Look at me now. I am almost 31. And most of the time, I don’t get to sleep that much. That has probably impacted my brain as a student who has a full-time job at the same time. I am not quite sure I can still handle lots of memorizing but I still am pretty good at it when I have time and the alertness to do so—that means when I’m not thinking of my bed and my very soft pillows.
I have read that adult memory can be quite just as good as a young person’s memory. And a YouTube video attached to my readings on cognitive processes tells me that adults are great at crystallized intelligence. So that means, adult learners are good at providing examples to theories. Which is great! After all, what is the use of learning if it is not applied at all?
But people are biological beings too. We cannot deny the presence of certain genes that we may have inherited from our parents or grandparents. In fact, a recent study on cognitive decline as regards educational attainment says, and I directly quote:
“Genetic, socioeconomic and behavioural risk factors all make substantial contributions to the heterogeneity in individuals’ level of cognitive ability. Twin and family-based studies indicate that at least moderate proportion of the differences in most domains of cognitive ability is associated with genetic factors (Bouchard and McGue, 2003; Rietveld et al., 2014). Social scientists have shown that the relationship between education and cognition is in part due to the causal effect of schooling. This relationship can also be due to genetic confounding. Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) found that the genetic components of general cognitive functions are about 20–30% heritable (Davies et al., 2016). Higher educational attainment may allow individuals to cope more effectively with age-related brain deterioration, and thus perform better on cognitive tasks in later life (Lenehan et al., 2015; Rietveld et al., 2014; Scarmeas and Stern, 2004). Recent GWAS have discovered molecular genetic associations with education (Lee et al., 2018) and general cognition (Davies et al., 2018). The polygenic score of education constructed by Lee et al. (2018) explains 11–13% of the variance of educational attainment and 7–10% of the variance of cognitive performance, suggesting that the phenotypes have shared genetic basis (Marioni et al., 2014; Okbay et al., 2016; Rietveld et al., 2014). These findings suggest that common genetic effects may account for some of the observed association between education and cognitive ability” (Ding X, et al, 2019)
Effort. This is truly needed on my part. I can’t say that I was born to highly intelligent parents. My parents were very good cognitively speaking. My mother was an artist and could draft, sketch and paint very well, able to draw a perfect line and circle without any drawing instrument. My father was a very logical and musical person. They were both professionals and had great jobs. They died kind of young due to cardiovascular ailments. So, doctors have personally advised me to take care of my health as well, eat the right food, avoid too much stress because I might be prone to the same ailment as a I grow older.
Honestly, I lift it all to God. I believe in God. That is my culture. And I can feel that such faith heals. I know I am made up of genes. And I can’t do anything about it except maybe take care of my health and set myself worry-free by just trying to smile in the face of adversity, looking up to the heavens and knowing there’s hope and a new day is coming on. Has anyone heard of faith healing?
REFERENCE:
Pharaway's EdPsych Blogs 