PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Older brains slow due to greater experience, rather than cognitive decline

2014-01-21
(Press-News.org) Contact information: Ben Norman
Sciencenewsroom@wiley.com
44-012-437-70375
Wiley
Older brains slow due to greater experience, rather than cognitive decline What happens to our cognitive abilities as we age? Traditionally it is thought that age leads to a steady deterioration of brain function, but new research in Topics in Cognitive Science argues that older brains may take longer to process ever increasing amounts of knowledge, and this has often been misidentified as declining capacity.

The study, led by Dr. Michael Ramscar of the University of Tuebingen, takes a critical look at the measures that are usually thought to show that our cognitive abilities decline across adulthood. Instead of finding evidence of decline, the team discovered that most standard cognitive measures are flawed, confusing increased knowledge for declining capacity.

Dr. Ramscar's team used computers, programmed to act as though they were humans, to read a certain amount each day, learning new things along the way. When the researchers let a computer 'read' a limited amount, its performance on cognitive tests resembled that of a young adult.

However, if the same computer was exposed data which represented a lifetime of experiences its performance looked like that of an older adult. Often it was slower, not because its processing capacity had declined, but because increased "experience" had caused the computer's database to grow, giving it more data to process, and that processing takes time.

"What does this finding mean for our understanding of our ageing minds, for example older adults' increased difficulties with word recall? These are traditionally thought to reveal how our memory for words deteriorates with age, but Big Data adds a twist to this idea," said Dr. Ramscar. "Technology now allows researchers to make quantitative estimates about the number of words an adult can be expected to learn across a lifetime, enabling the team to separate the challenge that increasing knowledge poses to memory from the actual performance of memory itself."

"Imagine someone who knows two people's birthdays and can recall them almost perfectly. Would you really want to say that person has a better memory than a person who knows the birthdays of 2000 people, but can 'only' match the right person to the right birthday nine times out of ten?" asks Ramscar.

"It is time we rethink what we mean by the aging mind before our false assumptions result in decisions and policies that marginalize the old or waste precious public resources to remediate problems that do not exist," said Topics in Cognitive Science, Editors Wayne Gray and Thomas Hills.

INFORMATION:

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Depressive symptoms linked to adult-onset asthma in African-American women

2014-01-21
Depressive symptoms linked to adult-onset asthma in African-American women (Boston) – According to a new study from the Slone Epidemiology Center (SEC) at Boston University, African-American women who reported high levels of depressive symptoms had ...

How to improve HPV vaccination rates? It starts with physicians, Moffitt researchers say

2014-01-21
How to improve HPV vaccination rates? It starts with physicians, Moffitt researchers say Consistent recommendations from family doctors lacking The risk of developing cervical cancer can be significantly decreased through human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. ...

Great Lakes evaporation study dispels misconceptions, need for expanded monitoring program

2014-01-21
Great Lakes evaporation study dispels misconceptions, need for expanded monitoring program ANN ARBOR—The recent Arctic blast that gripped much of the nation will likely contribute to a healthy rise in Great Lakes water levels in 2014, new research shows. But the processes ...

The brain's RAM

2014-01-21
The brain's RAM Rats, like humans, have a 'working memory' In computers it's called "RAM", but the mechanism is conceptually similar to what scientists call a "working memory" in the brain of humans and primates: when we interact ...

Vancouver: Nearby Georgia basin may amplify ground shaking from next quake

2014-01-21
Vancouver: Nearby Georgia basin may amplify ground shaking from next quake SAN FRANCISCO -- Tall buildings, bridges and other long-period structures in Greater Vancouver may experience greater shaking from large (M 6.8 +) earthquakes than previously ...

January/February 2014 Annals of Family Medicine tip sheet

2014-01-21
January/February 2014 Annals of Family Medicine tip sheet Self-rated Health an Efficient and Effective Predictor of Long-Term Depression Risk Self-rated health appears to be a strong and consistent predictor of the risk of future depression in patients ...

Embargoed news: Evidence that access to guns increases suicide and homicide

2014-01-21
Embargoed news: Evidence that access to guns increases suicide and homicide Annals of Internal Medicine tip sheet for January 21, 2014 1. Evidence that access to firearms significantly increases odds of suicide and homicide Having access to a gun in the ...

Uninsured patients less likely to be transferred between hospitals, Pitt researchers find

2014-01-21
Uninsured patients less likely to be transferred between hospitals, Pitt researchers find PITTSBURGH, Jan. 20, 2013 – Uninsured patients with a variety of common medical diagnoses are significantly less likely to be transferred ...

Access to guns increases risk of suicide, homicide

2014-01-21
Access to guns increases risk of suicide, homicide UCSF meta-analysis finds women at greater risk of being killed Someone with access to firearms is three times more likely to commit suicide and nearly twice as likely to be the victim of a ...

Made in China for us: Air pollution tied to exports

2014-01-21
Made in China for us: Air pollution tied to exports Study finds blowback causes extra day per year of ozone smog in LA Chinese air pollution blowing across the Pacific Ocean is often caused by the manufacturing of goods for export to the U.S. and Europe, ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

A new perspective in bone metabolism: Targeting the lysosome–iron–mitochondria axis for osteoclast regulation

Few military spouses use formal support services during, after deployment

Breakthrough in the hunt for light dark matter: QROCODILE project reveals world-leading constraints

2D x-ray imaging technique reveals hidden processes in CO2 electrolyzers

Rational high entropy doping strategy via modular in-situ/post solvothermal doping integration for microwave absorption

Circular Economy has been officially included in the ESCI

Recent advances in exciton-polariton in perovskite

Efficacy and safety of GLP-1 RAs in children and adolescents with obesity or type 2 diabetes

Over-the-counter sales of overdose reversal drug naloxone decline after initial surge

Global trends and disparities in social isolation

Country of birth, race, ethnicity, and prenatal depression

Kissick Family Foundation, Milken Institute announce $2 million in funding for frontotemporal dementia research and new call for proposals

Mayo Clinic study reveals hidden causes of heart attacks in younger adults, especially women

Target: BP initiative helps more than 10M adults with hypertension

New initiative launched to improve care for people with certain types of heart failure

You’ve never seen corn like this before

Mediterranean diet could reduce gum disease

Mount Sinai launches cardiac catheterization artificial intelligence research lab

Why AI is never going to run the world

Stress in the strands: Hair offers clues to children’s mental health

UCLA distinguished professor, CVD researcher to receive 2025 Basic Research Prize

UT San Antonio School of Public Health: The People’s School

‘Preventable deaths will continue’ without action to make NHS more accessible for autistic people, say experts

Scientists shoot lasers into brain cells to uncover how illusions work

Your ecosystem engineer was a dinosaur

New digital cognitive test for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease

Parents of children with health conditions less confident about a positive school year

New guideline standardizes consent for research participants in Canada

Research as reconciliation: Oil sands and health

AI risks overwriting history and the skills of historians have never been more important, leading academic outlines in new paper

[Press-News.org] Older brains slow due to greater experience, rather than cognitive decline