We’ve all been there. We’ve forgotten someone’s name or come up blank trying to remember ...

Wait, what?

Turns out there’s a reason for those mental slipups. There is evidence to support that age-related cognitive decline in healthy adults begins in their late 20s after peaking in their early 20s, according to a study by the University of Virginia in the April 2009 issue of “Neurobiology of Aging.”

Susan Kemper, professor of psychology, said every form of cognitive ability peaks in our early to mid 20s and then shows an age-related decline. These cognitive abilities include: memory, problem solving, attention and language. She said some people’s cognitive abilities peaked earlier than others and some declined more rapidly.

Working memory, often referred to as short-term memory, peaks in the early 20s and then declines rapidly, Kemper said. This type of memory, she said, is how we remember information in terms of seconds and minutes versus long term memory’s days, weeks and years.

Graham Lakey, Kansas City, Kan., senior, said he noticed his short-term memory was beginning to slowly fade during his time at the University. He said when a teacher asked him to recall information in class, he had a difficult time doing so.

“Now, I have to actually work at it, whereas before it would just click,” Lakey said.

Kemper said there was evidence that conscious efforts could slow down the normal deterioration of age-related cognitive abilities.

“We want to build better brains through training, education and experience so people may be able to have a longer window before those age-related declines start to handicap them and impair their everyday performance,” Kemper said.

Sara Troll, Overland Park junior, said she rarely forgot day-to-day details. She attributes her keen memory to not watching television and not having the Internet at her apartment.

“That helps with memory because if I’m watching TV all the time or on the Internet, I tend to space out,” Troll said.

To enhance her memory, Troll plays a game called Geo Challenge once every couple days. She said it was an interactive geography game which required memorization to match a country with its flag and locate countries on a map.

Along with mental stimulation, diet and exercise also build better minds and help slow down the rate of decline, Kemper said.

“Anything that’s good for the heart is also good for the mind,” she said.

Kemper said there was interest in discovering other ways that memory could be improved. Antioxidants, which can be found in items such as blueberries and green tea, have the potential to slow the rate of cognitive decline as well, she said.

Developing training programs for people with memory problems is a future endeavor that Kemper hopes can be beneficial in restoring memory. She said there was work being done to develop pharmaceuticals that could build stronger brains and make brains more resistant to age-related decline.