, a young American named Christopher McCandless gave up his career plans, left behind everyone he knew, including his family, and went off on an adventure. He was 22 at the time. In an act of kindness, he donated all his savings to the famous charity, Oxfam International, and hitchhiked his way through America to Alaska. His decisions were so unusual for his age that Jon Krakauer wrote a book about them called Into the Wild, and Sean Penn directed a film that had the same title.
Of course, this is an unusual story. Most college graduates would not do quite the same thing. However, studies do show that in teenage years, people are more likely to try out new experiences. Instead of following the family career path, for example, and working his way up the same organisation like his grandfather did, a 15-year-old may dream about becoming a traveller - only to find in his early 20s that this fascination with new places is declining and change is less attractive. This age-related trend can be observed in all cultures.
The reason why people all over the world become less keen to change as they get older may be because people’s lives generally follow similar patterns and involve similar demands. Most people, wherever they are, aim to find a job and a partner. As they get older, they may have young children to look after and possibly elderly family members. These responsibilities cannot be achieved without some degree of consistency, which means that new experiences and ideas may not have a place in the person’s life. New experiences may bring excitement but also insecurity, and so most people prefer to stay with the familiar.
However, not every individual is the same. One toddler may want to play a different game every day and get fed up if nothing changes at the nursery. Another may seek out and play with the same children and toys on every visit. Young children who avoid new experiences will grow up to be more conventional than others. Psychologists argue that those who have more open personalities as children are more open than others might be when they are older. They also suggest that young men have a greater interest in novelty than women, although, as they age, this desire for new experiences fades more quickly than it does in women.
The truth is that, as we get older, we prefer the things we know. We tend to order the same meals in restaurants, sit on the same side of the train when we commute to work, go on holiday to the same places and construct our day in the same way. If you are older than 20, remember that your openness to new experiences is slowly declining.
So you are better off making a new start today than postponing it until later.
REDUCE ERRORS IN MEMORY
Sleep may reduce mistakes in memory, according to a first-of-its-kind study led by a scientist at Michigan State University.
The findings, which appear in the September issue of the journal Learning El Memory, have practical implications for many people, from students doing multiple-choice tests to elderly people confusing their medicine, says Kimberly Fenn, principal investigator and assistant professor of psychology.
‘It’s easy to muddle things in your mind,’ Fenn says. This research suggests that after sleep, you’re better able to pick out the incorrect parts of that memory.’ Fenn and colleagues from the University of Chicago and Washington University in St Louis studied the presence of incorrect or false memory in groups of college students. While previous research has shown that sleep improves memory, this study is the first one that looks at errors in memory, she said.
Study participants were ‘trained’ by being shown or listening to lists of words. Then, twelve hours later, they were shown individual words and asked to identify which words they had seen or heard in the earlier session. One group of students was trained at 10 a.m. and tested at 10 p.m. after the course of a normal sleepless day. Another group was trained at night and tested twelve hours later in the morning, after about six hours of sleep. Three experiments were conducted. In each experiment, the results showed that students who had slept did not have as many problems with false memory and chose fewer incorrect words.
How does sleep help? The answer isn’t known, Fenn said, but she suspects it may be due to sleep strengthening the source of the memory. The source, or context in which the information is acquired, is a vital element of the memory process.
In other words, it may be easier to remember something if you can also remember where you first heard or saw it. Or perhaps the people who didn’t sleep as much during the study received so much other information during the day that this affected their memory ability, Fenn said.
Further research is needed, she said, adding that she plans to study different population groups, particularly the elderly. ‘We know older individuals generally have worse memory performance than younger individuals.
We also know from other research that elderly individuals tend to be more prone to false memories,’ Fenn said. ‘Given the work we’ve done, it’s possible that sleep may actually help them to reject this false information. And potentially this could help to improve their quality of life.’
Part 1
Questions 1-6
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in the reading passage?
Write:
YES – if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO – if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN – if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
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Teenagers are more ready to have new experiences than young adults.
1 -
Grandparents usually encourage their grandchildren to get a well-paid job.
2 -
Life demands are different depending on which country you live in.
3 -
Some toddlers find repetitive activities boring.
4 -
Children who dislike new experiences become more adventurous than others as adults.
5 -
If you want to change something in your life, you should avoid delay.
6
Part 2
Questions 7-11
Complete the summary using the list of words and phrases, A-J, below.
Fenn’s Memory Experiments
The groups in the study saw or heard lists of words at 7
times of the day. After 8
hours, the groups tried to identify these words correctly in a test. Before the test, one group had 9
sleep and chose the words in the evening. The other group had their test in the morning.
In three experiments, the results were 10
the groups that had slept during the experiment remembered 11
words correctly than the other groups.
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A
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more
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F
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ten
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|
B
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complex
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G
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different
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|
C
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12
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H
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no
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D
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six
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I
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fewer
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E
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less
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J
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the same
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