Page 226 - Mind Games The Aging Brain and How to Keep it Healthy

210 • Chapter 7

more than 2,000 participants since 1958. Results indicate that
as we age past our sixties, our ability to remember figures and
shapes may decrease, but our vocabulary increases into our
1
eighties and then may decrease slightly. This increase in our
vocabulary skills is thought to be due to use and increased ex-
posure throughout our life to words. As we age, however,
many of us are not called on to practice and exercise skills
such as spatial abilities, logic, and so on, and so it is thought
that these skills decrease due to disuse.
Dr. Willis and Dr. Schaie wanted to determine whether
modest declines in specific mental processes could be re-
versed in healthy individuals. This would lend greater cre-
dence to the theory that mental declines in otherwise healthy
individuals could be attributed to disuse. A Primary Mental
Ability Test had been administered to the subjects participat-
ing in the Seattle Longitudinal Study 14 years prior to this in-
tervention strategy and was used as a benchmark. From this
group, 229 subjects from 64 to 75 years old and in good
health, who exhibited marked losses in mental functioning
over the past 14 years, were selected to determine whether
mental performances could be improved through tutoring
and practice of skills. Dr. Schaie and Dr. Willis embarked on
a training program to improve mental functioning in a set of
the participants. These participants were given five one-hour
sessions aimed at improving basic abilities such as inductive
reasoning and spatial abilities and offered strategies for tack-
ling tasks such as memorization. The seniors then were
tested again. Their results were stunning.

After merely five one-hour training sessions, 66 per-
cent of the seniors improved dramatically and 40 per-
cent regained up to 14 years in mental ability.

Approximately 66 percent demonstrated significant im-
provement. Some 40 percent regained everything they had
lost over the years, scoring as well or better than they had 14
years earlier. Still more stunning is that this advance per-
sisted for at least seven more years without further train-