How We Can Learn As Adults | Rachel Wu | TEDxUCR
Summary
TLDRThe speaker explores the disparity in how society views children's learning versus adult learning, drawing from personal experiences in acquiring new skills like painting, piano, and German. They argue for an enriched learning environment for adults, similar to what children receive, to combat cognitive decline. Through studies with older adults learning new skills, they demonstrate significant cognitive improvement, suggesting that optimizing adult learning environments could prevent cognitive decline and enhance life quality.
Takeaways
- 👵 The speaker contrasts the lack of concern for a 72-year-old woman's isolation with the same situation in a 7-year-old child, highlighting a societal double standard regarding learning and isolation.
- 🎨 The speaker shares personal experiences of learning new skills like painting, piano, and German, emphasizing the importance of effort over innate talent.
- 👶 The benefits of an open mind, good instructors, resources, and the belief in one's ability to learn are often reserved for children but are crucial for adults' learning as well.
- 🧠 The study conducted by the speaker suggests that providing an enriched learning environment for older adults can significantly improve their cognitive abilities.
- 📈 Participants in the study showed cognitive improvements comparable to those of middle-aged adults during the intervention and reached levels of young adults within a year and a half.
- 🎨 The improvement in the skills learned by the older adults was remarkable, with one participant even receiving commissions for their paintings.
- 👵 The study's participants reported increased confidence, a sense of purpose, and feeling valued, challenging the notion of aging as a period of decline.
- 🌟 Learning new skills is not only necessary for adapting to changes but also a privilege that requires support and resources, which are often not provided to adults.
- 📚 The speaker encourages continuous learning at any age, suggesting that an optimized learning environment could prevent cognitive decline and enhance the quality of life.
- 🌐 The potential of optimizing learning environments for people of all ages is vast, and it could lead to significant societal and individual benefits.
Q & A
What is the main difference between how children and adults learn according to the speaker?
-The speaker highlights that children and infants receive an enriched learning environment with ample resources, time, and support for making mistakes, whereas adults often face a deprived learning environment with limited resources, little time, and a lack of forgiveness for mistakes.
Why did the speaker initially start learning new skills like painting and piano?
-The speaker began learning new skills to challenge the common belief that adults are not capable of learning new things as effectively as children, and to explore the potential cognitive benefits of learning in adults.
What was the societal reaction when the speaker started learning new skills as an adult?
-People initially discouraged the speaker from learning new skills, suggesting they were wasting their time due to their initial poor performance. However, as the speaker improved, they attributed the progress to innate talent rather than effort.
How did the speaker's approach to learning differ from the typical adult learning environment?
-The speaker's approach to learning was similar to that of children, with an open mind, access to good instructors and resources, a belief in their ability to learn, a willingness to make mistakes, and a commitment to learning multiple skills at once.
What was the purpose of the study involving older adults learning new skills?
-The purpose of the study was to test the hypothesis that providing an enriched learning environment to older adults, similar to what is given to infants and children, could enhance their cognitive abilities and potentially mitigate cognitive decline.
What skills did the older adults learn in the study, and how long did the learning process last?
-The older adults learned skills such as painting, drawing, Spanish, using an iPad, music composition, and photography. They learned these skills over a period of three months, dedicating about 15 hours a week.
What cognitive tests were used to measure the participants' improvement in the study?
-The cognitive tests used included tasks like counting blue dots among other shapes and colors, and sorting shapes by color or shape based on changing instructions, which measured attention and memory.
What were the results of the study in terms of cognitive improvement?
-The older adults who learned new skills showed significant cognitive improvement, reaching levels comparable to middle-aged adults during the intervention and even up to undergraduate levels within a year and a half.
How did the participants feel about their experience in the study?
-The participants reported increased confidence in their abilities, a sense of purpose, and a feeling of importance and value. They expressed a desire to continue learning and contributing, even at an older age.
What message does the speaker want to convey about learning and cognitive abilities?
-The speaker emphasizes that learning is a privilege and an intensive process that requires support. They advocate for optimizing learning environments for both younger and older individuals to prevent cognitive decline and enhance cognitive abilities.
Outlines
👵 The Dichotomy of Learning: Age and Perception
The speaker begins by contrasting the societal attitudes towards learning in children versus adults, using the metaphor of a 72-year-old woman named Sarah who spends her days indoors watching TV. This sets the stage for a discussion on the differences in how children and adults are perceived when it comes to learning. The speaker shares personal anecdotes of learning new skills like painting, playing the piano, and speaking German, despite initial discouragement. The anecdotes highlight the common misconception that improvement is due to innate talent rather than effort and resources. The speaker's experiences underscore the lack of support and resources typically provided to adults in comparison to children, suggesting that the adult learning environment is often a form of 'deprivation' that could be improved.
🎨 Cognitive Benefits of Learning New Skills in Older Adults
The speaker delves into a study that aimed to test whether providing an enriched learning environment, similar to what children receive, could enhance cognitive abilities in older adults. The study involved older adults learning new skills such as painting, drawing, Spanish, using an iPad, music composition, and photography, over a period of three months with substantial weekly hours. Participants were assigned skills based on their prior knowledge, ensuring they were learning outside their comfort zones. The learning process was structured to mimic a part-time job or an undergraduate course load, complete with weekly discussions on motivation and barriers to learning. The study used cognitive tests to track improvements in attention and memory, revealing that participants' cognitive scores improved significantly, reaching levels comparable to those of younger adults within a year and a half.
🌟 Empowerment Through Lifelong Learning
The speaker concludes by emphasizing the transformative power of learning new skills at any age. Highlighting the personal growth and increased confidence experienced by the study participants, the speaker shares a poignant quote from one of the older adults who felt re-energized and purposeful through learning. The talk concludes with a call to action, encouraging continuous learning throughout life, adapting to changes, and rejecting negative stereotypes about age and learning capabilities. The speaker suggests that by optimizing learning environments and providing resources, we can mitigate cognitive decline and enhance the quality of life for individuals of all ages.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Cognitive Decline
💡Learning Environment
💡Open Mind
💡Innate Talent
💡Resources
💡Mistakes
💡Motivation
💡Successful Aging
💡Barriers to Learning
💡Cognitive Tests
💡Multiple Skills
Highlights
The speaker contrasts the public's perception of a 72-year-old woman who watches TV all day with that of a 7-year-old girl who does the same, questioning societal attitudes towards learning at different ages.
The speaker shares personal experiences learning to paint, play the piano, and speak German, emphasizing the importance of perseverance and resources in acquiring new skills.
Despite initial discouragement, the speaker's efforts in learning lead to significant improvement, challenging the notion of innate talent over acquired skill.
The speaker discusses the benefits provided to children during learning, such as open-mindedness and access to resources, which are often not extended to adults.
A study is introduced where older adults are taught new skills to test if an enriched learning environment can improve cognitive abilities.
The study's initial small group of six older adults showed cognitive improvements during the intervention, suggesting the feasibility of the approach.
A larger group of 27 older adults participated, learning skills like painting, Spanish, and music composition, with a structured, intensive learning schedule.
Participants were assigned skills based on their prior knowledge, ensuring they were challenged with new material.
Cognitive tests were administered to measure attention and memory, with results indicating significant improvement over the course of the study.
The control group showed no significant change, while those who learned new skills improved to levels comparable to middle-aged adults during the intervention.
Remarkably, one year after the intervention, participants' cognitive scores continued to rise, reaching levels of young adults.
The speaker shares examples of participants' artwork, demonstrating the remarkable progress made in their newly acquired skills.
A participant's testimony highlights the personal growth and newfound confidence gained through the learning process.
The speaker encourages continuous learning, suggesting that with the right support, adults can learn new skills effectively.
The importance of optimizing learning environments for adults is emphasized to mitigate cognitive decline and enhance learning opportunities.
The speaker concludes by advocating for learning as a privilege that should be accessible and optimized for all ages to achieve personal and societal benefits.
Transcripts
foreign
[Applause]
your neighbor she's 72 years old she
doesn't really talk to anybody doesn't
really leave the house and
watches TV all day
what would you do to help her
you might do nothing you might take her
out to lunch once a week
but what if I told you Sarah is actually
a seven-year-old who doesn't really
leave the house doesn't really talk to
anybody and watches TV all day
well you might be wondering why is she
not in school why is she not learning
more why is she not interacting with
teachers and peers
there's a big difference in how we think
about what children learn and how what
adults learn
and this difference is something I've
been really interested in for the last
15 years I first encountered this
difference when I wanted to learn how to
paint
and I was pretty terrible I didn't
really understand perspective and
everything looked flat and people would
tell me you're pretty terrible don't
quit your day job you're wasting your
time
so I got myself some teachers I spent
three hours a week at the easel and I
got all the resources I needed and over
time my painting started looking more
like this
and then people would say oh you've got
an artistic Gene you maybe you're
related to some artist you didn't know
about so they attributed all the effort
that I'd put in into some kind of talent
and innate Talent same thing happened
when I wanted to learn how to play the
piano and sing people would say you're
you sound pretty terrible stop wasting
your time you are tone deaf and I got
myself some teachers I spent time
practicing and I got all the resources I
needed and I got better and then people
would say oh you've got a musical Gene
you didn't know about this whole time
the same thing happened when I wanted to
learn German and I wanted to learn
German because I married a German guy
and I didn't want secret languages
between my husband and my in-laws so I
got myself some teachers and I thought
let's try this out again
I got I got better but people would say
you're too old to be learning languages
that's for infants and children you're
way past your period of you know
learning for that
but I got better and now I'm more like
um
two or three year old talking which I
think is okay and I understand most
about my in-laws say so all of the
skills that I've been learning so far I
gave myself the benefits that infants
and children get when they learn so when
I was learning these skills I had an
open mind I didn't dismiss anything
because I thought it was just not
necessary to learn
I had really really good instructors and
I had all the resources I needed I
believed in my ability to learn and to
improve and I allowed myself to make as
many mistakes as I needed to make to
learn what I needed to learn
I also committed to the learning I
learned a lot of these skills many years
ago and I continued to learn these
skills today
and I also learned multiple skills at
the same time so if you think about
children who learned five subjects at
school they can draw connections between
the different subjects to make the whole
learning experience much more powerful
so all of these benefits that we provide
infants and children when they learn
we actually don't give these to adults
when they learn so the normal learning
environment for adults includes very few
resources very little time to learn not
forgiving mistakes and you know not
getting it just not getting enough help
to learn
if we give that kind of environment to
infants and children we actually call
that deprivation so what's normal for
one end of the lifespan is actually
deprivation for the other end of the
lifespan
so what if
the deprived learning environment that
we're PRI that we're providing older
adults and adults in general to learn is
actually causing some of the cognitive
decline that we see
asked another way what can can giving
the enriched and learning environment
that we give to infants and children if
we give that to Old adults especially
older adults can that increase their
cognitive abilities
so we wanted to test this idea and so we
brought in some older adults to see if
they would work with us and and and test
this idea out with us
first we brought in a small group to see
if it was even feasible to do this study
and then we scaled it up to a larger
group once we figured out it was
feasible to do so in the first study we
had six people come in to learn new
skills with us and they took some
cognitive tests to see how they would
improve in their cognitive abilities
over time and then we had nine people in
a no contact control condition who
didn't do the didn't learn the skills
with us but took the tests at the same
period to see if they would increase in
their cognitive abilities
and then we had 27 people in the second
study to learn new skills with us and
then they came in before the
intervention started to take the test
twice to see if they could just improve
just from taking the tests
and the skills that I learned included
painting and drawing Spanish how to use
an iPad music composition photography
and all of these skills are relatively
challenging they you can't plateau in
them within a week or so and this the
skills were assigned to the participants
based on how little they knew about them
so if they knew very little about
painting for example then you know never
held a paintbrush or something then they
would be assigned to that skill so they
had to learn at least three skills at
the same time
and they learned these skills over three
months for about 15 hours a week and so
if you think about it it's a little bit
like a part-time job
and if you want to put it in the context
of undergraduate education it's a little
bit like taking the undergraduate load
for about one quarter
they also had a weekly discussion about
motivation successful aging barriers to
learning to kind of talk through the
issues that they were facing
so
the cognitive test that we gave them to
track their attention and memory allowed
us to see how they might improve over
time so one test that we gave them for
example had blue dots on the screen
green dots and blue squares and they had
to count the number of blue dots and
then remember that number see another
screen with dots of squares remember the
number of blue dots and so on and so
forth so they would have to remember a
series of digits and that's remembering
a series of digits is a little bit like
remembering someone's phone number
another test that we gave them looked
something like this where they would see
shapes on a screen and the top shape had
to be sorted with one of the bottom two
shapes and if the instruction was sort
by shape then you would have to put the
red rectangle with the yellow rectangle
and if the instruction was sort by color
then you would sort the red rectangle
with the red triangle by sorting like
this you can track how quickly people
can switch between different
instructions and so it's a little bit
like sorting laundry at home if you have
to sort lights versus darks and then
sort shirts versus socks
so how did our participants do so from
all of the tests that we gave them we
combined their score into a combined
cognitive score and that's what you see
on the y-axis and then on the x-axis you
see time so the the different time
periods intervention start intervention
end and then up to the one year
follow-up
if you're about 72 years of age average
older adult you and you take the test
one time you would land about where that
purple dotted line is
if you're an average middle-aged adult
42 years of age you would land about
where that green dotted line is if
you're an undergraduate at UCR you would
land about where that pink dotted line
is so the difference between the pink
dotted line and that purple dotted line
is about 50 years
so that's the range that we're talking
about so how did our participants do
well so the gray dot The Gray Line here
is the control group they came in to
just do the test and didn't learn the
new skills with us and they hovered
around where the older adult average
line is
the first group of the small group of
older adults that came in to learn the
new skills with us reached levels that
were a little bit closer to middle-aged
adults during the intervention
then the larger group of older adults
now reached the levels of middle-aged
adults but you might think well hey they
started a little bit higher that's
because they came in to do the tests
before the intervention started one time
and then if you take the test multiple
times you can increase because your you
have a general sense of how the test
should go
but they increased to middle-aged adults
by the end of the by the midpoint of the
intervention
how do they do one year after the end of
the intervention they continued
increasing all the way up to
undergraduate young adult levels that
undergraduates that took the test for
the first time
So within a year and a half they were
able to achieve the same levels as
undergraduates coming in and doing the
tests for the first time
so this is pretty amazing to us
but actually what seems to be more
amazing is the fact that they improved
in the skills that they learned
and I just want to show you one example
so here is a painting from somebody from
the painting class this is somebody who
hated the painting class
very much hated the painting class
especially at the beginning and you know
never took up a paintbrush could barely
draw a stick figure wanted to quit
basically because she was assigned to
the painting class but over time the
paintings got better
and by this point towards the end of the
intervention this participant was
getting commissions for their paintings
and people were you know willing to
paint for her pay for her paintings and
these are paintings from other
participants towards the end of the
intervention to show you how much they
had improved from the beginning
and here's a quote from one of the
participants to that actually I think
accurately captures what all the
participants were thinking in the
intervention
so this participant says I had hoped to
get a class in Gourmet cooking not
Spanish ipen is certainly not painting I
no longer have to find one of my
grandkids to help me with posting
pictures or looking up something on my
phone
this study has given me so much
confidence in myself and my abilities it
has made me feel like I have a purpose
like I could add something to the world
like my life was evolving even at this
age I feel important and valuable before
I kind of believed I was a husband
basically just passing the time waiting
to meet my maker I plan on painting as
long as I can afford the paint and
canvases which at this point I may
choose to not buy food in order to buy
paint
so you might be thinking well if
learning new skills can have such a
powerful impact on people what should I
be learning right well there's there are
skills that you have to learn as the
world changes and as you experience
personal changes so that you can adapt
to those changes those things that you
need to learn should be on your list
there might also be skills that you want
to learn and those can also be on your
list because why not have fun
you might be thinking
how should I learn well all of the
benefits that we give to infants and
children when they learn to help them
succeed in their learning those can be
applied to older adults especially older
adults so having an open mind finding
good instructors and resources believing
in your ability to learn and improve for
giving mistakes committing to learning
and learning multiple new skills at the
same time
so remember to
keep learning as much as you can
especially if you're an undergraduate
right now your learning opportunities
are going to decrease dramatically after
the last year of formal education but
try to find resources try to find the
teachers and try to keep giving yourself
the benefits that infants and children
get
to learn as much as you need to learn
reject negative stereotypes that adults
can't learn and adults can't learn as as
well as children so why bother
and encourage people of all ages to be
able to continue learning in whatever
way you can
so I hope I've convinced you that
learning is an important privilege it's
important because we need to learn to be
able to adapt to the changing
environment and personal changes but
it's also a privilege because it's very
very intensive and you need so much
support to be able to learn all the
things that we need to learn
so if we can optimize a learning
environment for adults we could
potentially mitigate or even prevent
cognitive decline
and we can enhance the
um the online learning platforms and
community centers that we have and we
can build new learning opportunities for
people and provide learning resources so
people don't have to decide between
buying food and buying paint
if we can optimize a learning
environment for both younger and older
Sarah's across
the world we might be able to achieve
much more than we think thank you for
listening
[Applause]
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