Final answer:
It is true that adults use their lifetime of experiences to understand and learn new information, drawing upon a broad range of knowledge, skills, and previous learning to assimilate new situations and data effectively.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question of whether adults use a lifetime of experiences to help understand and learn new information is fundamentally true. Adulthood can be defined as a stage of life that follows adolescence, where individuals are considered legally and socially responsible for themselves. While it is difficult to set exact ages for the start and end of adulthood due to cultural, legal, and individual differences, it generally includes the majority of an individual's lifespan.
Throughout adulthood, individuals accumulate a wealth of knowledge, skills, and experiences that influence their perception and understanding of new information. For example, research in developmental psychology, such as the work of Jean Piaget, has shown that cognitive abilities evolve from infancy through adulthood. Adults bring their cultural capital and prior learning to bear when encountering new situations, enhancing their ability to integrate new data with existing knowledge bases effectively. Furthermore, in college and beyond, the liberal arts education model further broadens an individual's worldview, thus preparing them for specialized knowledge fields and enhancing their problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.
Therefore, it's accurate to say that adults leverage their life experiences to understand new information, which aligns with the broader understanding that science is a process that builds upon the accumulated knowledge of the past to advance our understanding of the world.