For years, women have been quietly taught to expect mental decline as they age. Slower thinking. Less clarity. More second-guessing. But a major 2025 study tells a very different story — one that’s both relieving and  empowering. Researchers led by Gilles E. Gignac  at the University of Western Australia , published in the journal Intelligence , analyzed decades of data across 16 cognitive and personality traits  to understand how the mind actually changes across adulthood .