Week 13 Post 2

While reading Chapter 21, one part of the reading that I thought was interesting was the section of Older Workers: Experts or Has-Beens?.  Older employees have the most experience and are usually the best employees.  Difficult work requires more cognitive practice and expertise than routine work therefore they may receive intellectual benefits.  In the Seattle Longitudinal Study, they found that older workers maintained their intellectual abilities.  One study I found interesting was the study in England that looked at the relationship of the age and job effectiveness of taxi drivers.  They found that taxi drivers became experts over time.  They found that some regions of expert taxi drivers' brains were more extensive and active than the average person.  This is due to the fact that  taxi drivers have better spatial awareness and need to learn layouts and the best routes to get their customers places.  What I found interesting about these taxi drivers was that they tested normal on their IQ tests but as they were driving through London, their expertise was apparent.  Usually, experts have a higher IQ but in the taxi drivers case, they have an average IQ.