Earlier this year, the journal ScienceAdvances published the results of a study called
Age and cognitive skills: Use it or lose it. The intent was to find out at what age cognitive skills begin to decline, depending on how much they're used.
The study is based on longitudinal data, which involved surveying economic and social conditions for random samples of the population aged 16 to 65 in 39 countries.
The paper has lots of detail but they summarize it as follows ("numeracy" refers to math skills):
"First, average skills increase strongly into the forties before decreasing slightly in literacy and more strongly in numeracy. Second, skills decline at older ages only for those with below-average skill usage. White-collar and higher-educated workers with above-average usage show increasing skills even beyond their forties. Women have larger skill losses at older age, particularly in numeracy."
The important takeaway from all this, as the title of the study implies, is that we need to use it so we don't lose it. Something to keep in mind as we age.
Now on to this week's hand-picked productivity links!
