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Middle Adulthood: Cognitive Development
What is Intelligence?
Studying Intelligence During the 20th^ Century
Cross-Sectional Research
Longitudinal Research
Cross-Sequential Research
Two Clusters: Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence
Three Forms of Intelligence: Sternberg
Selective Gains and Losses
What is Intelligence?
For most of twentieth century, scientists and public assumed there was such a thing as intelligence, with general intelligence thought to be a single entity
Now scientists believe it is more useful to look at adult intelligence as several distinct intellectual capacities
Studying Intelligence During the Twentieth Century
Psychometricians disagreed about whether general intelligence rises or falls after age 20 or so
Cross-Sectional Research For first half of the twentieth century, psychologists were convinced, based on solid evidence, that intelligence declined over time a classic cross-sectional study found that the average male: reached his intellectual peak at about age 18 intellectual decline began in mid-20s hundreds of other cross-sectional studies in many nations also found younger adults outscored older adults on measures of intelligence
Longitudinal Research
In 1955, Nancy Bayley and Melita Oden analyzed adult intelligence of child geniuses who had grown up Found that most of the 36-year-olds were still improving in vocabulary, comprehension, and information
Bayley wondered whether this group’s high intelligence during childhood had protected them from age-related decline
After further research, Bayley concluded:
intellectual learning is unimpaired through age 36 and beyond
Longitudinal research showed that, over time, intellectual growth resulted from: improvements in quality and extent of public education variety of cultural opportunities expanded media information Bayley’s research also showed: older adults previously tested often did not go beyond 8th grade and so did not fully develop their intelligence each generation scores higher on IQ tests because each is better educated
Cross-Sequential Research Longitudinal research is better than cross-sectional, but still not perfect Schaie combined the two, his new design is called cross-sequential research he tested cross-section of 500 adults of different age groups on 5 standard primary mental abilities = foundations of intelligence verbal meaning, spatial orientation, inductive reasoning, number ability, and word fluency
Three Forms of Intelligence: Sternberg
- Analytic mental processes that foster academic proficiency by making possible efficient learning, remembering, and thinking involves abstract planning, strategy selection, focused attention, and information processing
- Creative Intelligence involves capacity to be intellectually flexible and innovative in new situations divergent = diverse, innovative, and unusual solutions
- Practical Intelligence
involves capacity to adapt one’s behavior to the contextual demands of a given situation includes accurate grasp of expectations and needs of people involved and an awareness of skills needed
Selective Gains and Losses
Many researchers believe that adults make deliberate choices about their intellectual development, separate from their culture or education
