Are you able to learn faster as a adult?

It seems as I turned into a adult I can figure stuff out I would never have figured out when I was 16. Do you learn faster as a adult? I think you just get a different way of thinking when you get older.

Sometimes faster, but at a price. Like an old computer, I have simply run out of 'hard drive' space in my brain. I was reading some Photoshop tutorials the other day, and found out that I no longer know how to make a grilled cheese sandwich.

So yes, you can still learn stuff, but at the real risk of overwriting existing knowledge.

My ability to learn things as an adult is a lot higher than it was as a kid. Problem is, my desire to learn things is a lot lower so they cancel each other out.

I don't know, I've had the same thing happen to me (except at 16.) Like when I was 15 I look back on some things I have done and said and think "was I really that stupid?"

I'd like to believe that it has to do with your maturity, because I feel as though I've matured over the last year or so substantially.

I remember leaning in psychology that when you are younger your brain is able to create neural connections faster and more easily. So, in that sense, you learn better as an adolescent. But as you get older you are able to think much more abstractly.

You understand more as an adult but you tend to remember more when you're a child.

You understand more as an adult but you tend to remember more when you're a child.

Legendaryscmt

When you get older you may be able to process information better as you have more knowledge and experience, but young people are generally considered to be better at retaining new information. thriteenthmonke

Sometimes faster, but at a price. Like an old computer, I have simply run out of 'hard drive' space in my brain. I was reading some Photoshop tutorials the other day, and found out that I no longer know how to make a grilled cheese sandwich.

So yes, you can still learn stuff, but at the real risk of overwriting existing knowledge.

It's a long complicated answer but in short, the younger the brain the easier it is to learn. Older brains can compensate by creating neuro-connections but to do that you need to exercise your brain. For example, children can learn languages easier than adults but interest can compensate for age. Also, the more you exercise the part of your brain that controls language the more neuro-connections that part of the brain develops making learning languages easier. It's kinda like a muscle.

Hell NO...my brain is failing at an alarming rate
-peaked at 23

It's a long complicated answer but in short, the younger the brain the easier it is to learn. Older brains can compensate by creating neuro-connections but to do that you need to exercise your brain. For example, children can learn languages easier than adults but interest can compensate for age. Also, the more you exercise the part of your brain that controls language the more neuro-connections that part of the brain develops making learning languages easier. It's kinda like a muscle.

genfactor

As a neuroscience major I facepalmed reading that. "Neuro-connections"? "Exercise your brain"? You've been listening to way too many Brain Age ads.

Anyway, the reality is that yes, you do learn better as an adult. People like to say that you learn languages faster as a kid and while that's true for babies, it's not true for older children. The only advantage that kids have over adults when it comes to learning languages is that they can pick up on the nuances that adults often miss. This is why if a kid learns a language early enough they don't have an accent when speaking it. However, that has nothing to do with memory or learning, and more to do with the fact that kids process language differently than adults.

When it comes to other things, like abstract concepts, adults are leagues ahead of children. Using language as an example yet again, consider learning to read. Children take forever to do this. They learn to read slowly because they suck at grasping symbolism (and it's nearly impossible for them to grasp symbolic logic, which pretty much precludes teaching them algebra or scientific concepts until they get much older). An adult, however, can learn to read a new langauge extremely quickly. For example, it's common for adults learning Japanese to become literate in hiragana and katakana within a week (and I hear many people manage to do it over a single weekend).

But as far as learning in a pure sense is considered, adults are better than children because they've developed strategies for learning and because they have a lot of prior knoweldge to draw on. As a result, they can learn much more efficiently than children.

I can figure out more difficult stuff as an adult, but I definitely don't learn things as fast as I used to.

You pose an interesting question. I can't answer it though. As a kid(I'm talking 12-), What I considered learning was basic grade school things. I did not think that life lessons were learning back then. I was not really aware that I was learning the things that would be relevant. Now, as an adult, if I want to say, learn to become a bartender, I simply have to go take a course and learn how. I guess I learn faster as an adult, because I choose to learn things now, whereas they were pushed upon me as childhood?

I truly can not answer...I will have to think on this...

Sometimes faster, but at a price. Like an old computer, I have simply run out of 'hard drive' space in my brain. I was reading some Photoshop tutorials the other day, and found out that I no longer know how to make a grilled cheese sandwich.

So yes, you can still learn stuff, but at the real risk of overwriting existing knowledge.

Children learn faster than adults but adults have more motivation to learn than children.

You learn the fastest and most in the first year of your life :)

Sometimes faster, but at a price. Like an old computer, I have simply run out of 'hard drive' space in my brain. I was reading some Photoshop tutorials the other day, and found out that I no longer know how to make a grilled cheese sandwich.

So yes, you can still learn stuff, but at the real risk of overwriting existing knowledge.

It seems as I turned into a adult I can figure stuff out I would never have figured out when I was 16. Do you learn faster as a adult? I think you just get a different way of thinking when you get older.

slipknot0129

Depends what it is...and what "adult" age you're at. Adults suck at learning new languages, but have a higher sense of logic than teenagers and children. Most adults not born into the technological age are dumbstuck when it comes to electronics. Occasionally you get the ones who know what they're doing.