ABSTRACT
A competent marmoset would not be seduced by a madeleine to remember past times. It would instantly recognise, seize and gobble one of the vast class of marmoset foods. Responding immediately and appropriately to each of the millions of different things in the world is a marvellous achievement for monkeys and mankind. Larger brains to store memories and the computing power to make use of them did not develop to replay the past but to anticipate the future. All the volunteers who discussed their memory problems with us felt that aging had particularly affected their immediate or short-term memories. Old age seems to have little effect on unaltered recall for sequences of simple items, but it does sharply degrade working memory. A good example of the limitations of working memory is the so-called “Cocktail Party Problem” of making sense of what two different people say simultaneously.
