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We usually assume in advance that the older someone is, the slower they react to external stimuli. `` If that were the case, mental processes would happen fastest at age 20 and slow down with age, '' explains one of the authors of a study conducted by scientists at the University of Heidelberg.
Research contradicts common assumption
Psychologists at the University of Heidelberg have concluded that the speed of cognitive processing remains largely stable over the decades. In their opinion, quick mental, i.e. the speed with which we can deal with matters that require immediate decision-making, does not change significantly with age.
Scientists assessed data from a large-scale internet experiment involving over a million participants. It turns out that the speed of cognitive processing remains largely stable between the ages of 20 and 60. Importantly - it only gets worse in old age. Thus, the authors of the analyzes questioned the current assumption that mental speed begins to decline in early adulthood.
- The common assumption is that the older we are, the slower we react to external stimuli. If that were the case, mental speed would be fastest at around twenty and then decline with age, said Dr Mischa von Krause, one of the study's authors. Scientists, to verify their theory, decided to reassess the data from the Internet experiment. The participants of the analyzes were tasked with, inter alia, sort people's photos and words into categories.
Older people just want to avoid mistakes
According to scientists, the average response times of the respondents increased with age. Using a mathematical model, they were able to show that this phenomenon was not caused by changes in mental speed. Instead, we think older testers are mostly slower because they respond more cautiously and focus more on avoiding errors, explained von Krause.
Researchers formulated not only such conclusions. The authors of the analyzes believe that in adulthood, the speed of motor skills decreases because the older participantsexperiment, took more time to press the appropriate button after finding the right answer. What's more, the researchers found that the average speed of information processing gradually decreased only in participants over the age of 60.
- It seems that during our life we do not have to worry about a significant loss of mental speed, especially not in the course of a typical professional life - says Mischa von Krause. The authors of the analyzes also emphasize that their study included people with high and low mental speeds, therefore the obtained results correspond to the average trend.