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If you feel like your thinking has been getting a bit foggier as you've gotten older —
如果你覺得隨著年齡的增長，思維變得越來越模糊——
like you're just... slowing down… you're not alone.
比如思維變慢，并不是只有你有這種情況。
This happens eventually to nearly everybody.
幾乎所有人都會遇見這種情況。
But researchers have been looking into exactly how minds change as people age,
但研究人員一直在研究：隨著年齡的增長，究竟人們的思想是如何變化的。
and they've got a few ideas as to how to slow those changes down a bit.
他們有一些關于如何放慢這些變化的想法。
As you get older, your brain — like your hair — tends to thin.
隨著年齡的增長，大腦——就像頭發一樣——往往會變薄。
The average person's brain loses volume at a rate of about 5% per decade after age 40 —
40歲以后，人的大腦平均每十年以5%的速度萎縮——
it seems like neurons just get old and die —
似乎神經細胞在衰老和死亡——
and researchers think this may explain why people's thinking also gets slower and fuzzier as they get older.
研究人員認為，這也許可以解釋為什么隨著年齡的增長，人的思維會變得更慢、更模糊。
But there's actually some debate about how bad the normal decline in brain functioning with age really is.
但實際上，隨著年齡的增長，大腦功能的正常衰退到底有多嚴重是有爭議的。
And newer research suggests it might not be as bad as we first thought.
最新研究表明，情況可能沒有我們最初想的那么糟。
The easiest way to ask this question is to just give a variety of different memory and intelligence tests to adults of varying ages.
解決這一問題最簡單的方法是，對不同年齡的成年人進行各種不同的記憶和智力測試。
And when researchers do that, they see a pretty clear pattern emerge, though it does depend on what kind of tests you use.
當研究人員測試的時候，出現了一個非常清晰的模式，不過這取決于用的是哪種測試。
The story doesn't look good for things like speed of reasoning and perception, pattern recognition, and short term memory for words said aloud.
從推理和感知的速度、模式識別以及對大聲說出單詞的短期記憶等方面來看，結果并不理想。
And these declines don't just happen when you're in your 80s.
這些下降不僅僅出現在你80多歲的時候。
People in their late 30s score significantly lower than people in their 20s.
30多歲的人得分明顯低于20多歲的人。
Yeah, really looking forward to that.
是的，非常期待。
But the story is very different when participants are given a vocabulary test, or asked to do crosswords.
但當參與者被要求進行詞匯測試或填字游戲時，情況就大不相同了。
In those, scores improve with age and hold steady even as other abilities decline later in life.
測試分數會隨著年齡的增長而提高，并且保持穩定，即使其他能力在以后的生活中衰退。
Psychologists think that's because vocabulary is a kind of crystallized intelligence, or knowledge that's the product of thinking and learning over the years.
心理學家認為這是因為詞匯是一種晶態智力，或者知識是多年思考和學習的產物。
Other kinds of crystalized intelligence likely follow a similar pattern.
其他晶體智力可能遵循類似的模式。
For example, older chess players pick moves just as well as younger players, despite differences in their abilities to remember patterns on the chess board.
例如，年紀大的棋手和年紀小的棋手棋路一樣好，盡管他們記住棋盤上圖形的能力有所不同。
But crystallized intelligence varies a lot from person to person based on life experience and expertise, so it's harder to test different aspects of it across big populations.
但是基于生活經驗和專業知識，晶態智力差別很大，所以在大人群中測試智力的不同方面就比較困難了。
Most of the tests where age-related declines are seen, though, fall into the category of fluid intelligence —
雖然這些測試與年齡的相關性在下降，但是大多數測試都屬于流動智力的范疇，
things that help you think on your feet to process new information.
流動智力指的是幫助你獨立思考處理新信息的方法。
So psychologists generally think that for those without Alzheimer's or other kinds of dementia, growing old means losing some fluid intelligence while keeping crystallized knowledge.
因此，心理學家通常認為，對于那些沒有阿爾茨海默氏癥或其他類型癡呆癥的人來說，變老意味著在保持固定知識的同時失去一些流動智力。
You might forget where you put your keys, but you still know what your keys are for.
你可能忘記把鑰匙放在哪兒了，但你仍然知道鑰匙是干什么用的。
And there are areas that might improve with age — like social reasoning: the ability to infer other people's feelings and intentions.
還有一些東西可能會隨著年齡的增長而改善——比如社會推理：推斷他人感受和意圖的能力。
When researchers presented people with stories of social conflicts and asked how they'd unfold,
當研究人員向人們講述社會沖突的故事并詢問他們如何展開時，
they found that the older participants were more likely to employ complex reasoning, emphasize multiple people's perspectives and allow for compromise.
他們發現，年長的參與者更有可能進行復雜的推理，強調不同人的觀點，并且允許妥協。
So it's not like everything goes downhill.
所以并不是每件事物都在衰退。
And even the declines usually seen in tests comparing old and young people may not be so guaranteed.
這種通常出現在老年人和年輕人比較測試中的衰退也不一定能夠保證。
Some recent research suggests these declines might not appear until later in life — after age 60 or later —
最新研究表明，這種下降可能要到晚年才會出現——60歲以后或更晚
or that some fluid abilities can be retained or even improved.
或者一些流動智力可以被保留或者甚至提高。
These studies have looked at cognitive abilities longitudinally, meaning measuring the same people over time.
這些研究對認知能力進行了縱向研究，測量這些人隨著時間推移的變化。
This can avoid the problem of mistaking a generational difference for an age-related difference.
這可以避免將代際差異誤認為與年齡有關。
But, people often drop out, and that may mean those who suffer more problems don't stay in the study long enough to be included in the oldest age groups, skewing the results.
但是，人們經常退出，這可能意味著那些遭受更多問題的人在研究中停留的時間不夠長，無法被納入最高齡人群，從而歪曲了研究結果。
And even if there's less decline than we thought, there are still some things that just seem to go as you get older,
即使下降比我們想象的要少，但隨著年齡的增長，還是會有一些事情發生，
which a lot of people probably wish didn't.
很多人可能不希望這樣的事情發生。
Unfortunately, so far, there doesn't seem to be a way to turn back the clock.
不幸的是，到目前為止，似乎沒有辦法讓時光倒流。
But there are some things that can slow down age-related declines, or at least delay them.
但是有一些東西可以減緩與年齡有關的衰老，或者至少延緩衰老。
A long-standing recommendation has been use it or lose it; — basically, that you should practice with the skills you want to maintain—
長期以來的建議是要么使用，要么失去，基本上來說，你應該用你想要保持的技能來練習——
and there's some research to support that idea.
有一些研究支持這一觀點。
A good example is a 1992 study that took 35 subjects over a year and gave them a total of 38 training and practice sessions in a memory technique called the method of loci.
一個很好的例子是1992年的一項研究，該研究在一年多的時間里研究了35個課題，總共訓練38次練習一種叫做軌跡法的記憶技巧。
The results were optimistic: the older adults didn't show the declines in working memory that were typical for their age group.
結果是樂觀的：老年人的工作記憶并沒有像他們這個年齡段的人那樣下降。
But, unfortunately, it didn't really improve things either — no matter what, the younger participants always did better.
但是，不幸的是，也沒有真正改善什么——不管怎樣，年輕的參與者總是做得更好。
Other studies similarly suggest that regular practice can delay declines, but can't really reverse them.
其他研究也同樣表明，有規律的鍛煉可以延緩衰退，但并不能真正逆轉衰退。
Plus, the benefits are really only for the exact thing you're practicing.
另外，這些好處只適用于你正在練習的東西。
Research shows that regular training on specific cognitive abilities like memory or processing speed really only improves that ability —
研究表明，定期訓練特定的認知能力，比如記憶或處理速度，只會提高這種能力——
it doesn't help others or improve cognition overall.
它不能幫助別人，也不能全面提高認知能力。
In fact, if you want to more generally keep your mind sharp, studies suggest being active in other ways could be a bigger help than specific mental exercises.
事實上，研究表明，一般來說，如果你想保持思維敏捷，在其他方面保持活躍可能比特定的腦力鍛煉更有幫助。
Longitudinal studies of cognitive skills in older adults show that things like social engagement and aerobic exercise have a strong relationship with maintaining function.
對老年人認知技能的縱向研究表明，社會參與和有氧運動等活動與保障功能有很大的關系。
And a meta-analysis done in 2003 found that across the board, exercise improved cognitive abilities compared to control groups.
2003年的一項研究分析發現，與對照組相比，鍛煉能全面提高認知能力。
But not all skills improved equally.
但并非所有技能都得到了同等的提高。
Like, exercise groups did a lot better on executive function tasks — but only a little bit better on processing speed.
比如，運動組在執行功能任務上好很多，但在處理速度上好一點點。
Whether we'll ever be able to reverse age-related declines and give 80 year olds the sharpness of 20 year olds remains to be seen.
我們是否能夠逆轉與年齡有關的衰退，讓80歲的人擁有20歲人的敏銳，還有待觀察。
But in the meantime, it seems like going out and having some fun exercising with friends helps a little more than staying home with crosswords.
但與此同時，似乎出去和朋友們一起做一些有趣的運動比在家玩填字游戲更有幫助。
And hey — if you go out during the day and do that crossword over breakfast or before bed, you can have the best of both worlds!
嘿，如果你白天出去，在早餐或睡覺前玩填字游戲，可以兩全其美！
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych!
感謝收看本期心理科學秀！
And thanks especially to our patrons on Patreon.
特別感謝Patreon對本節目的支持。
It takes a lot of people behind the scenes to make every video we put out, and we wouldn't be able to have those people if it weren't for the support of our patrons.
我們制作每一個視頻都需要很多幕后人員，如果沒有贊助商的支持，我們不可能實現。
If you want to join our community of supporters on Patreon and help us keep making free, educational psychology videos, you can head over to Patreon.
如果你想加入我們在Patreon上的支持者社區，并幫助我們繼續制作免費的教育心理學視頻，可以前往Patreon。
