Chapter Twenty-One
Middle Adulthood:
Cognitive Development
PowerPoints prepared by Cathie Robertson, Grossmont College
Revised by Jenni Fauchier Metropolitan Community College
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
Longitudinal Research, cont.
• 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
Longitudinal Research, cont.
• 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
The Flynn Effect
• Evidence for the Flynn effect—a trend
toward increasing average IQ over
generations—comes from research
comparing test scores over time
– in every country, younger cohorts outscored older
ones
– because of Flynn effect, widely-used IQ tests are
renormed about every 15 years
The Flynn Effect, cont.
• Reasons for overall IQ rise
–
–
–
–
wider education and experience
better nutrition
fewer toxins
smaller family size
Cross-Sequential Research
• Longitudinal research better than crosssectional, 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
Cross-Sequential Research, cont.
• Schaie concluded people improve in most
mental abilities until their 80s, at which
point they fall below the mid-range
performance of young adults
• Research in many nations confirmed
Schaie’s general conclusion; for example,
that of Baltes
Components of Intelligence:
Many and Varied
• Developmentalists are now looking
at patterns of gains and losses in
intellect over the adult years
• How many abilities are there? We
will look at 4 different proposals
Two Clusters: Fluid and
Crystallized Intelligence
• Fluid Intelligence
– flexible reasoning used to draw inferences,
understand relations between concepts, and speedily
process new ideas
– person with this intelligence would be quick and
creative with words and numbers, as well as enjoy
intellectual puzzles
– a test item for it might ask: what comes next in each
series? BDACZBYA 456345623456
Two Clusters: Fluid and Crystallized
Intelligence, cont.
• Crystallized Intelligence
– accumulation of facts, information, and
knowledge that comes with education
and experiences within a particular
culture
– a sample item to test for this might be:
what would you do with a mango?
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
Three Forms of Intelligence:
Sternberg, cont.
• Creative Intelligence
– involves capacity to be intellectually
flexible and innovative in new situations
– divergent = diverse, innovative, and
unusual solutions
Three Forms of Intelligence:
Sternberg, cont.
• Practical Intelligence
– involves capacity to adapt ones’ 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
Five Primary Abilities
• Schaie found 5 primary abilities
–
–
–
–
–
verbal meaning
spatial orientation
inductive reasoning
word fluency
number ability; this, unlike other 4 that increases
from age 20 to the late 50s, shifts downward by
age 40
• After age 60, decreases small but
statistically significant
– cohort effect was found
Eight Intelligences: Gardner
• Intelligences for
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
linguistic
logical-mathematical
musical
spatial
body-kinesthetic
naturalistic
social understanding (interpersonal)
self-understanding (intrapersonal)
Gardner’s Eight Intelligences, cont.
• Gardner believes most people
have capacity to achieve minimal
proficiency in each, but that
every person is more gifted in
some abilities than in others
Gardner’s Eight Intelligences, cont.
• Measuring intelligence reflects
assumptions about what is measured;
also cultures and families value
different intelligences
– psychometricians’ fears that most intelligence
tests are valid measures of verbal and logical
skills of North Americans, but not necessarily
of people in other cultures
Culture and Abilities
• Cultural assumptions about aging affect
concepts of intelligence and development
of intelligence test
– U.S. culture values youth and devalues age
– abilities of youth (quick reaction time, etc.) are
central to psychometric intelligence tests
– strengths of older adults (recognizing and upholding
traditions, etc.) not as valued
Culture and Abilities, cont.
• Psychometric evaluation of adult
intelligence must consider cultural
background of person and
assumptions of test authors
– culture becomes increasingly important when
evaluating abilities of people as they age
• Education is a cultural manifestation
Selective Gains and Losses
• Many researchers believe that
adults make deliberate choices
about their intellectual
development, separate from their
culture or education
Optimization with
Compensation
• Paul and Margaret Baltes
developed theory called selective
optimization with compensation
– people try to maintain a balance in their
lives by looking for the best way to
compensate for physical and cognitive
losses
– try to become more proficient at
activities they do well
Optimization with Compensation, cont.
• When selective optimization with
compensation is applied to
cognition
– cognitive skills and achievements can be
broken down into discrete components to
maximize gains and minimize losses
• Cognition as Expertise
What Is Expert Cognition?
• Expert—someone notably more skilled
and knowledgeable than average person is
about a specific intellectual topic or
practical ability
• Expert Thought
–
–
–
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intuitive
automatic
strategic
flexible
Intuitive
• Compared to novices, actions of
experts are intuitive and less
stereotypic
– experts rely on accumulated experiences
and immediate context
Automatic
• Many aspects of expert
performance are automatic
– incoming information is processed more
quickly and analyzed more efficiently
– experts then act in well-rehearsed ways
that make their efforts seem
nonconscious
Strategic
• Experts distinguished by use of
strategies
– have better strategies and more of them
– superior strategies allow for more
selective optimization with compensation
Flexible
• Experts are more flexible
– derives from their actions being
intuitive, automatic, and strategic
– also comes from their being creative and
curious, deliberately experimenting and
enjoying the challenge when things don’t
go as planned
Expertise and Age
• Practice is crucial
• Motivation is crucial
• Expertise can sometimes
overcome effects of age, but
response time slower
Expertise on the Job
• Research on cognitive plasticity
often shows the use of selective
optimization with compensation
– especially apparent in the everyday
workplace
• Complicated work requires more
cognitive practice and expertise
than does routine work
Waiting on Tables
• Waiting on tables in a restaurant
demands a wide range of
cognitive skills
–
–
–
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memory for orders
knowledge of menu items
delivery procedures
simultaneous management of several
tables, each at a different stage of meal
– ability to organize and prioritize tasks
Waiting on Tables, cont.
• Cognitive skills involved in waiting on
tables, cont.
– ability to monitor of social relations of customers
and coworkers
– physical stamina
• Perlmutter studied restaurant workers
and found
– older employees outperformed younger ones; had
developed strategies to compensate for declining
job-related abilities
Working in an Office
• Similar results for office
workers were found by Salthouse
• Strategies are found by older
workers to perform work that
can accommodate cognitive
changes
Expertise in Daily Life
• Developing expertise to cope with
stress
The Stresses of Life
• Middle-aged adults in the thick of
things
– parents to teens, children of aging parents, and
responsible at work
– role overload needs strategies to deal with the
stress that is everywhere
• Stressors—circumstances or events
that damage a person’s physical or
psychological well-being
Ways of Coping with Stress
• A stress may be ignored or considered
important enough to be viewed as a
challenge, not a threat
– no damage to body from response to stress
• Psychologists have differentiated 2 major
ways of coping with stress
– problem-focused coping—attacking problem
– emotion-focused coping—changing feelings about the
stress