--- title: Cognition: Improve Your Memory With a Complex Job description: The more complex your interactions are with people, data or things, the better off your thinking skills are as you get older canonical: https://time.com/3595997/complex-jobs-mental-cognition/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-20T15:13:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:07:00.513Z article:section: Health og:title: Why Complex Jobs Protect Your Thinking Skills og:description: The more complex your interactions are with people, data or things, the better off your thinking skills are as you get older og:url: https://time.com/3595997/complex-jobs-mental-cognition/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Complex Jobs Protect Your Thinking Skills twitter:description: The more complex your interactions are with people, data or things, the better off your thinking skills are as you get older twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Why Complex Jobs Protect Aging Brains Better > Sponsored content. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Nov 20, 2014 3:13 PM UTC  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Nov 20, 2014 3:13 PM UTC Studies show that there are a lot of things you can do to preserve your intellect—[stay social](http://time.com/3546309/being-lonely-affect-health/) and interact with as many friends and family as you can, [learn new things](http://time.com/3423009/brain-games-keep-my-mind-sharp/) (especially languages), go to new places and [stay physically active](http://time.com/2982908/to-prevent-alzheimers-diet-and-exercise-are-effective-large-study-shows/). If there’s any time left over, consider getting a more engaging career. There’s now evidence that what you do to make a living can also help to preserve your brain power. [Reporting in the journal _Neurology_](http://neurology.org/lookup/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000001075), scientists at the University of Edinburgh found that the more complex a person’s job is, the more likely they are to score higher on memory tests and general cognitive skills when they reach age 70. **MORE:** [Cocoa May Help With Memory Loss, a New Study Finds](http://time.com/3540703/cocoa-memory-loss-flavanols-aging-hippocampus/) The team recruited about 1,000 69-year-olds who were part of the Lothian Birth Cohort, a database that included people born in the Scottish town in 1936\. At age 11, the participants had taken IQ tests so the researchers could compare those scores to cognitive tests given to them at age 70. In the study, researchers assessed their occupations by their complexity, based on how much interaction with people, data or things the job required. Complex “people” jobs, for example, include lawyer, social worker, surgeon or probation officer, compared to less socially complex jobs like factory worker, or painter. Complex “data” occupations include architect, graphic designer and musician, while less complex data jobs include construction worker, cafeteria worker or telephone operator. Finally, people working in more intricate ways with “things” would include machine workers and those who make instruments, while bank managers and surveyors might rank as having simpler interactions with things. ### You Asked: Your Top 10 Health Questions Answered  You Asked: Are Cleanses Healthy? Potions that claim to clear your body of toxins might sound alluring, but do they deliver? Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: Is Eating Dessert Really That Bad For Me? Bad news for sweet-eaters—except if you end your meals with this kind of treat. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: What’s the Best Way to Whiten My Teeth? Yes, teeth whitening actually works—but here's why you have to dish out major bucks to see results. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: Is Meditation Really Worth It? From easing stress to lowering heart disease risk, focusing your mind can do some amazing things for your body. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: What’s the Healthiest Sweetener? Take a taste of the unsettled science of sweeteners. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: Should I Go Paleo? The pros and cons of eating like a caveman. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: Is Cracking Your Knuckles Bad? Here's what really happens to your joints when you snap, crackle and pop. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: Is Running on a Treadmill as Good as Running Outside? You'll fool your body into thinking it's outside with this one small treadmill tweak. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: Does Laughing Have Real Health Benefits? Here's proof that everybody could use a belly laugh. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: What Is My Poo Telling Me? If you listen hard enough, you'll hear all kinds of health stories from #2. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME When the scientists compared occupations with cognitive tests at age 70, they found that people with more complex people and data jobs scored higher on memory, speed and general thinking skills than those with less involved jobs in these areas. People with more complex data-related jobs also scored much better on processing and speed skills. **MORE:** [5 Secrets to Improve Learning and Memory](http://time.com/3117400/how-to-improve-learning-and-memory/) But when the researchers factored in the effect of the participants’ IQ at age 11—in other words, their starting intellect—they found that the influence of the jobs remained, though it shrunk a bit. “People who have higher cognitive ability to begin with are those more likely to have more complex jobs,” says Alan Gow, assistant professor of psychology at University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University and one of the study’s co-authors. “Once we account for that, the association between more complex jobs and better cognitive outcomes is reduced, but there remains a small additional benefit for our cognitive abilities from being in more complex jobs.” In fact, he says, the strongest predictor of cognitive abilities at age 70 is intellect earlier in life. So the IQ of the participants at age 11 accounted for about 50% of the variance in test scores when they reached 70\. Jobs can add to that effect. The stronger the cognitive starting point, the more brain reserve people might have as the normal processes of aging start erode some nerve connections involved in higher order thinking. Having a complex job that requires constant activation of these neural networks, and formation of new connections, can also contribute to building this reserve capacity. Gow admits, however, that the study did not take into account how long people stuck with the jobs, so there may yet be a stronger effect of occupation on later life intellect the longer people stay with a complex job. Given the results, he and his team are eagerly following the 70-year olds to see if occupation and other factors can influence their cognitive functions. Now, they’re studying brain images of the volunteers to find changes in volume in certain thinking areas of the brain, as well as connections in the nerve network that’s responsible for higher order skills like processing, memory and reasoning. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3595997/complex-jobs-mental-cognition/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3595997/complex-jobs-mental-cognition/"},"headline":"Why Complex Jobs Protect Aging Brains Better","datePublished":"2014-11-20T15:13:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:07:00.513Z","description":"The more engaging your job, the sharper your thinking skills","url":"https://time.com/3595997/complex-jobs-mental-cognition/","keywords":["Aging","Jobs","Brain","Careers","memory","cognition"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alice Park","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/alice-park/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/aging/","name":"Aging"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3595997/complex-jobs-mental-cognition/","name":"Why Complex Jobs Protect Aging Brains Better"}}]}] ```