Much has been made of a new study that says adults over 70 with higher education levels forgot words at a higher rate than those with less education. The buzz in the news is almost enough to have people demanding their college tuition fees back.

But before you start panicking over headlines like “Higher Education Rots Your Brain”, let’s look at what researchers actually said about this study.

These tests measured verbal memory by immediate and delayed recall. Ten common nouns were read aloud by the interviewer, followed by a request for respondents to remember as many nouns as possible from the list. Five minutes later, participants were asked how many of the words they could recall.

What the test seems to measure is short term memory, and in this area, education did nothing to protect older adults from age-related decline. Those with higher education do better on cognitive tests at any age and performed better in this testing as well. The surprising result was that those with more education seemed to experience decline at a faster rate than those with less education.

More education is consistently related to better cognitive performance in older adults and in this study, too, individuals with higher levels of education had a higher ability at any given age. However, it was those with the highest education whose performance dropped the most.

“Even though we find in this research that those with higher education do better on mental status tests that look for dementia-like symptoms, education does not protect against more normal, age-related declines, like those seen on memory tests,” said lead author Dawn Alley of the University of Pennsylvania, who conducted the research while a doctoral student at the USC Davis School.

The upshot is that education is good for you, doesn’t rot your brain and in fact, improves cognitive ability and staves off dementia. Unfortunately, we will all age and age takes some toll on some aspects of our mental abilities. And it may be true that the better educated lose abilities at a greater rate than others but, since they start off from a better position, they are still winners in the end. Keeping our brains active and learning is still the best way to keep them young.

Three crows jockeyed for the highest perch in an oak tree outside my window yesterday for the better part of the afternoon. Two screamed at a contender who positioned on higher limbs, and the three yelled back relentless caws, to stake their claim on a top branch.

Then this morning, on my drive home a Rotary breakfast meeting,  I heard NPR’s Morning Edition announcer speak of the power of power to alter moods. Studies, for instance, show a marked increased in serotonin, when people gain power.  Good or bad?  You’d likely be interested  to make people drunk.

Have you noticed power’s ability to anger crows or inebriate people?Coincidentally, I dropped into Starbucks for a latte and a New York Times, only to read another “power story.”  Pankaja Mishra’s article titled … “Gaining Power, Losing Values,” claimed that “India, like China, is putting growth ahead of morality.”

What are the benefits or drawbacks of power in your life? Has it changed the way you think or act?

Seems quite a coincidence that within one morning two very different sources pointed to power’s effect in the brain and in people’s lives. What do you think? 

Today Fed-Ex delivered three copies of November’s issue of Capital Magazine, a glossy finance magazine for top leaders from the magazine’s head office in Dubai, AE. There was my feature story - on page 28 - titled, Keeping the Brain in Mind: Boosting Your Problem Solving Power. But I had to dip deeper than usual to get it there. A math minded readership takes math-related writing, and since we all possess logical math intelligence in some measure, it’s simply a matter of finding and using it.

When Capital’s senior editors asked me for a story about MITA programs and how they boost the brain for problem solving, I dipped into my rather lowly mathematical intelligence to tell a story that might work for people with a penchant for numbers. My story starts… “As strong companies vie for those hard-to-land places at the top, brain based problem solvers can compete with an impressive edge in spite of tough times.” Think my opener will pique curiosity about how to deliver remarkable results, against the backdrop of shifting horizons?

Not that I’m a numbers guru, but it’s fun to tell stories that draw from math parts of the brain, and remember … this intelligence includes logical sequences too. I started with the question, “How could I trigger interest about brain based practices, from readers who think logically or numerical?”

Corporate executives read this magazine for tools to help with the rapid changes that take place in banking, technology, human capital, risk management and, corporate finance. Look below at how numbers speak to show Capital’s estimated readership of 40,000, and you’ll see how math mixes into stories.

Readers, we’re told, include:

- President/Chairman/CEO/Board Members: 35 %
- CFO/VP finance/financial controller: 30 %
- Vice president/Senior managements: 20 %
- Consultants: 6 %
- Procurement/IT managers/Human resources managers: 9 %

Do you use numbers to add zip to your stories? Writers who say they have little logical-math intelligence can develop more through showing ideas in logical order or using numbers as I did here. Can you see how numbers and sequences give more vivid pictures that could easily be lost otherwise? Because math was taught with a narrow focus, that rarely related to real life problems, at times we lost it’s delightful flavors.

My article also drew from mathematical knowing in a sidebar list of eight kinds of intelligence that could solve barriers to productivity. I listed guidelines to show readers how to share something they figured out. And I challenged them to engage their math intelligence in new ways that would grow dendrite brain cell connections for profitability.

My story offered steps for good customer relations from the moment of meeting to closing a deal…. If you were to sequence an action plan for a staff get-together and list the ten tactics your golf club used to win… your story is math related. Simple as that.

Math mingles with life through stories much the way Syntagma owner, John Evans listed London Stock Exchange’s Excellent Results, through story at London Stock Exchange.

Or, look at the way Andrea Pawlsen over at Money Finesse, helped consumers to solve reliability problems for 2006 and 2007 cars, and you’ll see more math intelligence at its best, worked into stories.

Count how many times males and females speak on key issues, during a meeting and you have a story that invites a math response people will love. Still looking for a story topic?

Why not write about Bobbie Fisher’s tactics in a chess game and show how similar winning strategies could win a financial deal. Or look through this morning’s math news for a story waiting to be created. As in any good writing, have fun. Writing that activates your logical mathematical intelligence will play with logical order, organization … and numbers, for instance, … and your mathematically inclined readers will too! What’s your best math story?

One writer in a class I taught described himself “as riding the wind into a new adventure” in mid-life, after completing a Master degree in computer science. What metaphor in nature describes something you’ve accomplished lately?

Nature holds more fuel for your brain than most people realize. To see how, watch lights and shadows dance on woods or water and then write a sentence to show lights and shadows in your day.

Have you ever tried to write sounds you hear along a wooded path or have you compared nature’s fragrances to aromas that remind you of people or events from your past?

In the last article we wrote stories to activate your linguistic intelligence, now let’s throw another mental resource into the storytelling ring - Nature. If you’ve never thought of the natural world – as power to help you spin a yarn, you’re in for a surprise. Naturalistic intelligence can enrich your writing by activating parts of your brain that keep you young. It’s all part of the multiple intelligences you possess, that could enrich your world.

For the past 18 years, it’s been my privilege to know and exchange ideas about human intelligence, with Dr. Howard Gardner, who, at Harvard University, discovered naturalistic intelligence as one of eight intelligences that define all humans. As with any intelligence, naturalistic smarts grow with use.

Here’s a writing idea to activate your naturalistic intelligence and ratchet up your IQ at the same time. Still wondering what nature has to do with your brain… your life story… or a younger, healthier mind. Compare a person you admire to an animal you value… Or create a conversation between a tree and its nutrients to find a financial solution or answer question you’ve been asking.

Go for a walk, tend a garden, or sit alone beside a brook… and let nature play back its ideas in tender roots for a story that relates to your life. Tell your story to a friend and you’ll grow new dendrite brain cell connectors as a result.