The SeeSaw of Skill Sets

It is far too easy on a day filled with minor aggravations, grim global news, missing keys, or just finding you cannot get the #$%^& “easy open” package of cereal open at all—to feel you are caught in a state of terminal decline.  Cue background music with theme of “all downhill from here.”  …

But wait!  While there is no question that we all have physical and cognitive capacities that change across time (despite assertions by the Health and Human Services Secretary about what is possible)—there is solid research evidence that some skill sets can and do improve with age. 

Advances in neuroimaging and the ability to do large sample computerized analyses have identified ways that some cognitive abilities actually improved across time. For example:

            Seeing the “big picture”: “We shift to processing information in a more conceptual way, Boston College researcher Elizabeth Kensinger, PhD has led multiple large studies that demonstrate ways the hippocampus gets better at pattern completion by overlapping and integrating memories from the past.  Older adults, compared to younger ones, demonstrated stronger abilities to distill and derive new observations in new situations. She notes, "Applying something we learned in a prior context to a new and different one is “what we think of as wisdom.”

            A knack for reading people:  Accurately picking up on others’ feelings and actions—what researchers call “emotion perception” tends to peak later in the life-span than other cognitive abilities.  Hartshorne and colleagues have done large-scale studies that compared younger and older adults in the accuracy of judging another’s emotions by seeing their face.  Older adults were much better, Hartshome's research suggested, because we’ve “had more years on the planet to learn that skill.”  

With years gone by, we’ve all learned from mistakes in that process that stay with us and inform future decisions based on the “feel” we get from someone and that adds to our “big picture” thinking fund.

In the days when I worked in emergency room, I found the older nurses and physicians had the judgement I could most often rely on.  They often also had the best sense of humor in a place where that is needed.

Here’s a quick comedy clip to remind you that while your big picture skills and knack for reading people may not have helped you remember what you forgot at the grocery store or where you put really good birthday card you need to send today that your wisdom and people-sense are still on the upswing.

We keep learning and growing and definitely need to laugh regularly to sustain us--so here is this week's offering:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/p_dTI2fJXm8

or for a longer version, try this one:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q-ZtuWwHao.

Many female comedians age well too.  For your current Hollywood update, Carole Burnett just celebrated her 93^rdbirthday by a night out with her husband who is 23 years younger. 

Writing a book with a long-time friend was like riding a seesaw--and at times provided laughter too. If you need to send a friend a book that confirms that cleverness may increase across time, consider Not The Trip We Planned. Available on Amazon and Bookshop or somewhere near you.