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202 PILLAR 2 Development and Learningtasks such as taking medicine every day and time-oriented tasks such as appointments, also declines in older adults.33%u201335It is important to note that in all these studies we are talking about average tendencies. I know people in their seventies who have incredible memories for historical facts and events. On the flip side, I have teenage students who can%u2019t seem to remember the difference between the work of Erikson and Kohlberg, even though they just read about them. Likewise, I%u2019ve known 60-yearolds who can solve complex crossword puzzles faster than my students, but I also know of other people in their sixties who have much more trouble learning Spanish than eighth-graders. So, how does aging affect our ability to think and learn?For most people, aging leads to both losses and gains. We simultaneously lose recall memory and processing speed, but gain vocabulary and knowledge (refer back to Figure 12.3).36,37 Compared with teens and young adults, older people take a bit more time to react, to solve perceptual puzzles, even to remember names.38,39 Perhaps that%u2019s why I am no match for my 19-year-old niece at video games. But I%u2019m better at my niece at trivia games, because I%u2019ve read a lot more books, watched more movies, and accumulated a lot more knowledge and skills.With age, social reasoning skills increase; we are better able to consider different perspectives, to appreciate knowledge limits, and to use our accumulated wisdom.40 Perhaps this is why most chief executive officers of companies and international leaders are in the latter half of their life span. Similarly, literature, like William Shakespeare%u2019s play Julius Caesar, often depicts sages as older people who dole out advice for everyone to follow. Professions that favor one type of intelligence over another also differ in their patterns of creativity. Historians and philosophers tend to produce their best work in their forties, fifties, and sixties, whereas mathematicians, musicians, and scientists often do their most creative work in their twenties and thirties.41,42You may be wondering if there%u2019s anything people can do to keep their minds sharp as they age. There is evidence to support the notion that the more education you get earlier in life, the better off your cognitive skills will be later in life.43 But there is healthy debate as to whether any of the %u201cbrain fitness%u201d problem-solving exercises actually help an older person perform better on cognitive tests. Perhaps because I play several online puzzles each day, I frequently see ads in my newsfeeds for games that can %u201chelp improve memory by 30 percent%u201d in people my age. Psychological research does not support such claims.44,45 Repeatedly playing a certain game might make me better at that game (or similar games), but it won%u2019t improve my performance on other tasks.4624201612840Numberof wordsrememberedAge in years20 30 40 6050 70Number of wordsrecognized is stablewith ageNumber of wordsrecalled declineswith ageFIGURE 12.3 Better at RecognitionIn late adulthood, the ability to recognize words does not decrease as rapidly as the ability to recall words. (Data from Schonfield & Robertson, 1966.)MAKE IT STICK!1. Which of the following intelligence-related tasks would probably be harder for older people than youngerpeople?a. Remembering their anniversaryb. Recalling the name of someone they made an appointment with last weekc. Recognizing a picture of their kindergarten teacherd. Determining whether a picture of an object matches the label of the object2. Which of the following tasks would probably be harder for younger people than older people?a. Listing 50 words that were just shown on flash cardsb. Putting a jigsaw puzzle togetherc. Solving a crossword puzzled. Figuring out the answer to a new logic problem3. Barring a neurocognitive disorder such as Alzheimer%u2019s disease or dementia, which of the following tends to improve as we get older?a. Vocabularyb. Memory and recallc. Processing speedd. Visual acuity%u00a9 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Do not distribute.