Seniors As Fast As College Students Making Decisions.

While it’s assumed that as we age our ability to process thoughts quickly diminishes. A new study indicates that isn’t always the case. It found that the elderly generation can hold their own with the younger set. .

In results published in the current online issue of Child Development, research using word-accuracy testing and symbol-based cognitive testing found seniors who remain mentally healthy are potentially just as capable as younger people to think quickly without making mistakes.

Study co-author Roger Ratcliff, a professor of psychology at Ohio State University, said that while some aspects of mental processing do suffer with age, getting older does not necessarily mean losing one’s ability to think fast and well.

“The [previously prevailing] view was that all cognitive processes decline at the same rate as people age,” he said. “We’re finding that there isn’t such a uniform decline. There are some things that older people do nearly as well as young people.”