In the course of our lives, our mental and physical skills are constantly changing: they increase in youth, but later. But when this intellectual breakdown uses and how strong it turns out is controversial. Now a study shows that cognitive skills in people in Germany increase until the 1940s before they then decrease more easily and more easily in reading and writing skills. But when exactly and how strong this happens depends above all on the regular use of these skills.
Many cognitive skills such as our memory, concentration and language skills are easier for us in youth. In the course of life, intellectual performance often decreases again. For example, the processing speed of the brain can decrease with advancing age. However, other skills, such as knowledge in certain areas, can remain stable or even increase. In general, however, research assumes that intellectual achievements will decrease again in early adulthood.
When and how does the dismantling show?
But when exactly this breakdown uses and which skills are affected to which dimensions is controversial. A research team around Eric Hanushek from Stanford University has now systematically examined the cognitive skills of people aged 16 to 65. The basis for this was data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), which is carried out by the OECD – the counterpart to the international school performance examination PISA. The PIAAC study, which is carried out in a ten-year rhythm, aims to comprehensively evaluate and find out how well they master everyday and professional requirements.
The researchers analyzed data from the German PIAAC study 2011/12 and compared the results with those of the same test subjects in 2016. This enabled this data a longitudinal look, which allows changes in the cognitive skills of the same to be recorded over a certain period of time. “Our analysis focuses on reading, writing and computing skills as two important concepts of cognitive skills,” write Hanushek and his colleagues. “These skills have been recognized in schools as crucial for the cognitive development of the students and form the basis for tests and reviewing individuals and schools in many countries.” Hanushek and his team created old-capability profiles of over 3000 people in Germany.
In addition to the test tasks, the participants were also asked how often they carry out everyday activities such as reading emails or calculating costs both at the workplace and in the private environment. This provides information about the extent to which these skills in the everyday life of the respondents are actually challenged and used.
Use it or loose it
“Two main results are emerging,” reports the team, “firstly, the skills increase average until the 1940s, before they decrease slightly and more easily in reading and writing skills.” Cognitive skills in old age are the second only among the participants who used them less often than the average. The difference was already visible between participants who did not use their language and arithmetic and compensation at least once a month and those who used at least monthly: when reading and writing, the competence per year differed by 0.108 standard deviations (SD), when calculating by 0.100.
In addition, the evaluations showed that people with a higher level of education, who practiced mathematics, writing or reading in everyday life, also improved beyond the age of forty. According to Hanushek and his colleagues, this confirms that mental training and lifelong learning can help us to keep our cognitive skills into old age. “Overall, our results are not in line with the view that a natural law prescribes the inevitable decline in these skills in old age,” said the researchers. “A central result of our analysis is that the competence profiles in old age differ significantly depending on the use of the skills.”
According to the study results, the cognitive skills of women in arithmetic also fell more than among the men interviewed. While the difference in the language skills was 0.014 standard deviations, it was 0.026 SD for compensation. This could possibly be due to gender -specific differences in training or professional experience, as the team explains. 32 percent of women applied their arithmetic skills at least once a month, among men it was 38.2 percent. Targeted support, for example, of the interests of girls and women on MINT subjects could therefore help to compensate for such differences.
Source: Eric Hanushek (Stanford University, USA), et al., Science Advances, Doi: 10.1126/sciadv.ads1560