Munakata’s team used a computer game and a setup that measures the diameter of the pupil of the eye to determine mental effort to study the cognitive abilities of 3-and-a-half-year-olds and 8-year-olds. The research concluded that while everything you tell toddlers seems to go in one ear and out the other, the study found that toddlers listen, but then store the information for later use. ‘For example, let’s say it’s cold outside and you tell your 3-year-old to go get his jacket out of his bedroom and get ready to go outside,’ says doctoral student Christopher Chatham. ‘You might expect the child to plan for the future, think "OK it’s cold outside so the jacket will keep me warm." But what we suggest is that this isn’t what goes on in a 3-year-old’s brain. Rather, they run outside, discover that it is cold, and then retrieve the memory of where their jacket is, and then they go get it.

Source: Slashdot.

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Professor Timothy Salthouse of the University of Virginia found reasoning, spatial visualization and speed of thought all decline in our late 20s.

Therapies designed to stall or reverse the aging process may need to start much earlier, he said.

His seven-year study of 2,000 healthy people aged 18-60 is published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging. To test mental agility, the study participants had to solve puzzles, recall words and story details and spot patterns in letters and symbols. The same tests are already used by doctors to spot signs of dementia. In nine out of 12 tests the average age at which the top performance was achieved was 22.

[ed]Where did I put my keys… and for the last time, who stole my pudding?[/ed]

See the full article at BBC News.

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