Slide 8 of 14
Notes:
--The prevailing scientific belief has been that the brain is fully developed by the time we are young adults. However, recent research shows that ìwhite matterî of the brain, that is the transmission lines that send signals from one part of the brain to others, continues to develop on average until approximately the age of 50. And, there are no major decrements registered before the age of 80. [This suggests that people at mid-life have much different brains from people at 20. The brain at 50 is a much better ìcomputerî than the one at 20. And oneís ìcomputerî does not automatically ìfall apartî afterwards.]
--In two experiments designed to compare reading comprehension of younger adults (average age19) and educationally equivalent older adults (average age 72), it was found that there was no strong age difference in reading speed. Furthermore, though the older adults were less able than the young people to recognize specific passages in the text, they were better able to comprehend what the test was about. One interpretation is that the older adults were more likely to make inferences beyond the actual text to probable events than were the younger people. It is also possible that over time people become more effective at distilling the important details from the mass of information.
