The quarter-life crisis may actually be justified: New research shows that people may be "over the hill" at 24. According to a study in the journal PLOS ONE, that's when we start to experience an age-related decline in our cognitive motor skills. To measure this, researchers had individuals, ages 16 to 44, play the computer game StarCraft 2. "After around 24 years of age, players show slowing in a measure of cognitive speed that is known to be important for performance," explains Joe Thompson, lead author of the study.
If you're no longer a quick-at-the-draw young gamer, don't panic just yet: "Older players, though slower, seem to compensate by employing simpler strategies and using the game's interface more efficiently than younger players, enabling them to retain their skill, despite cognitive motor-speed loss." For example, older players more readily use short-cut and sophisticated command keys to compensate for declining speed in executing real time decisions. The findings, says Thompson, suggest "that our cognitive-motor capacities are not stable across our adulthood, but are constantly in flux, and that our day-to-day performance is a result of the constant interplay between change and adaptation."
If you're no longer a quick-at-the-draw young gamer, don't panic just yet: "Older players, though slower, seem to compensate by employing simpler strategies and using the game's interface more efficiently than younger players, enabling them to retain their skill, despite cognitive motor-speed loss." For example, older players more readily use short-cut and sophisticated command keys to compensate for declining speed in executing real time decisions. The findings, says Thompson, suggest "that our cognitive-motor capacities are not stable across our adulthood, but are constantly in flux, and that our day-to-day performance is a result of the constant interplay between change and adaptation."
