Why we can’t stick to the point as we age

OLDER people are more likely to go off-topic in conversation than the young, research shows.

And the reason appears to be a combination of having ‘large stores of knowledge’ – and being less able to stop ourselves sharing it.

Straying from the main focus of a chat and dropping in irrelevant information can be charming. But it makes it harder to get to the point.

researchers from edinburgh University asked 60 people aged between 18 and 80 to talk on a set topic for a minute. researchers then measured the coherence of their speeches and tested participants’ thinking skills.

the team found older people were on average not as skilled as younger people at selecting which information to share. those with less coherent speech tended to have more knowledge – but were not as good at selecting the most pertinent facts to share. ‘At the same time, they may experience age-related declines in the ability to suppress unnecessary information. this may help to explain why some people become less coherent as they get older and why some do not,’ said lead researcher Paul Hoffman, of edinburgh University’s School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences.

His research was published in the online academic journal elife.