In an earlier post, I reviewed research showing that seniors
compensate for any loss of memory ability by having developed learning and memory
schemas over the years. Such schemas are ingrained strategies and ways of
efficient learning that improve with experience and age.
Now I have come across recent research that shows another
age-developed skill: improved decision-making ability. Teenagers are notorious
for poor decision-making. Of course that is inevitable, given that their brains
are still developing and they have had relatively little life experience to
show them what works and what doesn’t. Unfortunately, what doesn’t work often has
more emotional appeal, and most of us at any age are more susceptible to our
emotions than to cold, hard logic.
Seniors also are prone to poor decision-making if senility
has set it. Unscrupulous people take advantage of such seniors because a brain
that is deteriorating has a hard time making wise decisions.
In between teenage and senility is when the brain is at its
peak for good decision making, especially improving as one gets older. Some
Eastern cultures venerate their older people as generally being especially
wise. After all, it you live long enough, and are still mentally healthy, you
ought to make good decisions because you have a lifetime of experience to teach
you what future choices are likely to work and which are not.
Much of that knowledge comes from learning from one’s mistakes.
On the other hand, some people, especially the young, can’t seem to learn from
their mistakes. In any case, the best strategy of all is to learn from somebody
else’s mistakes so you don’t have to
make them yourself.
Learning from your mistakes can be negative if you fret
about it. Learning what you can to avoiding repeating a mistake is one thing,
but dwelling on it erodes one’s confidence and sense of self worth. I can never
forget the good advice I read recently from, of all people, T. Boone Pickens,
who has lost and regained fortunes several times. He was quoted in an interview
as saying that he was able to re-make his fortune on multiple occasions because
he didn’t dwell on the failures. He credited that attitude to his Oklahoma
State basketball coach, who told the team after each defeat, “Learn from your
mistakes, but don’t dwell on them. Learn from what you did right and do more of
that.”
A key reason seniors make better decisions is that they have
a richer store of knowledge and experience. Any choice among alternative
options is affected by how much information for each option the brain has to
work on. When the brain is consciously trying to make a decision, this often
means how much information the brain can hold in working memory. Working memory
is notoriously low-capacity, so the key becomes remembering the sub-sets of
information that are the most relevant to each option. People are more likely
to remember items they value and to forget low-value items.[1]
It turns out, apparently, that older people are more likely
to remember the most useful information and thus make better conclusions and
decisions. The National Institute of Aging began funding decision-making
research in 2010 at Stanford University’s Center on Longevity. Results of their
research are showing how older people often make better decisions than younger
people.[2],[3]
As one example, older people are more likely to make
rational cost-benefit analyses. Older people are more likely to recognize when
they have made a bad investment and walk away rather than throwing more good
money after bad.
A key factor seems to be that older people are more
selective about what they remember. For example, one study from the Stanford
Center compared the ability of young and old people to remember a list of
words. Not surprisingly, younger people remembered more words, but when words
were assigned a number value, with some words being more valuable than others,
older people were better at remembering high-value words and ignoring low-value
words. It may be that older people selectively remember what is important,
which could explain why they make better decisions.
[1] Castel,
A. D., Rhodes, M. G., McCabe, D. P., Soderstrom, N. C., Loaiza, V. M. (2012).
The fate of being forgotten: Information that is initially forgotten is judged
as less important. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 65, 2281-2287.
[2] Samanez-Larkin,
G.R., Wagner, A.D., Knutson, B. (2011) Expected value information improves
financial risk taking across the adult life span. Social Cognitive and
Affective Neuroscience, 6(2), 207–217
[3]
Carr, Dawn (2013). Why older minds make better decisions. Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2013/04/29/why-older-minds-make-better-decisions/
For more good advice on
improving learning and memory abilities, see Dr. Klemm’s new book, Memory Power 101, Skyhorse Publishing.
