What Is Gist?
A
new generation of neuroscientists, psychologists and behavioral scientists is
unraveling the hidden powers of the experienced mind. Their research shows that
as we get older we also tend to get better at seeing the big picture and
zeroing in on the simple and meaningful core of things—their gist, or
essence.Our recall may slow but at the same time the brain’s gist capacity
blossoms.
Younger people confront problems through calculation,
but this blossoming allows us to rely less on calculation and more on impressionistic
“gist thinking.” Reyna, the professor of human development and psychology at
Cornell and a leader in research into the neuroscience of decision-making, says
we don’t abandon calculation, we just get better and better at zooming to the
heart of the matter—at seeing the full landscape, making connections between
related matters, getting to the core of issues, sizing up situations, narrowing
the options, and making informed decisions.
This fascinating research undercuts
long-held scientific perspectives and popular myths about the “aging
brain”—perspectives and myths that are becoming as anachronistic as they are
misleading. Until recently neuroscience has tended to lead us into believing
that mental abilities inevitably degenerate as we age, making us slower, more
forgetful, and less effective thinkers in midlife and beyond. In the old view,
our brain cells die, our thought processes wane, and our decision-making
becomes slow and muddled.
Gist
researchers are finding that, to the contrary, a lifetime of experience
enhances effective decision-making. At the decisive moment, gist thinkers are
more adept at putting the pieces together and pointing to the best path
forward.
“The physical ability
to size up a situation and the experience to make a judgment increases from
[ages] 40 to 65,” says Barbara Strauch, a leading researcher at the Stanford
Center on Longevity and author of The
Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain. "We think we're sort of the
smartest in college or in graduate school, but when we do the tests we find
that's not true in many areas, including inductive reasoning. We are better
than we were in our 20s. And that, to me, is amazing." In fact,
"there is a whole host of areas where they find we improve in middle age
over our 20-something selves."
"We are better at getting the gist
of arguments," she says. "We are better at recognizing categories.
And we're much better at sizing up situations. We're better at things like
making financial decisions, which reaches a peak in our 60s. Social
expertise—in other words, judging whether someone's a crook or not a
crook—improves and peaks in middle age."
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