年父老平日會遭到如許的褒揚：思惟迅速!老謀深算!睿智!在這些誇獎的暗地裏，是對某種器械的觀賞，科學家們一向很難描寫的器械：跟著年紀增加而加強的心智才能。
固然，在這個等式中，常識占了很大一部門。與年青人比擬，中老年人曉得的器械每每更多，由於他們活過的歲首更長，並且在辭匯測試、填字遊戲和其他“晶態智力”測試中，中老年人的得分也比擬高。
不外，年青人(主如果在失望的時刻)就教年父老，不但是為了匯集究竟、做填字遊戲，大概借用信譽卡。平日也不是為了辦理短時間影象或解謎方面的題目。這些才能稱為“液態智力”，在20多歲時到達峰值。
不，《生理科學》(Psychological Science)雜誌上的新論文表現，年父老的大腦可以供給更多的利益。社會斷定和短時間影象的一些元素是認知才能的主要構成部門，它們到達峰值的時光大概比人們以前以為的更晚一些。
麻省理工(MIT)博士後約書亞·哈茨霍恩(Joshua Hartshorne)和哈佛(Harvard)和馬薩諸塞州總病院(Massachusetts General Hospital)博士後勞拉·傑米恩(Laura Germine)剖析了大批由全部年紀段加入的認知測試數據，發如今觸及年紀的認知上，籠統的兩分法——年青人液態智力高，年父老晶態智力高——掩飾了一些主要的渺小差異。
“初期到達岑嶺和較晚時刻到達岑嶺，這類兩分法太大略了，”哈茨霍恩博士說。“別的還存在許多的模式，咱們須要斟酌這些身分，來充足懂得年紀對認知的影響。”
諸多科學文獻談到了和年紀有關的認知才能降低，這篇新論文既不是對相幹結論的第一個挑釁，也不會是末了一個。一年前，德國科學家宣稱，年紀增加的認知“缺點”在很大水平上是由常識的積聚釀成的——也便是說，大腦速率減慢，是由於它須要在一個更大的腦部信息庫裏搜刮器械。這個說法已在科學界引發了一些爭辯。
一些專家稱，這份新的剖析成果提出了一個分歧的題目：在影象力和認知才能中，有無一些不同凡響的自力的元素，是在性命中的分歧時候到達峰值的?
“我以為要證實這一點，他們還須要做更多事情，”德克薩斯州大學達拉斯分校(University of Texas at Dallas)行動與腦科學傳授丹尼斯·帕克(Denise Park)說。“但這篇論文已激發了評論辯論，它將對這一範疇發生影響。”
這個最新剖析成果的壯大的地方，必定水平上在於它所采取的數據。這份研討評估了有名的韋氏智力考試(Wechsler intelligence test)的汗青得分數據，將它們與數萬人更近期的測試成果舉行了比擬。這些介入者在作者的網站上舉行了簡短的認知測試，網址分離是testmybrain.org和gameswithwords.org。賓夕法尼亞州立大學(Penn State)的研討職員K·瓦爾納·沙依(K. Warner Schaie)說，這類辦法的缺點在於，因為它不是追蹤統一批人在人生各個階段的情形，是以大概疏忽了分歧文化閱歷發生的影響。
但是，以往的多半研討都沒有到達如斯大的範圍，也沒有籠罩這麽廣的年紀段。網站上的介入者年紀在10歲到89歲之間，他們介入了大批的測試，評估了對抽象標記和數字串的影象力、辦理題目的才能，和依據眼神解讀生疏情面緒的才能。
一樣主要的是，研討職員視察了年紀對每項測試的影響。以往的研討常常把相幹的測試分為一組，想固然地以為它們捕獲到了一項根本屬性，就像鍛練可以依據一小我的速率、力氣和彈跳才能評估他的活動才能同樣。
這類新辦法的成果若何?“咱們發明分歧的才能切實其實會在分歧的年紀臻於成熟，”傑米恩說。“它反應了人生中豐碩很多的變更，而不但是朽邁。”
傑米恩博士和哈茨霍恩博士證明，信息處置速率——猶如腦筋中有一塊素描板，一小我在上面處置數字、單詞或圖象的速率——根本上在十八九歲的時刻到達峰值;對一些工作的影象力，好比對一些名字的影象，會在20歲出頭的時刻到達巔峰。但這個素描板的容量，即事情影象，最少還要10年以後能力到達峰值，並且降低的速率很慢。特殊值得一提的是，研討發明，影象一些人的長相和默算的才能，會在30歲上下到達峰值，“這個究竟很難用液態/晶態的智力二分法來說明。”
研討職員還剖析了“眼神讀心才能測試”的成果。在這項測試中，測試者須要看著盤算機屏幕上生疏人眼睛的照片，從一些選項當選出他們的心境，好比“遲疑”、“不肯定”和“疑惑”。
“這個測試並不易，你做完以後內心沒底，”傑米恩說。“我認為我做的很糟，但現實上成就相稱不錯。”但是研討發明，四五十歲的人成就最佳，並且跟著年紀的進一步增加，這類才能降低得非常遲緩。
這些發明所反應的情形是，年父老的大腦的運轉速率比年青時慢，但在很多範疇一樣靈敏，並且更善於發覺別人的情感——不但是常識更廣博了。斟酌到人們做出的很多主要決議都邑親密地影響別人，這是一個不錯的狀況。
沒人須要一位認知科學家來告知本身，為何在老板心境好的時刻，更合適找他談漲薪。但年長一些的人大概加倍善於防止人際幹系上的誤判，和敷衍辣手的局勢。
“好比，‘誰人人看不慣你思惟太快，那種年青人的信息處置速率——他就要給你一拳了，’”密歇根大學的生理學傳授紮克·漢布裏克(Zach Hambrick)說。
漢布裏克和其他專家說，大腦朽邁過程當中更龐雜情形的細節還很不清晰，眼神讀心才能等社會化權衡尺度也沒有被大批用於此類研討。別的，最新的剖析成果也沒有告知咱們，認知才能隨年紀增加而產生的轉變是單一身分——好比神經傳輸速率的降低——照樣多種緣故原由釀成的。
但就今朝而言，這項新研討最少給“老謀深算”這個空泛的形容詞付與了一些意義。
Behind all those canned compliments for older adults — spry! wily! wise! — is an appreciation for something that scientists have had a hard time characterizing: mental faculties that improve with age.
Knowledge is a large part of the equation, of course. People who are middle-aged and older tend to know more than young adults, by virtue of having been around longer, and score higher on vocabulary tests, crossword puzzles and other measures of so-called crystallized intelligence.
Still, young adults who consult their elders (mostly when desperate) don’t do so just to gather facts, solve crosswords or borrow a credit card. Nor, generally, are they looking for help with short-term memory or puzzle solving. Those abilities, called fluid intelligence, peak in the 20s.
No, the older brain offers something more, according to a new paper in the journal Psychological Science. Elements of social judgment and short-term memory, important pieces of the cognitive puzzle, may peak later in life than previously thought.
The postdoctoral fellows Joshua Hartshorne of M.I.T. and Laura Germine of Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital analyzed a huge trove of scores on cognitive tests taken by people of all ages. The researchers found that the broad split in age-related cognition — fluid in the young, crystallized in the old — masked several important nuances.
“This dichotomy between early peaks and later peaks is way too coarse,” Dr. Hartshorne said. “There are a lot more patterns going on, and we need to take those into account to fully understand the effects of age on cognition.”
The new paper is hardly the first challenge to the scientific literature on age-related decline, and it won’t be the last. A year ago, German scientists argued that cognitive “deficits” in aging were caused largely by the accumulation of knowledge — that is, the brain slows down because it has to search a larger mental library of facts. That idea has stirred some debate among scientists.
Experts said the new analysis raised a different question: Are there distinct, independent elements of memory and cognition that peak at varying times of life?
“I think they have more work to do to demonstrate that that’s the case,” said Denise Park, a professor of behavior and brain science at the University of Texas at Dallas. “But this is a provocative paper, and it’s going to have an impact on the field.”
The strength of the new analysis is partly in its data. The study evaluated historic scores from the popular Wechsler intelligence test, and compared them with more recent results from tens of thousands of people who took short cognitive tests on the authors’ websites, testmybrain.org and gameswithwords.org. The one drawback of this approach is that, because it didn’t follow the same people over a lifetime, it might have missed the effect of different cultural experiences, said K. Warner Schaie, a researcher at Penn State University.
But most previous studies have not been nearly as large, or had such a range of ages. Participants on the websites were 10 to 89 years old, and they took a large battery of tests, measuring skills like memory for abstract symbols and strings of digits, problem solving, and facility reading emotions from strangers’ eyes.
At least as important, the researchers looked at the effect of age on each type of test. Previous research had often grouped related tests together, on the assumption that they captured a single underlying attribute in the same way a coach might rate, say, athleticism based on a person’s speed, strength and vertical leaping ability.
The result of the new approach? “We found different abilities really maturing or ripening at different ages,” Dr. Germine said. “It’s a much richer picture of the life span than just calling it aging.”
Processing speed — the quickness with which someone can manipulate digits, words or images, as if on a mental sketch board — generally peaks in the late teens, Dr. Germine and Dr. Hartshorne confirmed, and memory for some things, like names, does so in the early 20s. But the capacity of that sketch board, called working memory, peaks at least a decade later and is slow to decline. In particular, the ability to recall faces and do some mental manipulation of numbers peaked about age 30, the study found, “a fact difficult to assimilate into the fluid/crystalized intelligence dichotomy.”
The researchers also analyzed results from the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test. The test involves looking at snapshots of strangers’ eyes on a computer screen and determining their moods from a menu of options like “tentative,” “uncertain” and “skeptical.”
“It’s not an easy test, and you’re not sure afterward how well you did,” Dr. Germine said. “I thought I’d done poorly but in fact did pretty well.” Yet people in their 40s or 50s consistently did the best, the study found, and the skill declined very slowly later in life.
The picture that emerges from these findings is of an older brain that moves more slowly than its younger self, but is just as accurate in many areas and more adept at reading others’ moods — on top of being more knowledgeable. That’s a handy combination, given that so many important decisions people make intimately affects others.
No one needs a cognitive scientist to explain that it’s better to approach a boss about a raise when he or she is in a good mood. But the older mind may be better able to head off interpersonal misjudgments and to navigate tricky situations.
“As in, ‘that person’s not happy with all your quick thinking and young person’s processing speed — he’s about to punch you,’” said Zach Hambrick, a psychology professor at Michigan State University.
The details of this more textured picture of the aging brain are still far from clear, and social measures like the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test have not been used much in this kind of research, Dr. Hambrick and other experts said. And it is not apparent from the new analysis whether changes in cognition with age result from a single cause — like a decline in the speed of neural transmission — or to multiple ones.
But for now, the new research at least gives some meaning to the empty adjective “wily.”
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