人类的智力究竟是如何随着时间变化的？是越老越聪明，还是随着年龄的增长逐渐走下坡路？科学研究证明，人类不同方面的能力会在不同年龄达到巅峰，比如，40岁左右的人观察他人情绪的能力最强，50岁左右时运算能力最好，而直到70岁左右人们才会达到语言能力的巅峰。

"At almost any given age, most of us are getting better at some things and worse at others," Joshua Hartshorne, an MIT cognitive science researcher and the lead author of a study looking at how intelligence changes as we age, told Business Insider.
乔舒亚•哈茨霍恩是麻省理工学院认知科学研究员，他主导了一项关于衰老与智力变化关系的研究。他告诉商业内幕网：“几乎在每个特定的年龄，大多数人会对某些事变得更擅长，而在某些事上开始走下坡路。”

The team behind that study quizzed thousands of people aged 10-90 on their ability to do things like remember lists of words, recognize faces, learn names, and do math. Their results suggest that no matter your age, there's almost always a new peak on the horizon.
这项研究的幕后团队对数千名年龄在10-90岁之间的人进行了单词记忆、人脸识别、人名记忆以及算数等能力测试。结果表明，无论你多大年纪，总会出现一个智力新高峰。

18岁：大脑信息处理和细节记忆综合能力的巅峰

Scientists use a test called Digit Symbol Substitution to assess everything from dementia to brain damage. It requires people to use a number of cognitive skills at once — including processing speed, sustained attention, and visual skills. The tool, which typically involves pairing numbers with symbols, is also part of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, one of the most widely used measures of intelligence.
科学家们通过一种名为数字符号替换的测试来评估痴呆症、脑损伤等各种大脑情况，测试内容通常是将数字和符号配对。该测试要求人们同时使用多种认知能力，如信息处理速度、持久的专注力以及视觉能力等。数字符号替换测试也是韦氏成人智力量表的一种工具。韦氏成人智力量表是应用最广泛的智力测量标准之一。

Hartshorne employed the test in his study of how intelligence changes over time and found that participants' performance generally peaked in their late teens.
哈茨霍恩应用这项测试，研究智力如何随着时间变化，并发现参与者最好的表现通常是在二十岁之前那几年。

22岁：对陌生名字记忆能力的巅峰



Most adults are bad at memorizing bits of information without context, a phenomenon that neuroscientists chock up to the Baker/Baker paradox. A classic example of this idea is that you'll have an easier time remembering a story about someone who bakes than a person with the last name Baker. Because there's no context that links the person to the name, it doesn't become firmly lodged in your memory.
在没有语境的情况下，大多数成年人不善于记忆琐碎信息，神经学家将这种现象称为“贝克悖论”。这一观点的典型例证是，相比于记住一个叫贝克的人，你更加容易记住一个烘焙师的故事。因为没有上下文把人物和名字联系起来，它就不会牢牢地留在你的记忆中。

Young people don't appear to be as saddled by this issue, though — a 2011 study found that humans are best at learning new names in our early 20s.
然而，年轻人似乎没有这个困扰，2011年的一项研究发现，人类在20出头时最擅长记忆新名字。

32岁：面部识别能力的巅峰

The human brain has a remarkable capacity to recognize and identify faces, and scientists are just beginning to learn why. On average, we know that our ability to learn and remember new faces appears to peak shortly after our 30th birthday.
人脑记忆和识别面部的能力非常强大，对此科学家们仅有一些初步的了解。一般来说，我们认为人类学习和记忆陌生面孔的能力似乎是在30岁出头达到顶峰。

43岁：专注力的巅峰

Having trouble focusing? A 2015 study from researchers at Harvard University and the Boston Attention and Learning Laboratory suggests that our ability to sustain attention improves with age, reaching its peak around age 43.
注意力很难集中？哈佛大学和波士顿注意力与学习研究所2015年的一项研究表明，人类保持专注的能力随着年龄的增长而提高，在43岁左右到达顶峰。

“While younger adults may excel in the speed and flexibility of information processing, adults approaching their mid-years may have the greatest capacity to remain focused,” Joe DeGutis, one of the study's lead authors, said in a statement.
该研究的领头人之一乔•德盖迪斯在一份声明中表示：“虽然年轻人处理信息时的速度和灵活性更胜一筹，但是中年人的专注力是最强的。”

48岁：最善于识别他人的情绪

Dating is tough. One of the reasons could be that we're generally bad at reading other people's emotions until we reach our late 40s. That's according to one component of Hartshorne's study, which involved showing thousands of people images of faces cropped tightly around the eye area. Participants were asked to describe the emotion the person in the photo was feeling. Performance peaked for people aged around 48.
恋爱真的很难。原因之一可能是，在快50岁前我们通常都不善于解读别人的情绪。这一结论是从哈茨霍恩的研究中得出的。参与者观看了数千张紧沿着眼睛区域剪裁出的人脸图像，要求他们描述出图片中人物的情绪。表现最好的人年龄在48岁左右。

50岁：基本算数能力的巅峰



Many people believe that their math skills go down the drain after they leave school and stop practicing arithmetic. But the next time you try to split up a check, keep this in mind: your ability to do basic subtraction and division doesn't reach its apex until your 50th birthday.
很多人认为他们的数学能力在毕业后不再练习就逐渐退化了。但下次分摊账单时，切记：你做减法除法的基本运算能力直到50岁才能达到巅峰。

67岁：词汇能力巅峰

Ever wonder why you always lose at Scrabble? Good news: Your best days may be ahead. According to people's scores on multiple-choice vocabulary tests, most of us don't reach our peak wordsmith-ing abilities until we're in our late 60s or early 70s.
想知道为什么你玩拼字游戏时总是输吗？好消息：你未来的表现可能是最好的。根据人们的词汇多选测试成绩，大多数人直到70岁前后遣词造句的水平才达到巅峰。