HUBERMAN LAB · EXTRACTED

How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castel

How to remember more of what matters, slow cognitive aging, and why the brain learns better through failure than repetition.

▶36K views on YouTubePreview, 1 of 14 tactics free

With Dr. Alan Castel

"Good learning happens through making mistakes. Just seeing something many times doesn't mean you'll remember it well." — Dr. Alan Castel
Dr. Alan Castel, on the episode

Andrew Huberman sits down with Dr. Alan Castel, professor of psychology at UCLA and one of the world's leading researchers on human memory and cognitive aging. The pop framing of memory is that it works like a recording device: see something enough times and it sticks. The actual model is nearly the opposite. Memory is reconstructive, it is strengthened by failure and retrieval, and it is far more trainable across the lifespan than most people assume. This conversation pulls from Castel's decades of lab research and his book Better with Age to surface the operating principles behind how memory forms, what protects it as we get older, and what concrete actions can move the needle at any age.

Tactic 01

Dr. Alan Castel, Huberman Lab

Use Errorful Retrieval Before Re-Studying Anything

The play

Try to recall something from memory first, then compare it against the real thing.

Dr. Alan Castel says

I have students draw something like the Apple logo without looking at it first, and they struggle. That retrieval failure, followed by corrective feedback, is really beneficial for learning. When you then look at the actual thing again, you engage in better learning than if you had not done that errorful trial beforehand.

Try this

Before reviewing any material, try to recall or sketch it from memory first, then compare against the real thing to spot gaps.

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Tactic 02

Walk 30 to 40 Minutes Three to Four Times a Week to Protect Hippocampal Volume

Dr. Alan Castel says

Research assigned one group to walk three to four times a week for about 30 to 40 minutes and compared them to…

Episode quotes and Try this

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Tactic 03

Test Your Balance on One Leg to Catch Cognitive Decline Before It Starts

Tactic 04

Make People Find It Themselves

Tactic 06

Study Hotel Exit Maps With Your Feet, Not Your Eyes

Tactic 07

Spend About Five Hours A Week With Grandchildren To Sharpen Memory

Tactic 08

Recertify Skills You Haven't Used In Years

Tactic 09

Set A 3 To 5 Year Planning Horizon And Update As You Go

Tactic 10

Choose Stairs Over Escalators Every Time

Tactic 11

Don't Confuse Familiarity With Knowledge

Tactic 12

Create Links Between Arbitrary Information And Meaningful Contexts

Tactic 13

Deliberately Change Your Physical Environment And Seating Position

Tactic 14

Ask For Help When You Need It

Tactic 15

Stack The Modifiable Factors Against Cognitive Decline

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