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It is believed that our mental capacity reaches its maximum by the age of twenty or so, after which a gradual decline begins: we begin to remember worse, think slower, etc. However, in reality, as psychologists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found out, the dynamics of cognitive functions looks more difficult - in the sense that different abilities have their own age peaks, so that some of them reach their full bloom, for example, at 40 years of age and later.
In fact, the belief that young brains do better at all is reinforced by many scientific works in which university students were the "raw material" for cognitive experiments. As for people who would have already passed their student years, but have not yet become old people, it is much more difficult to get them into the laboratory - after all, an ordinary adult has many other concerns besides being material for experiments.
However, this methodological bias was helped to eliminate the worldwide web. Laura Germine and her colleagues posted cognitive tests on two websites that could be completed in minutes. As a result, over several years, it was possible to collect data on 3 million people of all ages. The processing of such a sea of information resulted in somewhat unexpected results: for example, in 2011, researchers published an article in which they argued that the ability to recognize faces does not peak at 20, but at 30 and a little later, and only then begins to weaken. The same is the case with short-term visual memory.
At first, psychologists thought there might be something wrong with their own networked method of gathering information about cognitive abilities. They turned to data obtained decades ago as part of a large project to measure intelligence, the peculiarity of which was that three dozen different components could be tracked here, from the ability to add puzzles to oral counting. To them, Laura Germin and her colleagues applied their own method, which made it possible to assess the level of each of the abilities at a particular age. And again it turned out that there is no single peak in the region of 20 years, on the contrary, different cognitive skills reach their maximum at different times of life.
Psychologists cross-checked the results obtained on a larger sample of Internet users: 50,000 people passed several tests that were supposed to determine four cognitive parameters. It turned out that the speed of information processing grows up to 18-19 years old and then immediately begins to decline. Short-term memory increases up to 25 years old and remains in the same state until about 35 years old. But the ability to assess the emotional state of other people - which, in general, can also be considered the highest cognitive ability - reaches its peak at 40-50 years old. The most curious result turned out to be associated with the "vocabulary parameter", which shows how extensive a person's memory is. In earlier works, the maximum here was in the second half of the fifties, but new data showed that it is even later, at the 70-year boundary - that is, a modern person accumulates information almost to the end of his life. Perhaps this is due to the fact that now people study longer and better, they have to read more, and older people can now lead richer lives (including intellectually rich ones). The research results will be published in Psychological Science.
Keep in mind, however, that socioeconomic conditions affect our intelligence. In other words, the results obtained now need to be supported by sociological research, which would take into account the level of education, place of work and other important parameters. On the other hand, it would be good to know the biological basis of such a change in cognitive peaks - it is obvious that it cannot do without genetic factors, on which the plasticity of the brain also strongly depends.
It is also worth noting that this is not the first work in which the influence of age on higher nervous activity does not seem so unambiguously bad. For example, in 2011, an article was published in the journal Child Development, the authors of which argued that the elderly brain is not inferior to the accuracy of the young brain, and the lower speed is explained by the fact that in old age the nervous system takes longer to check its own decision. That, however, does not prevent the old brain from being "overclocked" so much that it will even overtake the young. On the other hand, it is known that rearrangements in the pathways of the brain last almost all life, in accordance with changing cognitive tasks. Of course, no one doubts that some mental functions do deteriorate with age, but it is hardly worth talking about total cognitive decrepitude.
In fact, the belief that young brains do better at all is reinforced by many scientific works in which university students were the "raw material" for cognitive experiments. As for people who would have already passed their student years, but have not yet become old people, it is much more difficult to get them into the laboratory - after all, an ordinary adult has many other concerns besides being material for experiments.
However, this methodological bias was helped to eliminate the worldwide web. Laura Germine and her colleagues posted cognitive tests on two websites that could be completed in minutes. As a result, over several years, it was possible to collect data on 3 million people of all ages. The processing of such a sea of information resulted in somewhat unexpected results: for example, in 2011, researchers published an article in which they argued that the ability to recognize faces does not peak at 20, but at 30 and a little later, and only then begins to weaken. The same is the case with short-term visual memory.
At first, psychologists thought there might be something wrong with their own networked method of gathering information about cognitive abilities. They turned to data obtained decades ago as part of a large project to measure intelligence, the peculiarity of which was that three dozen different components could be tracked here, from the ability to add puzzles to oral counting. To them, Laura Germin and her colleagues applied their own method, which made it possible to assess the level of each of the abilities at a particular age. And again it turned out that there is no single peak in the region of 20 years, on the contrary, different cognitive skills reach their maximum at different times of life.
Psychologists cross-checked the results obtained on a larger sample of Internet users: 50,000 people passed several tests that were supposed to determine four cognitive parameters. It turned out that the speed of information processing grows up to 18-19 years old and then immediately begins to decline. Short-term memory increases up to 25 years old and remains in the same state until about 35 years old. But the ability to assess the emotional state of other people - which, in general, can also be considered the highest cognitive ability - reaches its peak at 40-50 years old. The most curious result turned out to be associated with the "vocabulary parameter", which shows how extensive a person's memory is. In earlier works, the maximum here was in the second half of the fifties, but new data showed that it is even later, at the 70-year boundary - that is, a modern person accumulates information almost to the end of his life. Perhaps this is due to the fact that now people study longer and better, they have to read more, and older people can now lead richer lives (including intellectually rich ones). The research results will be published in Psychological Science.
Keep in mind, however, that socioeconomic conditions affect our intelligence. In other words, the results obtained now need to be supported by sociological research, which would take into account the level of education, place of work and other important parameters. On the other hand, it would be good to know the biological basis of such a change in cognitive peaks - it is obvious that it cannot do without genetic factors, on which the plasticity of the brain also strongly depends.
It is also worth noting that this is not the first work in which the influence of age on higher nervous activity does not seem so unambiguously bad. For example, in 2011, an article was published in the journal Child Development, the authors of which argued that the elderly brain is not inferior to the accuracy of the young brain, and the lower speed is explained by the fact that in old age the nervous system takes longer to check its own decision. That, however, does not prevent the old brain from being "overclocked" so much that it will even overtake the young. On the other hand, it is known that rearrangements in the pathways of the brain last almost all life, in accordance with changing cognitive tasks. Of course, no one doubts that some mental functions do deteriorate with age, but it is hardly worth talking about total cognitive decrepitude.
