It turned out that throughout our lives we alternately experience a surge, then a fading of various components of the intellect.
With the body, everything is more or less clear. After 30 years, our physical capabilities gradually decline. But what about the brains? At what age does the peak of intellectual activity occur? And when does the recession start? There are two opposing beliefs on this score. They are confident that wisdom comes only with old age. Supporters of youth chauvinism believe that the old dog can no longer be taught new tricks.
Harvard psychologist Joshua Hartshorne and Laura Jermyn of the University of Massachusetts Hospital have been studying how cognitive abilities change throughout life for more than 10 years. To obtain a large database from which to draw reliable conclusions, scientists used a new tool - viral Internet quizzes. On their initiative, research sites TestMyBrain.org and GamesWithWords.org were created. And experts who study the brain have developed and posted a huge number of cognitive tests on these sites. Data from more than 3 million volunteers from around the world were collected and processed using these tests.
The result is a clear picture of the peaks of cognitive abilities that accompany us practically throughout our entire conscious life.
Peaks of mental ability
18-19 years old. At this age, we reach the maximum speed of information processing. Thinking quickness means the time that lasts from the moment of receiving information (visual or speech) to the moment of its awareness and response. After 20 years, the processing speed immediately begins to decline.
25 years. The heyday of short-term memory. This is a kind of temporary "storage" that allows you to keep an operational amount of information in your head until it is either forgotten as unnecessary or transferred into long-term memory. For the next 10 years, the capacity of this storage remains at its maximum, but after 35 years it will become increasingly difficult for us to keep in mind large amounts of data.
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30 years. At this age, our memory for faces works best. Then, meeting a person, we will more and more painfully remember: where did I see him before?
40-50 years old. Time for the flourishing of such superb ability as the ability to look into the soul of another person. Scientists call this "emotional perception." This skill is measured very simply: for example, volunteers are given a photo of a person's eyes and asked to determine what feelings he is experiencing: fear, joy, anxiety, bewilderment … Young people read "by the eyes" much worse. Interestingly, we keep this skill without loss of quality for up to 60 years.
60 years. Did you think at this moment the brain is going to rest? Nothing like this! At this age, vocabulary reaches the highest meaning. Moreover, in each next generation, the lexical maximum is found at all later ages. Scientists associate this with the fact that physical labor is gradually being replaced by mental labor. And people more and more have to wiggle their brains. They also receive better education and greater access to information.
60-70 years old. The heyday for crystallized intelligence. It is the ability to make decisions using accumulated life experience, knowledge about people, skills and long-term memory. Crystallized intelligence should be distinguished from mobile intelligence, which is responsible for learning something new, the ability to solve a problem, going beyond the limits of existing knowledge.
Thus, there is not a single age period when your intellectual abilities go through a complete crisis, sums up Joshua Hartshorne. At one stage in your life, you are better at solving some problems, and at another - others. And this is probably a good reason for optimism.
YAROSLAV KOROBATOV
