Kathleen Stassen Berger
Part VII
Chapter Twenty-one
Adulthood: Cognitive Development
What is Intelligence?
Selective Gains and Losses
Prepared by Madeleine Lacefield
Tattoon, M.A.
1
Adulthood: Cognitive Development
Do people get smarter or dumber as
they get older?
2
What is Intelligence?
– General Intelligence
• the idea that intelligence is one basic
trait, underlying all cognitive abilities
3
Research on Age and Intelligence
• Cross-Sectional Research
– a research designed that compares
groups of people who differ in age but
are similar in other important
characteristics
4
Research on Age and Intelligence
• Cross-Sectional Research
– Used in the first half of the twentieth
century
– convinced that intelligence rose in
childhood, peaked in adolescence, and
then declined gradually
5
Research on Age and Intelligence
• Longitudinal Research
– a research design that follows the same
individuals over time, repeatedly assessing
their development.
– Bailey concluded that the “intellectual potential
for continued learning is unimpaired through
the first 36 years of life” and probably beyond
6
Research on Age and Intelligence
• The Flynn Effect
– a trend toward increasing average IQ
found in all developed nations during the
twentieth century
7
Research on Age and Intelligence
• Cross-Sequential Research
– a hybrid research method in which
researchers first study several groups of
people of different ages (a crosssectional approach) and then follow
those groups over the years (a
longitudinal approach) (also called
cohort-sequential or time-sequential
research)
8
Research on Age and Intelligence
• Cross-Sequential Research
– Seattle Longitudinal Study
• the first cross-sequential study of adult
intelligence—this study began in 1956;
the most recent testing was conducted in
2005
• confirmed and extended what others had
found—people improve in most mental
abilities during adulthood
9
Research on Age and Intelligence
– Developmentalists look at patterns of
cognitive gains and losses over the
adult years
10
Research on Age and Intelligence
• Two Clusters: Fluid and Crystallized
– Fluid intelligence
• those types of basic intelligence that make learning of all
sorts quick and thorough—abilities such as short-term
memory, abstract thought, and speed of thinking are all
usually considered part of fluid intelligence
– Crystallized intelligence
• those types of intellectual ability that reflect
accumulated learning--vocabulary and general
information are examples—some developmental
psychologists think crystallized intelligence
increases with age, while fluid intelligence declines
11
Research on Age and Intelligence
• Three forms of intelligence: Sternberg
– Analytic Intelligence
• Involves abstract planning, strategy selection,
focused attention, and information processing,
as well as verbal and logical skill
– Creative Intelligence
• involves the capacity to be intellectually flexible
and innovative
– Practical Intelligence
• the intellectual skills used in everyday problem
solving
12
Research on Age and Intelligence
• Eight (brain-based) Intelligences: Gardner
1. linguistic
2. logical-mathematical
3. musical
4. spatial
5. bodily-kinesthetic
6. naturalistic
7. social-understanding
8. self-understanding
13
Research on Age and Intelligence
• Diversity and Intelligence
– analytic intelligence,
• valued in high school and college
– creative intelligence,
• prized if life circumstances change and new
challenges arise
– practical intelligence,
• useful after college days are over when the
demands of daily life are omnipresent
14
Research on Age and Intelligence
• An Example of Practical Intelligence
– from rural Kenya
• a smart child is one who knows which
herbal medicines cure which diseases,
not one who excels in school
15
Research on Age and Intelligence
• Which Intelligence is Valued?
– cultural and historical context often emphasize
one form of intelligence over others
– cultural assumptions affect concept of
intelligence
– intelligence tests and school curriculums
reflect assumptions about the construct being
measured
16
Selective Gains and Losses
• aging neurons, cultural pressures,
past education, current life events all
affect intelligence—none of these is
under direct individual control
17
Selective Gains and Losses
• Selective Optimization with Compensation
– the theory that people try to maintain a balance in their
lives by looking for the best way to compensate for physical
and cognitive losses and to become more proficient in
activities they can already do well
• Selective Expert
– someone who is notably more skilled and knowledgeable
than the average person about whichever activities are
personally meaningful to them
18
Selective Gains and Losses
• Expert Cognitive
– intuitive
• novices follow formal procedures and
rules
• experts rely more on their past
experiences and on immediate contexts
their actions are therefore more intuitive
and less stereotypic
19
Selective Gains and Losses
• Automatic
– elements of expert performance are automatic
– complex actions and thoughts become routine,
making it appear the task is performed
instinctively
– experts process incoming information more
quickly and analyze it more efficiently than
nonexperts,
– their efforts appear unconscious
20
Selective Gains and Losses
• strategic
– experts have more and better strategies,
especially when problems are
unexpected
– strategies may be the most crucial
differences between a skilled person
and an unskilled one
21
Selective Gains and Losses
• flexible
– because they are intuitive, automatic,
and strategic, experts are also more
flexible
– they enjoy the challenges when things
don’t go as planned
22
Selective Gains and Losses
• Expertise and Age
– the relationship between expertise and
age is not straightforward
– time is essential
– not everyone becomes an expert as he
or she grows older
23
Selective Gains and Losses
• Older Workers: Experts or Has-Beens?
– research on cognitive plasticity confirms
that experienced adults often use selective
optimization with compensation
– apparent in the everyday workplace
– best employees may be the older ones—if
motivated
24
Selective Gains and Losses
• Human Relations Expertise.
– the most important skill for every age to learn
is how to get along with others
– understanding our emotional needs
– the most common test of expert human
relations occurs with parenting—a parent is
patient, good humored and consistent—traits
that become more common with age
25