Misconceptions about Adult Learning
Can adults still learn new things? Three common myths
Yes: adults can learn new skills and form new memories throughout life. Some mental abilities change with age, while experience, knowledge and vocabulary may remain strong or improve. There is no fixed age at which learning stops, and there is also no credible promise that practice will reverse every age-related change.
- Myth: An aging brain cannot learn. Reality: Older adults can learn, sometimes needing more time or different strategies.
- Myth: Neural pathways become permanently fixed in adulthood. Reality: Plasticity continues across life, although its mechanisms and limits vary.
- Myth: Only adults need prior knowledge to learn. Reality: Both younger and older learners build on what they already know.
The National Institute on Aging’s review explains that many older adults learn skills and remember new information successfully despite common age-related changes. For studying a new subject, combine accessible explanations with spaced retrieval practice and carefully chosen examples.
Introduction
There are many misconceptions about adult learning. There is also one important truth of which we need to be aware. This truth seems to be the source of many limiting beliefs which simply aren’t true, so let’s examine that first.
In our thirties, our brains begin to shrink a little. This process continues into our sixties, at which time it seems to accelerate. The areas most affected are the frontal lobe and hippocampus. As well, cortical density and white matter thin out.
While the natural aging process is responsible for these changes, the cognitive effects aren’t apparent. Nor are they set in stone. Clearly, some people fall victim to aging brains while others maintain their mental sharpness all their lives.
Why?
That’s what leads us to our misconceptions.
Misconception #1
Some kinds of memory performance change with age, especially under time pressure. Other abilities, such as vocabulary and accumulated knowledge, can stay strong.
The Truth
Aging is not merely a matter of attitude or effort. Healthy adults can experience measurable changes in processing speed and some kinds of memory, but many retain the ability to learn new information and skills. Effective strategies, time and appropriate support can make learning more manageable.
Of course not.
If we haven’t bothered to learn much since high school, then chances are we haven’t had to remember much new information since then, either. Without working out our brains, they won’t make new connections. Brain connections change throughout life, but not every age-related change can be prevented or reversed. Stay curious, learn meaningful skills and use evidence-based study habits rather than expecting a complete reversal of normal aging.
It might be difficult to remember new information at first, but new neural connections can be made very quickly, and our brains will start remembering things again. With some assistance, it is even possible to be a more effective learner than before.
Misconception #2
Our brains have a fixed number of neural connections and then die off over time.
The Truth
Synaptic connections change rapidly during development. It is misleading to compare a newborn and an adult using one fixed count of connections, because different brain regions mature on different timetables. Early in life, there is an explosion of activity, and then those connections get pruned back after about three years old. This explosion happens again in other regions of the brain. Once again, they are pruned.
Learning changes neural networks in adulthood, but mentally challenging activities do not guarantee that every cognitive measure will remain identical to its level in young adulthood.
The best news, however, is that we can regrow these connections when we start learning again. Learning is the key to neural plasticity. We make new connections constantly, which continues into our old age as long as we use our brains.
The brain is an organ, not a muscle. Practice can improve performance on trained activities, though improvement on one task does not automatically transfer to every kind of thinking or prevent all age-related decline.
Misconception #3
Unlike young learners, adult learners need prior knowledge of something to learn it.
The Truth
In the classroom, one of the first things teachers do when introducing a new topic is activate prior knowledge. Our brains are association machines, so learning something new requires association.
Using prior knowledge helps us to relate and file something new. The information we use as prior knowledge doesn’t have to be especially relevant. For example, when I started learning about computer programming, I found it was similar to the building instructions that came with furniture. And while there are some critical differences between the two, it helped me frame my learning.
Conclusion
In short, anyone can learn as an adult. You have what it takes. It might be a little slow-going at first. It was for me. I was tempted to give up. But then, things started to make sense — the pieces began to fit together. And if you can wait for that first ah-ha moment, I promise you there are many more to follow.
Continue learning as an adult
Try spaced retrieval, beginner memory techniques, and concentration strategies.
