A new study finds that 'an old dog can't learn new tricks' only applies to dogs. In people, older adolescents and adults not only learn certain thinking skills including non-verbal reasoning more effectively than younger people, they learn them better.
And providing a new boost for the marketing departments of 'brain training games', non-verbal reasoning skills can be readily trained and do not represent an innate, fixed ability.
The research involved 558 school pupils aged 11-18 and 105 adults, who were initially tested in various skills and then completed up to 20 days of online training in a particular skill before taking the tests again. They were then tested six months later to see whether the effect of training lasted.