THEY MOVE TOO SLOWLY, forget things and are inflexible. They don’t do teamwork and can’t adapt to new technologies. Many people describe older workers in these terms, and the characterizations are often the reasons personnel managers give for hiring younger employees instead.
But are these views substantiated? Do older employees in fact perform poorly? If so, at what tasks? Neuroscientists and psychologists active in the field of “cognitive gerontology” are investigating these questions. What they have found so far is surprising: although older people may be slower at some tasks, they are actually faster at others, and in most cases they are less prone to mistakes. The research also reveals that only certain brain functions are affected by possible age-related deficits and that simple changes in the workplace can compensate for them.
Faster May Not Be Better
There is great emphasis in today’s work environment on speed and flexibility. Even delivery drivers, who for years followed the same routes, now find that their courses may change daily. Handling a changing environment requires “fluid intelligence”—the ability to switch readily between different tasks, redirect attention, and block out irrelevant or distracting information.
Older people do tend to find it difficult to coordinate competing tasks, as psychologist Jutta Kray of Saarland University in Germany has shown. She presented subjects of various ages with images on a computer screen and asked questions that forced subjects to switch quickly between identifying particular shapes and colors on changing displays. Participants older than 50, on average, did not do as well. For them, the mental effort required for task switching was greater.
But there was good news, too, which put the image of the “inflexible old” into perspective. The older subjects did considerably better after they rehearsed ways to improve their responses. Their success indicates that age-related performance deficits can be overcome if work situations are constructed in the appropriate way.
As research improves, many examples of supposed age-related deficits will dissolve. We recently collaborated with Juliana Yordanova and Vasil Kolev of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia on experiments that painted a finer picture of mental functions.
In one test, we presented volunteers of various ages with four letters: A, E, I, O. They saw the letters appear randomly on a screen, one after another, or heard them being pronounced through headphones. We asked the subjects to respond to each letter as quickly as possible by pressing a button, but they had to use a different finger for each letter. This so-called choice reaction task thus forced them to decide anew each time how to react. Other subjects, acting as controls, were told to respond using the same single finger in every case.
We used electroencephalograms to measure the event-related potentials—the brain waves that arose during sensory perception and cognitive processing. By examining the components of these waves, we can follow individual neuronal processes. For our reaction task, the first part of the signal represented the processing of the visual or auditory stimuli, the second related to the thinking and decision making involved, and the third corresponded to the brain signal that prepares a finger to move.
As expected, the older subjects took somewhat longer, and yet they made fewer mistakes (using the wrong finger). The reason was interesting. Detailed analysis showed that older people processed visual and auditory stimuli just as quickly as younger people did. Their brains also thought and made decisions just as well. The only lag occurred during the final phase—the brain signal that prepares the finger to move. In older subjects the threshold to initiate a motor response was higher. Older brains seemed to operate according to the motto: “Better to be slow but right.” Numerous other event-related-potential studies have reached the same conclusion.
This insight has important implications for the workplace. Certain jobs demand frequent choices and categorization—for example, the quality-control function at a manufacturing company. Because studies show that these processes are not significantly affected in older workers, there is no reason to deny them such jobs. And although the actual motor response might be slightly slower, that can be an advantage: a low error rate is exactly what employers value in quality-control jobs.
Distraction!
Other experiments we conducted revealed that older people make fewer mistakes largely because they are less easily distracted. This finding was surprising, because common wisdom says older people are more susceptible to distraction.
Visual distraction tests, done on a computer screen by our group and Bruno Kopp, a neuropsychologist at the University of Braunschweig in Germany, also showed the value of delayed response. Essentially, when distracting lights appeared on a screen, younger participants initiated the action to (wrongly) push a button before they fully comprehended that their reaction would be incorrect. Older people began their “push the button” activation signal later, which prevented them from making mistakes. The subjects who were slower had an immense performance advantage. This ability can be very useful in numerous jobs, not to mention in daily life situations such as guiding a car through a busy, distraction-filled intersection.
Our studies do show that seniors do not perform as well under severe time pressure, especially if they must visually search for a target. In this circumstance, older subjects had both longer reaction times and higher error rates. They also found the test more stressful. But here, too, such problems could be mitigated in the workplace. Older truck drivers, for example, could be given onboard navigation systems that provide spoken directions instead of a map on a small display. Indeed, our group is now studying how such a system ought to be designed.
Restructuring Offices and Brains
Because older people perform even better than the young on many tasks, it is wrong to categorize them as generally less capable. And modest deficits can be overcome by adjusting the work environment. With neurophysiological testing, researchers can pinpoint the causes of lackluster performance and redesign workplaces appropriately.
We should also note that in the real business world, speed and accuracy are not the only success factors. Older employees typically have gained knowledge with experience that younger employees do not have. In addition, older people often are more socially competent, making them attractive for customer contact and advising tasks.
Furthermore, even when an older employee might prove initially slower at a particular mental function, neural networks can restructure themselves over time. For example, cognitive neuroscience professor Roberto Cabeza of Duke University has shown that seniors who performed poorly on a memory test activated the same brain regions as young subjects, yet seniors who did well had a different activation pattern. These results make it clear that neuronal restructuring can help compensate for deficits—although not every older brain is capable of carrying that out.
Restructuring workplaces and brain networks will both be necessary in tomorrow’s labor market. Retirement ages are rising. Low birth rates mean fewer people will enter the workforce. Personnel offices that equate “over 45” with “too old” may be overlooking a major source of needed employees.
But are these views substantiated? Do older employees in fact perform poorly? If so, at what tasks? Neuroscientists and psychologists active in the field of “cognitive gerontology” are investigating these questions. What they have found so far is surprising: although older people may be slower at some tasks, they are actually faster at others, and in most cases they are less prone to mistakes. The research also reveals that only certain brain functions are affected by possible age-related deficits and that simple changes in the workplace can compensate for them.
Faster May Not Be Better
There is great emphasis in today’s work environment on speed and flexibility. Even delivery drivers, who for years followed the same routes, now find that their courses may change daily. Handling a changing environment requires “fluid intelligence”—the ability to switch readily between different tasks, redirect attention, and block out irrelevant or distracting information.
Older people do tend to find it difficult to coordinate competing tasks, as psychologist Jutta Kray of Saarland University in Germany has shown. She presented subjects of various ages with images on a computer screen and asked questions that forced subjects to switch quickly between identifying particular shapes and colors on changing displays. Participants older than 50, on average, did not do as well. For them, the mental effort required for task switching was greater.
But there was good news, too, which put the image of the “inflexible old” into perspective. The older subjects did considerably better after they rehearsed ways to improve their responses. Their success indicates that age-related performance deficits can be overcome if work situations are constructed in the appropriate way.
As research improves, many examples of supposed age-related deficits will dissolve. We recently collaborated with Juliana Yordanova and Vasil Kolev of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia on experiments that painted a finer picture of mental functions.
In one test, we presented volunteers of various ages with four letters: A, E, I, O. They saw the letters appear randomly on a screen, one after another, or heard them being pronounced through headphones. We asked the subjects to respond to each letter as quickly as possible by pressing a button, but they had to use a different finger for each letter. This so-called choice reaction task thus forced them to decide anew each time how to react. Other subjects, acting as controls, were told to respond using the same single finger in every case.
We used electroencephalograms to measure the event-related potentials—the brain waves that arose during sensory perception and cognitive processing. By examining the components of these waves, we can follow individual neuronal processes. For our reaction task, the first part of the signal represented the processing of the visual or auditory stimuli, the second related to the thinking and decision making involved, and the third corresponded to the brain signal that prepares a finger to move.
As expected, the older subjects took somewhat longer, and yet they made fewer mistakes (using the wrong finger). The reason was interesting. Detailed analysis showed that older people processed visual and auditory stimuli just as quickly as younger people did. Their brains also thought and made decisions just as well. The only lag occurred during the final phase—the brain signal that prepares the finger to move. In older subjects the threshold to initiate a motor response was higher. Older brains seemed to operate according to the motto: “Better to be slow but right.” Numerous other event-related-potential studies have reached the same conclusion.
This insight has important implications for the workplace. Certain jobs demand frequent choices and categorization—for example, the quality-control function at a manufacturing company. Because studies show that these processes are not significantly affected in older workers, there is no reason to deny them such jobs. And although the actual motor response might be slightly slower, that can be an advantage: a low error rate is exactly what employers value in quality-control jobs.
Distraction!
Other experiments we conducted revealed that older people make fewer mistakes largely because they are less easily distracted. This finding was surprising, because common wisdom says older people are more susceptible to distraction.
Visual distraction tests, done on a computer screen by our group and Bruno Kopp, a neuropsychologist at the University of Braunschweig in Germany, also showed the value of delayed response. Essentially, when distracting lights appeared on a screen, younger participants initiated the action to (wrongly) push a button before they fully comprehended that their reaction would be incorrect. Older people began their “push the button” activation signal later, which prevented them from making mistakes. The subjects who were slower had an immense performance advantage. This ability can be very useful in numerous jobs, not to mention in daily life situations such as guiding a car through a busy, distraction-filled intersection.
Our studies do show that seniors do not perform as well under severe time pressure, especially if they must visually search for a target. In this circumstance, older subjects had both longer reaction times and higher error rates. They also found the test more stressful. But here, too, such problems could be mitigated in the workplace. Older truck drivers, for example, could be given onboard navigation systems that provide spoken directions instead of a map on a small display. Indeed, our group is now studying how such a system ought to be designed.
Restructuring Offices and Brains
Because older people perform even better than the young on many tasks, it is wrong to categorize them as generally less capable. And modest deficits can be overcome by adjusting the work environment. With neurophysiological testing, researchers can pinpoint the causes of lackluster performance and redesign workplaces appropriately.
We should also note that in the real business world, speed and accuracy are not the only success factors. Older employees typically have gained knowledge with experience that younger employees do not have. In addition, older people often are more socially competent, making them attractive for customer contact and advising tasks.
Furthermore, even when an older employee might prove initially slower at a particular mental function, neural networks can restructure themselves over time. For example, cognitive neuroscience professor Roberto Cabeza of Duke University has shown that seniors who performed poorly on a memory test activated the same brain regions as young subjects, yet seniors who did well had a different activation pattern. These results make it clear that neuronal restructuring can help compensate for deficits—although not every older brain is capable of carrying that out.
Restructuring workplaces and brain networks will both be necessary in tomorrow’s labor market. Retirement ages are rising. Low birth rates mean fewer people will enter the workforce. Personnel offices that equate “over 45” with “too old” may be overlooking a major source of needed employees.
