ssful" life patterns reach a point of stasis? The conclusion of each article is "No - unsuccessful, or developmentally deficient, life patterns become fixed; the 'successful' life pattern exhibits an element of adaptability and evolution."
Plasticity, Person-Context Relations, and Cognitive Training in Aged Years: A Developmental Contextual Perspective
In this 1990 article, Richard M. Lerner of Pennsylvania State University describes the conclusions of a series of research papers on the subject of the "life span perspective" of human development, specifically in the field of cognitive training research in later adulthood. Reviewing the data gathered, Lerner proceeds to draw the conclusion that programs enhancing cognition development in the "retirement aged" and "old-old" should be continued, then proposes directions of development for such programs.
Lerner himself is not a source researcher: his article and its conclusions is an admitted overview of over fifty published papers on the subject. This - the drawing upon a vast field of research data - can be a valid starting point for formulating critical conclusions about a subject. Unfortunately for Lerner's thesis, the contradictory nature of the data he cites does not provide the proper foundation upon which his conclusions depend.
Indeed, Lerner recognizes the insufficiency of the data gathered to date: that there is no conclusive research supporting/debunking cognitive enhancement
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