Controversy 3
Does Intellectual Functioning
Decline With Age?
Does Intellectual Functioning
Decline With Age?

The view that intelligence and creativity decline with
age is widely shared


A common stereotype that older people take longer to
learn new things is true, but it doesn’t usually affect
everyday performance
Chronological age alone doesn’t explain much about
learning ability


Lack of practice, differences in learning styles, and motivation
explain much more
Many obstacles hinder scientific research on
intellectual and creative functioning in late life

Especially finding a basic definition of creativity
Elements of Cognitive Function

Fluid Intelligence – intelligence applied to
new tasks or the ability to come up with novel
or creative solutions to unforeseen problems


Creativity has been linked to fluid intelligence
Crystallized intelligence – reflects
accumulated past experience and the effects
of socialization

Crystallized intelligence reflects gains made in
practical, everyday life expertise – aka, wisdom
Elements of Cognitive Function (cont.)

In some societies around the world (particularly in the
East), old age is viewed as an appropriate time for
spiritual exploration and artistic development


This may be enhanced by the fact that the sources of
creativity and productivity in later life are complex and
result from many different factors
Many examples of creativity in later life focus on
extraordinary older people

But ‘ordinary’ people also show increased abilities in new
ways of thinking and acting with innovation and creativity
The Classic Aging Pattern


Creativity is difficult to define or measure
But social scientists have been researching and
measuring intellectual for a long time

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) – the best
measure of global or general intelligence in use today;
includes verbal and performance scales
 Verbal
scores tend to remain stable; performance scores
tend to decline

Classic aging pattern – the persistent difference
in scores on measures of verbal and performance
intelligence
Measures of Late-Life Intelligence

The validity problem – the problem of measuring
“real” intelligence


Has helped fuel the debate over whether any positive
cognitive developments come with age
Everyday intelligence – aka, “common sense”;
involves pragmatic or social judgment, which is
more than abstract reasoning


Everyday problem solving – aka, expertise in life
planning
Wisdom – an expert knowledge system derived from
experience and capability of dealing with pragmatic
problems
Studies of Age and Cognitive Function
Cross-sectional studies – look at groups of
young and old people at a single point in time
 Longitudinal studies – follow the same
individuals over many years

Make more sense in this area because crosssectional studies tend to overestimate the impact of
chronological age
 Have found the steepest average intellectual
declines come after age 60

Studies of Age and
Cognitive Function (cont.)

Young people taking IQ tests may do better than older
people for several reasons:




Tend to be more familiar with test taking from recent
experience in school and are have less test anxiety
Many older people have internal ageist beliefs that cognitive
functioning declines, and that they won’t do well
Lack the levels of formal schooling that younger people have
Longitudinal studies have also found that few people
show any “global” declines in intelligence as they age
Studies of Age and
Cognitive Function (cont.)

Cognitive reserve capacity – the degree of unused
potential for learning that exists at any given time

Aging is accompanied by a clear loss in cognitive reserve
capacity

Although fluid intelligence declines with age,
crystallized intelligence abilities increase

Decrement with compensation – declines in
cognitive ability among older people can often be
compensated for by the expertise acquired with
aging
Correlates of Cognitive Stability


Difference between “realists” and “optimists” in the
debate over the causes and meanings of the
measured declines in IQ scores with age
Basic personality and temperament change little after
the age of 30


E.g., extroversion, conscientiousness, openness to
experience, etc. – dispositions that predict how people will
adapt to changing life circumstances
When intelligence is defined as “the ability to think and
learn new things,” there is a lot of plasticity, or
potential for growth even at advanced ages
Creativity in an Aging Population
Discussions of wisdom and aging should
remind us how little we know about what is
possible in old age
 Studies of older people in previous decades
may not be a good basis for judging what
older people are capable of today or in the
future


Art critic Ananda Coomaraswamy believes, “It is not that
the artist is a special kind of person, but rather that each
person is a special kind of artist.”