Take Our Aging Quiz
How much do you know about growing older? Is it true that your heredity will determine how long you live? Is it false that your vocabulary will grow as you age? Test yourself on the basic facts and the latest research on aging.
Click on each link below to see the answer to the True-False question.
Vocabulary improves as you age.
True.
Despite “senior moments,” neuroscientists say older brains work better than younger ones in some ways. Your vocabulary, for instance, should keep growing in later life if you continue to read, according to psychologist Arthur Kramer of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Your fund of expert knowledge–what you’ve learned about your occupation or hobbies–should also hold up well. Kramer believes this may partly explain why air-traffic controllers in their 60s do as well or better than co-workers in their 30s on tests that require them to manage a number of planes simultaneously and react to emergencies.
Older people also have other cognitive advantages. Studies indicate that when confronted with a new problem, instead of having to work it out step by step as younger, less experienced individuals do, elders can quickly tap into a fund of what psychologists call “cognitive templates,” mental outlines of generic problems and the solutions that worked in the past. In addition, elders can more easily separate what’s important from what’s not, and research done by psychologist Thomas Hess of North Carolina State University indicates that they’re better at judging character, as well.
Begley, Sharon. “Good news for the aging brain.” Daily Herald, Oct. 28, 2007.
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