The Changing Brain
Our brains constantly change over our lifetime as we develop and age. As a consequence, the way various brain functions work also changes, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse.
The brain of a newborn is far from developed; it needs time to fully grow and establish connections on both large and small scales. Our brain’s functions improve drastically throughout childhood and adolescence, following a generally predictably progression. It is only in our mid 20′s that we finally possess a fully-equipped brain, complete with a well-developed prefrontal cortex to help each of us succeed in leading an independent life as an adult.
Even after the brain is fully formed in young adulthood, researchers have found the functions that benefit from accumulated experience, such as vocabulary-related language skills, pattern recognition and emotional self-regulation, tend to improve decade after decade.
On the other hand, starting in our late 20′s and early 30′s, the research shows that speed of processing and working memory tend (on average) to slow down, reducing our capacity to process and deal with complex new information. This is a gradual process that often first becomes noticeable in our early 40′s. Of course, individuals vary significantly in how and when they experience this decline: some people experience a significant decline while others do not.
In short, “old dogs” can certainly learn – faster than “young dogs” in domains that benefit from accumulated experience, and slower in domains that change too rapidly for accumulated experience to accrue a significant benefit.