"Cognitive ability, when exercised, doesn't atrophy with age. What changes over time isn't intelligence itself, but how it shows up. Speed becomes less critical while depth and synthesis take on greater importance. By midlife, the most meaningful differences are no longer visible in test scores or early accolades, but in how individuals remain engaged with complex ideas long after formal education has ended."
""Having exceptional abilities, passionate interests, and opportunities is one thing. Actualizing one's full potential over one's lifespan and after educational credentials are secured is another." This distinction matters and suggests that "mature cognition" does not simply persist on its own. It needs to be carried forward. The reassuring implication is that many people do exactly that. Thinking matures, it slows, but it deepens. The key here is that over time, cognition becomes less about performance and more about endurance."
A longitudinal study of intellectually gifted individuals into midlife found that cognitive ability, when actively exercised, does not atrophy with age. Over time, speed declines while depth, synthesis, and sustained engagement with complex ideas become more important. Giftedness and opportunities differ from actualizing full potential across a lifespan; mature cognition requires being carried forward rather than assumed. Thinking in midlife favors endurance and deeper synthesis over early performance metrics. The arrival of powerful language models and faster information access reduces cognitive friction, creating a need to deliberately practice cognitive grit and maintain habits that sustain deep, effortful thought.
Read at Psychology Today
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