03 - Successfully aging with our knowledge and our information 

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Successfully aging with our knowledge and our information.

William Jones
Research Associate Professor Emeritus
The Information School University of Washington

In the normal course of aging, we experience a gradual decline in raw cognitive ability as measured, for example, by tests of short-term working memory capacity and processing speed. But a growing body of research provides intriguing, suggestive indicators that we might compensate for and counter declines in raw cognitive ability through methods that better leverage both information “out there” and our accumulated knowledge “in the head.” Ideally, methods combine so that the declines of age are minimal, and we remain active, engaged and self-reliant up until the very end of our biological lives. What can be done, in the management of our information and, indirectly, in the management of our knowledge to come closer to this ideal of aging?