In your opinion, how old is the researcher feeling that he is unable to absorb and retain information highly in light of the pressures of life and the huge technological development that makes us exposed to hundreds of information in a few minutes؟
AGE affects productivity. One of the reason we have retirement age is that at a certain age, human productivity starts to decrease. It is a natural process. No machine or system could last forever. The human body and mind are machines; they go through decay process with age.
Some people may still maintain good mental capacity even at old age; some may decay with age. For each person (researcher) the toll of time is not the same.
Hmm. This is an interesting question, and I do agree that age does affect productivity, but the question is when does it substantially or significantly affect it for researchers. The aspects of cognition that decline in our 30s, 40s, and 50s (i.e., reaction times, speed of processing, energy levels, rate of healing, etc.) are not necessarily the skills needed to be a productive researcher. Thus, we see many, many scholars who are extremely productive past the usual age of retirement (i.e., 65) because they have built up and honed their researching skills, their research networks, and can be more judicious with the expenditure of energy.
Paul Louangrath,Brandon Stewart
Very distinct answers
Thank you
Without doubt, the age after 75, in general, the researcher begins to lose his memory, sight, etc. Whoever has had time, he rust. "ألي بقضي بصدي"
With age we note that the number of research carried out by the researcher decreases, but the quality of research is much better Therefore, we note the existence of research teams of different ages to combine the experience of the elderly with young people who are able to complete the largest number of research formulated by the ideas of the team members of the elderly.
As long as a person is mentally and physically active he/she, can contribute a lot to research. According to me it is not age but fitness of the individual which matters.
please check it
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3447201?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
For me age is related to experience of research not ability.
Best regards my a new friend Amany Mousa Abdelgalil
That fully depends on the scientific subject of research and practiced discipline, i.e. reaching a professional and biographical record in medicine or engineering can be achieved earlier than in a social science like economics. Keep in mind that science and life cannot be disconnected; in some disciplines (e.g. political economy) you will even need an extended life span (besides all scientific expertise) to notice, what is going on? Imagine an economist, who was born ~1900, faced to2WW, 3 governmental systems, had to migrate and gives a record of his/her scientific research and experiences (expertise).
Examples:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_von_Mises
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Hayek
Conclusion: Human professional expertise follows different life learning curves,
depending on the chosen subject/discipline.
This is a very good question, but the topic is definitely under-researched,
concerning real human praxis.
no age limit for research ... researchers are like wine... the older the better
Ali Alhayany،
Afraa Ibrahim،Rekha Rani Koduganti،
Nirmala S.V.S.G،
Paula Romanos،
Fares F. Fares،
Ali A. Al-Homaidan،
Stephen I. Ternyik،
Jasim Hassen،
Shahab Uddin،Elena Tarkhanova
Thank you for your interest in answering the question
Each of you has a very distinctive answer
Age is just a number. With age comes an ability to reason and think logically and rationally. And all this is required for a good researcher.
Dimitri Ketchakmadze,Tabitha Durai,Diary R. Sulaiman
Thanks for your helpful answer
No age has nothing to do with research. One can continue to do research even when but this speed of course may diminish
I believe that as age grows, experiences grow and thinking develops. At this stage the researcher can find new things with less effort and time.
With increase in age put constraints to physical work but with increases experience helps to research activity mentally
Amal Saadoon Majeed, Mahavir Balmukund Varm, Chuck A Arize, Hussien Al-Deeky
My thanks and appreciation for your interest in answering my question
Age will not be a factor for research that much, if the person is mentally fit, with his long experience he will be able to continue in research
Although at any age beyond 75, a researcher becomes physically limited, but he or she can still contribute to research. One can do this by guiding the research , that is pointing out sources of the relevant data, directing how the analysis should be undertaken, and maybe not writing the entire paper but at least help with the interpretation of the results and policy implications.
Interesting topic and replies.
I am tempted to say that as time goes by, everyone and everying change, including researchers. So sure they are not the same. They are different but not necessarily less able.
Or they may be less able in one topic but more in another.
The researcher is characterized by several features - primarily curiosity, knowledge and skills. Without curiosity, the scientist turns into a "wise serpent" who knows everything ("I have already read all the necessary books") but has no incentive to work. Unfortunately, over the years, curiosity, i.e. interest in the new, decreases against the background of increasing knowledge. As the French poet wrote: “Si jeunesse savait, si vieillesse pouvait...”
At the same time, wisdom does not come automatically, age does not add reason, but manifests it, if was. Many should be immediately retired (which is often done). This is especially true for the former bosses (many of them hardly move to the position of "sage" and cannot suppress the bossy reflexes).
So, it’s important (as in any business in life) to create a workable group in which older and younger scientists collaborate. In this situation, they compensate for each other's shortcomings, in a different interpretation they complement each other.
Age affects research output just like it does everything. It is how life works. It simply fits into a typical bacterial growth curve. The lag or preparaTory phase for training, the small beginner's research output and the outburst of research in the exponential range, a steady state where a certain volume of research is turned out on a consistent level and then the diminishing phase where increasingly fewer researches are conducted, involved in and then the retirement. That is what age does. It is a law of nature.
HI,
I do not know if I have posted about this before, if so. I am old and forgetful and so apologize. Ageism was coined by Robert Butler. He was in his eighties or later and still productive. A research project I used on a nursing school project had a contributor-cancer survivor, researcher and amazing woman in her 90's. Age to a point is a number.
brigid
Dear, Tapas Chatterjee
Chuck A Arize,
Anastas Ivanov Ivanov,
Konstantinos Karampelas,
Agnieszka Will geb. Gronek,
Vadim S. Gorshkov ,
Maurice Ekpenyong
Zubaida Falih Al-Zubaidi ,
Nirmala S.V.S.G
, Brigid Conroy
,Fares F. Fares
Thank you for your different answer
Thank unbiased answers
I remind you that age has a clear impact on man
Many of us are unable to conduct further research due to neck or back problems, as well as vision and eye problems resulting from frequent use of laptops, computers and other health problems
Science does not decrease with the progress of science, but the ability decreases when some
Amany Mousa Abdelgalil
Thank you for thanking us! You are correct and some of us have had surgeries for neck and back (not eyes yet) but in life we do not think about what has happened to us, we focus on tomorrow as giants. We can not fix yesterday but we can still perform an aspect of research function. Maybe listen and tell the writer if an interpretation needed more work. Every one is useful until they pass away!
Dear, Chuck A Arize
You are a person who loves giving to the last moment of your life
Really you are a wonderful person
Greetings
Amany Mousa Abdelgalil
Hey Amany,
Allah is always with us and we have to believe. We cannot trust one and change tomorrow. Blessings to you!
The views and comments of Chuck A Arize , Maurice Ekpenyong , and Vadim S. Gorshkov are insightful and inspiring !!
To me, age is just a number. There is no age-limitations for research. But, sometimes age may affect on it.
Why we should be worried about age that much, we are doing our research with the blessing of God, He only will decide whether we should continue farther or not, keep faith on that Almighty certainly we will remain active in research field up to our last stage.
Appeals court and Supreme Court judges still perform in United States until they can retire by themselves. No president can remove them. In my university some teachers are in their late eighties (although I do not plan on being one of them). I would like to relax and travel at such an age. Given that there is no age discrimination it is better to stay in contribution mode as far as one can than stay at home. At home all the time creates bad thoughts in one’s head
Older researchers may be more efficient when writing papers as they have been doing it over the years.
Maybe
They mature more. But their morale is diminishing. Their goals did not remain meaningful inevitably reduced capacity
I dunno. I recall a professor who really was way too far into his dotage. He used to lean on the lectern, turn his hearing aid off, and read in a boring monotone from his yellowed notes without looking up. One day he bored himself to sleep during his lecture. His research probably consisted of re–search, i.e. searching again for those scraps of paper he read from in class.
قد تضعف قوتهم على الكتابة وليس البحث ، فهناك من تألق من الباحثين وهو في عمر متقدم لنضوج الافكارلديه والمعلومات.
Dear Karl Pfeifer ,
it is possible that he was always ineffectual. Age has negative points that can figuratively slow down some. But, I have had patients who were balls of energy in their nineties. I read a paper on cancer research. On of the authors had recently died of cancer, she was 95 or so. So much for chemo brain or old brain or no brain. ;-}
brigid
Hi,
I agree that as researchers become old, their stamina may decrease a little limiting their physical activity in the laboratory; However, the knowledge increases by multiple proportions and their scientific philosophies are at an unimaginable level. This is where, the new research scholars, and junior scientists come into play and implement what the researcher has in mind, thereby enhancing their own knowledge.
Age has definite effects but it’s effects are minimal once the desire is there and health is okay. One may have difficulty running the data but in terms of interpretation age is almost an advantage
I think the researcher is more stronger and more accurate in his work when he advance in age and experience, as you see when the researcher reach to degree of full professor his work will be more deep and valuable
Yes of course old age slows everybody down. I am pretty sure I am less capable now than I was 20 years ago and I suspect my physical and mental abilities will continue to deteriorate as I age. Some people are still highly capable -but still somewhat diminished at 70 or 80 years of age and most if not all will deteriorate significantly before the age of 90.
I could mention at least a few Polish professors who were fully mentally fit at the age of 90. But these are exceptions. With more years, there is also a chance to look at different phenomena and behaviors more broadly than with less. But there is no rule here.
Miroslaw yes i agree some people age much more slowly than others. In my experience most people have noticable memory issues by the time they reach 80-85 years old some go 10 years longer than that.
It mostly depends of on their trait and personality. Lifestyle and healthy practices is influencing health of biological . Coping management and decision making is important for mental peace in each activities, enthusiasm, memory and active in personal and professional life. Some young people even they dont have good in memory because of stress , responsibilities , poor in decision making . Age is not deciding the memory power - it is in extreme of age above 85 !
We are not all the same. Age catches up with all of us eventually, but some earlier than others. As with every other thing in life, research output decreases with age but research quality might increase with age.
Both research output and quality have tended to decrease with age however what increases are organization and interpretation of research output. Put differently, knowledge and understanding of the size and form. Have the writer done an acceptable work? That is, areas of research that deals with presentation and interpretation of work increases.
its a bell shaped curve until you have finished learning all of the easy stuff. Initially researchers are still trying to figure things out and progress is slow then there is an acceleration as they learn and eventually easy progress will come to an end
Age is not an important variable when considering research ability. What could affect research ability is the research experience one gets over time conducting and writing research, attending and presenting research papers at workshops and conferences, reading research papers, and interacting with other researchers on platforms such as ResearchGate. If older researchers appear to be more able, it is not on account of their age but because of the experience and exposure that they have had. A younger researcher with a lot of exposure and experience can still be a more able researcher than an older researcher with limited exposure and experience. The assumption I am making here is that we are talking about researchers who are in good health.
Dear All, Thank you very much for the answers to the question: Are researchers less able to research with age? Thank you very much for the sent suggestions of interesting topics, research issues, etc. related to this issue. This discussion confirms the importance of the above-mentioned issues and the legitimacy of developing research on this subject. Thank you for the interesting information sent.
Thank you very much and best regards, Have a nice day,
Dariusz Prokopowicz
I know some distinguished researchers who are over 85 and still publish the best quality research ever.
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