Page 164 - Mind Games The Aging Brain and How to Keep it Healthy

148 • Chapter 5

in order to stay mentally alert. This learning can take place
in or out of a formal classroom setting. Just continue learn-
ing and exploring opportunities that you encounter in your
life every day. If there is something that you always wanted
to learn more about or learn how to do, this is a great op-
portunity to begin. Not only will it give you great pleasure
and enjoyment, but it will keep those neurons in shape and
increase the number of those connections.

Wisdom
Wisdom is expert knowledge about the fundamental issues
of life. Wisdom has experience as the basis of sound judg-
ment. As we age, we acquire insights into life’s structure
based on hindsight. Having solved many problems in our
lives, we are good problem solvers. Seniors are more flexi-
ble, more comfortable with the ambiguities of life, and more
context sensitive when applying problem-solving strategies
to real-life situations. When faced with real-life problems,
older subjects score consistently higher than younger sub-
11
jects, trained therapists, and professional counselors. As
another example, although seniors read more slowly than
the younger subjects, it was found that the seniors gener-
ated more ideas in general and more ideas central to the
reading when asked to summarize. Many studies indicate
that older adults compensate for slowing down by being
more efficient at their tasks; although they may take a frac-

I suppose What are you doing?
This is when we get ...a jigsaw puzzle? Here!
a really old we won't
hard be able to do
puzzle. this anymore.
Oh...Hi Pops.
?