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Older people have poorer memories because they are more likely to get distracted, a study has found (file picture)

Older people have poorer memories because they are more likely to get distracted, a study has found.

Researchers said that the elderly are prone to 'senior moments' because their ability to hold thoughts in their head deteriorates with age.

This decline in their 'working memory capacity' means that when the phone rings or the doorbell goes they completely forget what they were just doing.

The researchers say that the findings identify one of the key mechanisms of forgetfulness and could change how the elderly approach different tasks.

Lead researcher Dr Fiona McNab of the Birmingham University school of psychology said: 'These results indicate that when older adults hold information in mind, that information is particularly vulnerable to distraction.

'Perhaps as a way to compensate for this, the way information is put into memory changes.

'Whether they are being distracted or not, older adults seem to approach the task of putting information in their mind as if they are being distracted.'

The researchers released their conclusions as part of The Great Brain Experiment, an ongoing crowd sourced study into brain activity started by the Wellcome Trust.

Participants download a free app and play games that test the power of their mind.

The results are sent to researchers via the phone.

The researchers looked at scores from nearly 30,000 adults aged 18 to 69 who took part.

In one game, users had to remember where red lights flashed on a board.

As the game went on, more and more lights appeared until players started making mistakes.

This told the researchers how many items they could hold in mind – their 'working memory capacity'.

The game then made it harder by flashing yellow lights which the players had to ignore.

The findings showed that younger players were good at ignoring the yellow lights, but older players got distracted and could not remember how many red lights there were.

Researchers said that the elderly are prone to 'senior moments' because their ability to hold thoughts in their head deteriorates with age (file picture)

Dr McNab said the decline in memory among the elderly was especially apparent in what she called 'delay distraction'.

This was when people had been asked to memorize something and were distracted afterwards, such as when they were shown yellow lights instead of red.

Dr McNab suggested that cognitive training and practicing cognitive tasks over a long period could help with stave off the decline in memory.

Previous studies have highlighted the extent to which our memory fails in old age.

A 16-17-year-old can hold an average of 6.5 numbers in mind for a short time, but this drops to five numbers for 75 to 79 year-olds.