• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
global cognition logo

Global Cognition

  • Home
  • Book
  • Publications
  • Blog
  • Research
    • Adaptive Readiness for Culture
  • About
    • GC
    • Louise Rasmussen
  • Contact

Regaining the Brain Flexibility of Your Childhood

by Winston Sieck updated July 15, 2020

Kids have fantastic brain flexibility. They absorb volumes of new material effortlessly and adapt flexibly to changing conditions.

Their brains start out with high plasticity. As they develop and amass patterns of information, their brains tend to crystallize.

The aging brain has vast stores of knowledge to draw on to solve the problems it encounters. Yet the older brain has more difficulty coping with unrecognized patterns – the surprises that drive deep learning in younger brains.

These ideas represent the top-level typical thinking among cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists about brain plasticity and crystallization. More recently, some research suggests that aging brains can be more flexible that previously believed.

In a Science News article, Laura Sanders reports on the efforts of researchers who have been exploring why brain crystallization occurs, and whether youthful brain flexibility can be induced in old brains. She also describes the associated potential costs and benefits of extreme rigidity and malleability.

Filed Under: Learning Science Tagged With: brain, general

About Winston Sieck

Dr. Winston Sieck is a cognitive psychologist working to measure and advance the development of thinking skills. See more posts here.

Primary Sidebar

Global Cognition writes about instructional development and teaching strategies for the Learning Science topic

Learning Science

You might also like:

ask why questions to check for understanding

Using Students’ Questions to Check for Understanding

student fear of failure is snake eating own tail

Motivated to Fail: When Flunking Becomes an Ambition

study skills activities for lifelong learning

Study Skills Activities to Promote Independent Learning

multimedia learning environments

Study Strategies for Multimedia Learning Environments

More Posts from Learning Science

Footer

Global Cognition

  • Home
  • About GC
  • GC Research

GC Content

  • Save Your Ammo
  • Adaptive Readiness for Culture
  • Publications

GC Blog Topics

  • Culture & Communication
  • Thinking & Deciding
  • Learning Skills
  • Learning Science

Copyright © 2011- 2025 · Global Cognition LLC | Privacy Policy · Earnings Disclosure · Terms of Service