IT IS one of life's eternal mysteries: why does it get ever more difficult to recall the name of the person you were just introduced to? Surely it is a no-brainer that our cognitive powers fade as we grow older? Research seems to back this up: as we age, our scores in tests of cognitive ability decline.
Is this picture really correct? When we applied the techniques we use to study language learning to this evidence, we came to a different conclusion. In fact, counter-intuitively, many of these lower scores reflect cognitive improvement.
To illustrate the point, let's look at a test often used to measure our ability to learn and recall new information, called paired associate learning (PAL). In this test, people learn word pairs. Some are easy, baby-cries; others harder, obey-eagle. People perform worse on this task as they get older, supporting the conclusion that learning ability ...
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.
