Submission + - Older = Wiser? Positive effects of aging on memory (utoronto.ca) 1
Cludge writes: The news service of the University of Toronto reports a study on changes in memory skills that occur with age. Apparently, older brains have a weakened ability to filter out irrelevant information. But this may actually give aging adults a memory advantage over their younger counterparts. In computer-based memory tasks, in which words were paired with pictures, "The older adults showed a 30 per cent advantage over younger adults in their memory" for the paired words and pictures. "As this type of knowledge is thought to play a critical role in real world decision- making, older adults may be the wiser decision-makers compared to younger adults..."