Cognitive Ability Declines Starting at Age 27

Posted by Alex in Medicine on March 16, 2009 at 2:09 pm


Sorry to bring you the bad news, guys. Timothy Salthouse, Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia studying cognitive aging, found that reasoning, speed of thought and spatial visualization start to decline at age 27:

The first age at which there was any marked decline was at 27 in tests of brain speed, reasoning and visual puzzle-solving ability.

Things like memory stayed intact until the age of 37, on average, while abilities based on accumulated knowledge, such as performance on tests of vocabulary or general information, increased until the age of 60.

Professor Salthouse said his findings suggested "some aspects of age-related cognitive decline begin in healthy, educated adults when they are in their 20s and 30s."

Link – via Blue’s News


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COMMENT

12 comments to "Cognitive Ability Declines Starting at Age 27"

  1. Dandy
    March 16th, 2009 at 2:34 pm

    Bullfeathers! It has been proven that:
    a) You can take parts of the brain out and still have a fully functioning human.
    b) You can increase a human's capacity for learning, intelligence, etc. at any age.

  2. JohnnySLC
    March 16th, 2009 at 2:34 pm

    This guy received his PhD in 1974 so he is WAY over 27. He clearly cannot be trusted.

  3. bennnnn
    March 16th, 2009 at 3:57 pm

    This is bunk. I only started to think clearly at age 28. And my memory now, at age 30, is better than it has ever been. One thing that I can usually remember is that neurology and psychology are nonsense.

  4. Michaelc
    March 16th, 2009 at 6:23 pm

    If this is true, it is quite a pity that the minimum age for being president is almost a decade past the person's mental prime.

  5. jaci struwe
    March 16th, 2009 at 6:52 pm

    Now they are asking us to believe that 27 is the new 80.

  6. Kalel
    March 16th, 2009 at 7:18 pm

    I would expect that emotional intelligence increases with age.

  7. jad2k
    March 16th, 2009 at 7:32 pm

    UVa; wahoowa!!! And @ bennnnn, according to the study, your memory wouldn't start to decline until age 37...unless you are really 38 and not 30 and have already forgotten what you just read

  8. Miss Cellania
    March 16th, 2009 at 8:16 pm

    Experience and wisdom trumps peak cognitive ability. At least that's what I tell my kids.

  9. Hugh
    March 17th, 2009 at 2:26 am

    well its just past 7:30am and im about to get out of bed, and as a 26 year old i can honestly say, i now feel completely awful.

  10. Robolasse
    March 17th, 2009 at 4:28 am

    I wanted to write something here, but i forgot what it was.

  11. CelticCatEyes
    March 17th, 2009 at 10:09 am

    OH, Dr. Salthouse, you found me on Neatorama!
    (the lab I work in studies cognitive development/ decline, and as a lowly 1st year, I've been reading up on his articles!)

    lol at Robolasse!

    But truthfully, I think we over-estimate the horror of normal cognitive aging. Frankly, when your brain is pretty much done growing, it has to do that other thing now ;D

  12. just a guy
    March 17th, 2009 at 1:02 pm

    Emotional reactions and self-professed personal evaluations are not the way to counter a conducted study (and in fact lends credence to this particular one).

    However, I do hope the study is wrong. As I've gotten older, I have suspected and feared as much.


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