Objective 11-4
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Transcript Objective 11-4
OBJECTIVE: 11-4
Aging and Intelligence
Do we get dumber as we get older?
Phase I: Cross Sectional Evidence for
Intellectual Decline
Cross Sectional Research: Intelligence tests and comparisons between
people of various ages.
When administered to a representative sample of people, researchers have found that
older adults give fewer correct answers than younger adults
“the decline of mental ability with age is part of the general aging process of the
organism as a whole” – David Wechsler
Corporations usually have a mandatory retirement age to replace aging workers with
younger employees.
Phase II: Longitudinal Evidence for
Intellectual Stability
Longitudinal Intelligence Research:
-Retesting the same people over a period of years
-Results: Until late in life, intelligence stays stable, or even increases
Longitudinal vs. Cross Sectional
- Cross Sectional compared not only people of different ages, but of different eras.
For example: Comparing someone born in 1900 to someone born in 1950
The idea that intelligence declines over age was no longer viable.
Longitudinal Research also revealed that people over 75 years old have a steep decline
in intelligence.
-People who live long enough for the end of the study may be healthier, more
intelligent people than those who were removed from the study
Complications:
•Intelligence
is not a single trait, but a rather a number of
distinct skills and abilities.
•A
study of more than 2000 people over 75 in Cambridge
revealed a steeper intelligence decline.
•Crystallized
Intelligence:
•One’s accumulated knowledge and verbal skills, tends to increaseswith age.
•Fluid
Intelligence:
•The ability to reason speedily and abstractly (solving math problems) tends to
decrease in late adulthood.
Social development
• The differences between younger and older
adults are not created by the physical and
cognitive changes, but by life events associated
with family relationships and work.
• Example: going to a new job, meeting new people, certain
expectations and demands.