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.
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When administered to a representative sample of people, researchers have found that
older adults give fewer correct answers than younger adults
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“the decline of mental ability with age is part of the general aging process of the
organism as a whole” – David Wechsler
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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.
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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.