Old Dog, New Tricks: Can we learn new things in our older years?
- Sara Margolin
- Apr 1, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 3, 2023
Want the short answer? Yes. Yes, we can. But, now you probably want the more nuanced answer- that is, what can we learn? how can we learn it? how difficult is it? etc.
What can we learn?
Frankly? Anything we have the desire to. There are really no limits, except those that our health or physical limitations may provide. That's to say, as long as we are physically and mentally healthy, we can learn and do whatever we want to learn and do.
Some older adults choose to take classes on topics they've always wanted to learn (in New York, where I live, adults over 60 can audit college classes for FREE). Others choose to learn to dance or sing. And still others choose to learn to knit, sew, or play golf. All of these are possible-- even well into our older adult years.
What is important here, is not really what we learn, but that we believe we can. Research on memory shows what we call stereotype threat in memory function for older adults. That is, there is a "buy-in" to the stereotype that older adults can't remember, and then this becomes their reality. Framing something as "memory" makes it intimidating somehow, but when we frame it as something exciting like learning, this decrease in performance goes away.
How can we learn it?
Learning happens when we make new connections between what we encounter and what we already know. Our brain reaches out and literally connects neuron to neuron to extend our network. This re-constructional plasticity creates new pathways that can help us adjust our knowledge base both in-coming and out-going (encoding and retrieval of memory), and happens all throughout our lives. Everyone can do this, and does do this.
We do know that plasticity slows down as we are get older, but this is likely because there is less to learn and less to adjust (rather than it being too hard), compared to a child or a young adult. The knowledge builds on itself and connections have been forming over the years, and while we do make more (and prune back the ones that are no longer needed), there is less to connect.
But, new experiences and new information coupled with cues to help us bring the information in and pull the information back out help. That's to say remaining active and mentally engaged with social activities, reading, puzzles, etc. can continue to create these new connections in our brain. Being effortful and intentional here is important as well- because we know that older adults tend to use the same cues over and over again (because maybe they worked before), and this is actually an inefficient way of encoding (i.e., creating) new memories because it makes all the connections similar and less distinguishable from one another. Effortful processing can make connections that are unique and more easily retrieved (i.e., pulled out) from memory.
*What I should caution with here is that not doing these things doesn't automatically lead to poor brain health-- there are a tremendous number of factors implicated in that).
How difficult is it?
In some instances, learning new information can be more difficult. The reason for this is that memory for events (we call this episodic memory) can be less effective in older adults, and episodic memory is one thing that supports learning new information (we call this semantic memory). That's to say that if we remember the event in which we learn something, we'll be more likely to remember the information we learned. Think about this: I specifically remember the event in which I learned the quadratic equation in high school (where I sat in my math class, singing it to the tune of row-row-row your boat), and when I can recall this event, I can recall the equation.
Episodic memory is fine in many instances for older adults, but can be a little troublesome for recalling recent events--including those events that are learning episodes. In learning new information, we're learning via a new event. And, while we can likely remember the information, it's going to take a bit more work because we don't have the episodic memory to provide the support and cues that would be helpful in remembering the new semantic memory.
However, there is still a lot of research that supports expansion in older adults semantic memory throughout adulthood. Over the course of years and decades, experiences build and build and older adults can learn and grow their knowledge base... in fact, an older adult has over two times the number of words stored in their memory compared to a young adult. It's all in there- stored and accessible. And, really, the only deficiencies we see are when speed of access is limited (that is, there is a time crunch to retrieve the information--- which doesn't really happen very often in real life) OR if there are other intervening factors such as health issues and/or dementia. Those are not typical aging, and if you'd like, I can address those in a separate blog post.
So I hope this gives you some clarity and light- you can teach an old dog new tricks. Continue learning. Because the more you learn, the more you grow.
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