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Humans have long enjoyed crowing about their intellectual superiority in the
animal kingdom. But just as some studies—of tool-wielding birds and
language-discerning rodents—have begun to chip away at our cognitive place
in the sun, others have set their sights on two human groups whose
intelligence might have been underestimated—the very young and the very old.
人類長期以有知識或思考能力的動物自居，但越來越多研究例如會用工具的鳥、分辨聲音
的臼齒類動物，使這件事情已經慢慢改變。另外還有些人在觀察著極年輕與極老年的群體
。
Babies first: "Generations of psychologists and philosophers have believed
that babies and young children were basically defective adults—irrational,
egocentric and unable to think logically," Alison Gopnik, author of The
Philosophical Baby (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2009), wrote in a New York
Times editorial last week. But her research—and that of others—has gone on
to show that rather than being one crayon short of a full box, "In some ways,
they are smarter than adults," she says.
Alison Gopnik在The Philosophical Baby (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2009)文章中
指出許多心理學家和哲學家認為小孩、嬰孩在思考上是有缺陷的，例如不理性、利己、不
邏輯的。但她在她的研究裡概略性的提到了"在某方面，他們比成人聰明"
Gopnik's research at the University of California, Berkeley, has shown young
children (of the 5-and-under set) to be fully capable of reasoning and
assessing probability. But babies' tendency to be interested in just about
everything has led many adults to assume their lack of focus is indicative of
unintelligence, Gopnik noted. "Babies explore; adults audit," she says.
Gopnik在柏克萊的研究團隊表市小孩有能力去歸因與評估機率，但嬰兒對什麼都興趣，
導致大人把他們的缺乏注意力當成是沒有智力的。Gopnik說"嬰兒是去發現；大人是去審
計"
On the other end of the spectrum, even older adults without an impairing
disease such as Alzheimer's are often assumed to have experienced some
cognitive slippage. While that may be true in some respects, new research is
proving that seniors are perfectly competent in learning new concepts—and
remembering them.
光譜的另一個極端是老人，老人就算沒有阿茲海默症也會被認為有一些認知功能的下滑
。但那也許是某一方面，新的研究顯示老人也有能力去學習新的觀念並記著。
A study, published online this month in the Journal of Gerontology:
Psychological Sciences, tested the reasoning, perceptual-motor speed and
visual attention of 47 adults aged 70 to 90 and then retested them eight
months later. Indeed, they did just fine and even remembered much of what
they had learned. "This study suggests that seniors' minds are still sharp,"
Lixia Yang, of Ryerson University in Canada and a co-author of the study,
said in a prepared statement.
一個Journal of Gerontology的研究顯示：針對47個70-90歲的老人進行心理學實驗，如歸
因、perceptual-motor speed，以及視覺注意的研究，並在八個月後重測。發現他們都做
的很好也記得他們所學得，Lixia Yang說"這個研究說明了老人的腦其實老當益壯"
Perhaps the saying that old age is the second childhood should really be seen
as a mutual compliment.
或許說老年是第二個童年是相同意思吧。
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