[ExI] Attention Spans Decreasing?

[BillK]

On Sat, Jan 25, 2014 at 2:46 AM, spike wrote:
<huge snip>
> I have an alternative explanation: as we grow older, we start to take in
> more information and process more information.  The children focus right
> down on the critical core.  To them, old people appear slow.  Not
> necessarily stupid, just slower.  Reason: we are dealing with a lot more
> information, and seeing a lot more alternatives simultaneously.
>
>

Confirmed by recent research and paper:
<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tops.12078/full>

Quote:

The Myth of Cognitive Decline: Non-Linear Dynamics of Lifelong Learning
As adults age, their performance on many psychometric tests changes
systematically, a finding that is widely taken to reveal that
cognitive information-processing capacities decline across adulthood.
Contrary to this, we suggest that older adults'; changing performance
reflects memory search demands, which escalate as experience grows. A
series of simulations show how the performance patterns observed
across adulthood emerge naturally in learning models as they acquire
knowledge.
Our results indicate that older adults'; performance on cognitive
tests reflects the predictable consequences of learning on
information-processing, and not cognitive decline. We consider the
implications of this for our scientific and cultural understanding of
aging.
------------

I don't know if it is mentioned in the paper, but I would add that
because of their senior status, old people have a greater fear of
making a mistake, or getting the wrong answer. So they check and
recheck their results before answering.


BillK