“I'm just having a senior moment”

“I'm just having a senior moment”

If asked, most people would cite forgetfulness right after wrinkled skin as the hallmark of old age. According to the Pew Research Center (2009), 63% of respondents aged 18 to 29 believe that a person is old when he or she frequently forgets familiar names. The percentage holding this belief does decline with age, but even among the group aged 65+, the belief is held by 47%. Why, then, are we devoting such a large section of Great Myths of Aging to debunking what is so obviously true? Because the devil is in the details. The fact is that forgetfulness is not in the category of wrinkles; some aspects of thinking remain sharp into old age and, in addition, there is great variability across individuals. Furthermore, as far as technology is concerned, we often write older adults off as being Luddites, but is that really accurate?

Myth #9 Brain power declines with age

The myth that brain power declines with age has been with us for decades. First, some historical perspective is in order. The story begins around the time of World War I. When war was declared, there were suddenly so many army recruits that it became necessary first to sort out the “mentally unfit” and then rank others for their ability to benefit from training for various military duties. The Army Alpha Test, usually considered the first group intelligence test, was used for this purpose. Several early research studies showed a steady age decline in scores on the Army Alpha Test from the mid-20s through the mid-60s.

By the mid-1970s, though, some researchers were questioning the assumption that age guaranteed intellectual decline. Paul Baltes and K. Warner Schaie (1974) published an article entitled “Aging and IQ: The Myth of the Twilight Years,” in which they argued that it was time to put a halt to the uncritical acceptance of the idea of age decrement in intellectual abilities. In a subsequent article in the American Psychologist, Baltes and Schaie (1976) made a case for the plasticity of intelligence in the later years. (Plasticity refers to the malleability of intelligence – it generally implies the possibility of improvement with practice and training.) Horn and Donaldson (1976) countered this argument, insisting that age-related decline is not a myth, but rather is a reality given the evidence for the lower scores on tests that measure many important intellectual abilities.

As time went by, researchers continued to investigate the relationship between age and intellectual abilities, often measuring intelligence with the Primary Mental Abilities (PMA) test and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). With the findings of these studies, a more complex picture began to emerge, one that would essentially lend some support to both of the above views: age maintenance as well as age decrement in intellectual abilities.

The PMA is a group test used by Schaie in his developmental studies (see e.g. Schaie, 1994). The PMA version that Schaie used included tests that measured five factors assumed to contribute to intellectual ability: V, or verbal meaning (selecting the correct synonym that defines a word); N, or number (solving arithmetic problems); W, or word fluency (active vocabulary, or retrieving words using a lexical rule); R, or inductive reasoning (inferring rules that are needed to solve problems); and S, or spatial orientation (visualizing how forms look when rotated in space). In general, there was minimal or no age-related decline on the V, N, and W factors. However, there was evidence for age-related decline on the R and S factors.

The WAIS is an individual “IQ” test with which many people are familiar – whether they know it or not. There have been several revisions over the years but, basically, the WAIS is composed of verbal subtests and performance subtests. The verbal subtests tap stored knowledge and abilities typically acquired from formal education or exposure to the culture in which a person lives. Examples of verbal subtests include vocabulary (word definitions), information (facts that adults have opportunities to pick up, like the capital of France); and comprehension (questions that require an understanding of social conventions, like what to do if you see someone fall off a bike and not get up). In contrast, the performance subtests call for the solution of new problems in new ways, with extra points often allotted for speed. Examples of performance subtests include digit symbol (the examinee sees a set of digit-symbol pairs and, as quickly as possible, must write the correct symbol under a new set of randomly arranged digits); block design (the examinee must copy a printed pattern using blocks with sides that are all white, all red, and red/white); and picture completion (the examinee must notice, for example, that a drawing of an elephant is missing a trunk).

In studies that employ the WAIS to measure intellectual abilities, the typical finding came to be known as the “classic aging pattern” (Botwinick, 1984). That is, scores on the verbal subtests generally show little or no age-related decline, so have been termed “age-insensitive.” But scores on the performance subtests do show age-related decline, so have been termed “age-sensitive.” Another way of phrasing this distinction is with the terms crystallized abilities and fluid abilities, respectively (Horn & Cattell, 1967). Verbal subtests measure abilities that can be considered knowledge that is hardened over time – like crystal. Performance subtests measure abilities that deal with new ways of working out problems – they call for thinking that is fluid. Baltes (1993) introduced the terms pragmatics of intelligence and mechanics of intelligence. Pragmatics of intelligence, which are based on cultural exposure to factual and procedural knowledge and are analogous to crystallized abilities, tend to be maintained with age. Mechanics of intelligence, which are assumed to be dependent on basic brain functioning and are similar to fluid abilities, tend to show age-related decline. Baltes emphasized that pragmatics of intelligence show little decline and may even increase with age. Furthermore, he argued that pragmatics of intelligence may actually compensate for any decline in mechanics of intelligence, which may decline to a lesser extent with the help of the pragmatics.

Recall that Baltes and Schaie (1976) introduced the concept of plasticity, which refers to the possibility that intellectual abilities can be modified with practice and training. More recently, neuropsychologists proposed the Scaffolding Theory of Aging and Cognition (STAC), a model whereby the brain adapts to any neural atrophy (wasting away of brain cells) that may occur over time by building alternative circuitry, or scaffolding. This scaffolding makes it possible for older brains to maintain a high level of functioning (Park & Reuter-Lorenz, 2009).

In addition to recognizing the importance of how intelligence is measured, investigators began to realize that the method of conducting research can be a significant factor when establishing the relationship between age and intellectual abilities. Most studies on age and intellectual abilities were (and still are) cross-sectional. Cross-sectional studies compare a group of younger adults with a group of older adults all at about the same point in time. Longitudinalstudies follow the same group over time. Obviously, cross-sectional research can be completed in much less time than longitudinal research, which can stretch over decades. Despite the efficiency of cross-sectional research, Schaie (1965) pointed out (in a now classic paper on developmental research methods) that a group of people who share the same birth period (think of it in this case as a generation) make up a cohort. Depending on cohort membership, people experience specific advantages as well as specific disadvantages with regard to intellectual abilities, so there can be both positive and negative cohort effects. For example, earlier cohorts (current older adults) are probably not as well versed as are later cohorts in Internet research but their education stressed spelling and grammar much more – making them better at those than younger cohorts. Because cohort membership is associated with people's educational background, it can affect the abilities that they are likely to possess. Now think about cross-sectional research. When we compare 30-year-olds with 70-year-olds we are not only looking at age differences, we are also looking at cohort differences. If we find evidence for decline, we don't know for sure whether it is related to age, cohort membership, or both.

But even when we can afford the time and money to do longitudinal research, we are not getting a complete picture of how age may be related to intelligence. If we test the same people repeatedly, we open the door to possible learning (“practice”) effects, especially if times of testing are close together. Learning effects would minimize any age-related changes because people can improve with practice. In addition, not everyone who participates in the initial wave of a longitudinal study is willing or able to return for retesting on subsequent occasions. Some people drop out of the study, so the size of the sample diminishes over time. If the drop-out were random and not too extreme, this would not necessarily be a problem for interpreting the research results. Unfortunately, however, drop-out tends to be selective. Think about why someone might not return for a later test session (made the appointment but forgot to show up, moved out of town, got sick, maybe even died).

In an excellent demonstration of selective drop-out, Siegler and Botwinick (1979) investigated the initial test scores of participants in the Duke University Longitudinal Study. Participants who dropped out and did not complete the study were the ones who started out with lower scores, whereas those who remained in the study started out with higher scores. In light of this finding, it seems that longitudinal studies of intellectual abilities could result in an overly rosy picture – higher age-related maintenance of intellectual functioning than may have been the case if all participants in the original sample had remained in the study. Even so, decline in intellectual abilities appears to occur much later and is much less extensive when studies are longitudinal rather than cross-sectional (Schaie, 1994).

In addition to increased concern with the method used to study intellectual development, there has been growing interest in a broader view of what constitutes intellectual abilities. Until quite recently, intelligence tests had a quantitative emphasis (number of points, bonus points for speed), and test items were often academic in nature. Because younger adults are more likely than older adults to be students, such tests are more relevant to their everyday lives. As Woodruff-Pak (1989) has pointed out, there has been a gradual evolution in cognitive researchers' perspectives about intelligence. Intellectual abilities are now thought to be manifested not only in quantitative scores on tests related to academic topics, but also in qualitative measures on how people go about solving real-world dilemmas. Interest in the topic of wisdom (covered in a subsequent section) is one example of a broader perspective on intellectual abilities.

One further item that bears mentioning is that although the majority of older adults do not suffer from organic brain problems such as dementia, the incidence of such problems does increase with age (see subsequent section on this topic). Some of the older participants in the studies conducted on intellectual ability may have had mild cognitive impairment that was only diagnosed as dementia later on. Their inclusion in these studies may have inflated the extent of what was thought to be age-related decline in intellectual abilities.

Fortunately, we now have a much better understanding of the likelihood that intellectual abilities do not all follow the same age trends. The cognitive abilities that do decline do not usually do so precipitously, nor do people experience decrements in all intellectual abilities as they age. When there is decline, it tends to occur relatively late in life, and to be much smaller, when the same people are followed over time (longitudinal research) than when people differ not only in age but also in cohort membership (cross-sectional research). Decline is more likely in fluid abilities (the mechanics of intelligence) than it is in crystallized abilities (the pragmatics of intelligence). Furthermore, in studies that have reported age-related decline in intellectual abilities, there is no guarantee that every person included in the research was free of the mild cognitive impairment that can occur in the earliest stages of dementia. Finally, to the extent our definition of intellectual abilities includes real-world problem-solving (not just academic abilities), it would be inaccurate to make a blanket statement that intellectual decline occurs across the board in older adulthood.

Myth #10 Older adults can't or won't learn new things – like technology. They would rather get a stupid phone than a smart one

Look up “You can't teach an old dog new tricks” on the Internet. Google will direct you to thefreedictionary.com, and when you get there you'll find this: “You're never going to teach your father at the age of 79 to use a computer. You can't teach an old dog new tricks, you know.” Safe to say, then, that people take for granted that older people can't learn new technology.

But how accurate is the view that older adults are not receptive to innovations and that they remain attached to doing things the way they always did? Perhaps some readers of this book have never heard of passbook savings accounts and library card catalogs; they can't imagine banking without ATM cards or searching a library's holdings without using a computer. Does that mean that the old dog (your 79-year-old father or grandfather, that is) cannot or will not become well versed in the use of today's (and even tomorrow's) technology? Does he go to the bank and pass out when he can't get a passbook? Does he give up trips to the library if there is no card catalog? Of course not! Obviously, he has to get over it.

Back when few people had personal computers, Jane Ansley, a graduate student at Florida International University, was intrigued by the common notion that older adults tend to be skittish about computers and that they would be better able to succeed on a paper-and-pencil quiz than on the same quiz using a computer (Ansley & Erber, 1988). Well, they were not better off with the pencil than with the keyboard. First of all, community-living older adults ranging from 55 to 86 (mean 70) years of age were no different from undergraduates in their responses to an “attitudes toward cybernetics” self-report survey (Wagman, 1983). Second, older adults who completed a multiple-choice vocabulary quiz using (believe it or not) a now ancient Franklin Ace 1200 computer were no slower, no less accurate, and no less cautious in terms of betting “play bucks” on the correctness of their responses than were older adults who took the quiz in paper-and-pencil form. So even at the dawn of the personal computer age, there was no support for the stereotype that older adults would prefer to avoid computer technology or that they would have difficulty using it.

Older adults' technological proficiency, or lack thereof, has been a topic of particular interest with regard to employment-related issues (Czaja, 2001). Many employers expect workers to possess basic computer skills and to be willing to learn how to use new software as it is developed. Therefore, if they stereotype older people as resistant to new technology, then that is a problem – especially if the stereotype is undeserved. Czaja and Sharit (1993) compared the performance of women ranging from 25 to 70 years of age on computer-based tasks. None of the women came to the study having significant computer experience with data entry, file maintenance, or inventory management (in the 1990s this lack of experience was not as surprising as it would be today). The older women were slower than the younger ones in carrying out these tasks. However, these researchers suspected that greater experience would have helped them compensate for decline in speed. At a later date, Sharit et al. (2004) trained “younger” older adults (50–65 years) and “older” older adults (66–80) on how to use email. Over four consecutive days, both age groups improved, but the improvement was especially marked for the “older” older adults, who had started out at a lower level. This demonstrated that older adults are receptive to learning about and are capable of acquiring technological skills, although they may need more practice as they get older.

An important factor to consider is that older adults have been following certain procedures for a longer time than have young adults. Thus, the common myth that older adults are less flexible than younger adults seems a bit unfair, because they have to unlearn deeply ingrained habits in order to switch to new ways of doing things. As an example, older people almost all wear wrist watches. Young adults may wear wrist watches for decorative purposes (jewelry) but they rely much more on their handheld devices for checking the time. How long would it take you to stop checking your wrist for the time if you had recently given up wearing a watch? Would it take longer if you had been wearing a watch for 60 or 70 years? Panek (1997) contended that there is no reason to assume that older workers cannot be trained successfully, although they do benefit more when there is less pressure and more time to learn.

Technology has altered many aspects of life, and its influence extends beyond the workplace. Younger adults have been exposed to technology all through high school (laptops and tablets) and even earlier (think calculators). However, today's older adults were educated without recourse to any battery-operated learning aids, and the oldest retired before computers were used widely in the workplace. Even so, many retirees are interested in learning basic computer skills, and they are eager to take advantage of training opportunities through continuing education programs offered at community colleges, public libraries, community centers, and sometimes even on the premises of apartment buildings where they live. They know that email makes it easy to keep in touch with loved ones who live at great distances and Skype allows them to make and receive video calls. You may even know of someone's grandmother who reads stories to a little one over Skype (cybersitting as opposed to babysitting?) while mom or dad is busy doing something else. Some older people also use the Face Time app – although apps are not on their list of favorite cell phone uses. According to a Pew research survey (Duggan & Rainie, 2012), only 8% of cell phone users over 65 had downloaded an app as of 2012.

If older people were not important consumers of technology, the industry would not be marketing devices that are designed to appeal especially to them. Older adults are a fast-growing demographic for the makers of mobile phones. Check out www.snapfon.com and you'll find “the cellphone for seniors.” Big buttons! Easy-to-read screen! Enhanced volume! SOS button! High-powered LED flashlight! If you don't like that one, try the Jitterbug Plus® and get information on the same bells and whistles. Many major companies are getting on the bandwagon too. As of May 2013, 76% of adults in the U.S. aged 65 and over owned a cell phone, and 18% owned a smartphone. This compares with 91% and 56%, respectively, of all adults in the U.S. (Smith, 2013).

The Pew Research Center (2013) has compiled data on the demographics of technology use. Here are some fun facts:

• As of April, 2012, 49% of adults aged 65+ reported using the Internet, at least occasionally, compared to 79% of adults of all ages
• 47% of adults aged 65+ received email, at least occasionally, vs. 73% of all adults
• 15% of adults aged 65+ accessed the Internet on a cell phone, tablet, or other mobile handheld device, at least occasionally, vs. 53% of all adults
• 48% of adults aged 65+ owned a desktop computer vs. 58% of all adults
• 32% of adults aged 65+ owned a laptop computer vs. 61% of all adults
• Of cell phone owners
  • 32% of those aged 65+ used them to send or receive text messages vs. 79% of cell phone owners of all ages
  • 49% of those aged 65+ used them to take pictures vs. 82% of all ages

Older adults use computers to access the Internet for information about government agencies, health issues, or consumer products such as the ratings and prices of new and used cars. They use it to shop online for all manner of goods, from purchasing stocks and bonds to ordering books, clothing, and airline tickets. Online shopping is especially advantageous for older adults who no longer drive. Older adults can combat loneliness and isolation by using social networking sites. According to the Pew Research Center's survey (Hampton, Goulet, Rainie, & Purcell, 2011), in 2008, 11% of social networking site users were over 50, but by 2010 that number was 26%. Clearly, this demographic has found a place in cyberspace. Members of the over-65 age group are really active once they join Facebook: 61% of Facebook users aged 65+ have updated their status at least once; 66% of Facebook users in this age group have commented on a post at least once; 64% have “liked” something; and 40% have friended allof their core confidants.

In sum, there is good evidence that older adults have been participating in the technological revolution by learning at least the basics of computer use. Furthermore, according to Chen and Persson (2002), older Internet users express a higher level of psychological well-being compared with older adults who do not use the Internet.