Aging and Intelligence

PS277 – Lecture 9

Cognitive Aging – The Far Side

Outline

Definitions of Intelligence – A Short History

Everyday Conceptions of Intelligence

Aging and Patterns of Change in Intelligence

Factors Involved in These Changes

Baltes’ Framework on Intelligence Over the Lifespan

Intelligence as multi-dimensional concept?

Multi-directionality in change

Plasticity and training

Interindividual variability in patterns

I. History of Intelligence as a Construct Early Single-Factor Theories:

Binet’s Test – diagnose children unable to cope with regular schooling in Paris system – focused on performance on reasoning tasks and gave a single score (M = 100)

Spearman’s g – general factor theory = all tests correlated positively, a single general factor or “thing” called intelligence, on which everybody can be ranked

Multiple Factor Theories

Thurstone’s Original 7 Primary Mental Abilities

Verbal meaning Perceptual speed Reasoning Number Associative memory Word fluency Spatial orientation

Secondary Mental Abilities

Interactions and structures that combine these primary abilities (6 studied so far)

Fluid vs. Crystallized Intelligence – two most widely studied developmentally

Fluid = seeing patterns and relationships in novel situations, abstracting information – letter series (d f i m r x e ?)

Crystallized = incorporated the knowledge and information of the culture (what word is associated with bathtub, prizefighting and wedding?)

Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences

II. Everyday Intelligence: What’s Your View?

List behaviors that you think are characteristic of young adults who are highly intelligent vs. those who aren’t?

Anything special about older people who are highly intelligent vs. those who are not?

Everyday Conceptions of Intelligence Sternberg’s research on lay people vs. experts’ conceptions of

intelligence

122 Lay Persons: 3 factors found were labeled practical problem-solving ability, verbal ability, social competence

140 Experts: 3 factors found were labeled verbal intelligence, problem-solving ability, practical intelligence

Pretty similar in having multiple factors, but more emphasis on social competence by lay persons, recent emphasis on “emotional intelligence” in field may reflect need to get more at this in standard measures

Predictability from Standard IQ Tests Scholastic performance: correlations show that prediction of

school performance in kids is about .50 with various IQ tests – good but not great. Same sort of findings with respect to university performance and standardized tests (e.g., GREs)

Occupational performance: some predictability, but this may depend on relations with level of school attainment... practical intelligence measures do just as well as standard IQ tests

Adjustment: some weak associations for children, but generally not much, emotional and social intelligence might predict better

Not such a great record for such a big business!

III. Patterns of Test Performance and Aging – Fluid vs. Crystallized IQ

Baltes’ Framework on Types of Intelligence Mechanics of Intelligence – biologically based

development, influenced by how the brain works, skills needed for schooling, develops most in early life – somewhat parallel to fluid intelligence

Pragmatics of Intelligence – everyday knowledge and skills for solving problems, wisdom, verbal knowledge, more growth into later life – very close to crystallized intelligence

IV. Factors Moderating Patterns of Change in Intelligence Performance in Later Life

Age is not really a meaningful explanation of anything – why?

Cohort Differences – the Flynn Effect

Health Status and Terminal Drop

Information Processing Factors

Social and Lifestyle Variables

Cohort Factors in Intelligence – The Flynn Effect IQ test actual scores

have increased on average for last 50 years. Why?

Technology, nutrition, education of parents, other ideas?

Maybe intelligence really is not fixed

Cohort Differences in Aging and Intelligence? – Seattle Longitudinal Study

Health and Terminal Drop

Lindenberger and Baltes’ findings on sensory function and fluid intelligence

Biological age and primary abilities in Victoria Study – book shows that a lot of the variation in primary abilities is predictable from biological age measures

Terminal drop as a phenomenon in all of these data sets

Victoria Study Data on Biological Age as Predictor of Cognitive Change

Information Processing and Intelligence Tests – Componential Analyses

Earl Hunt’s work: performance on IQ tests seems to be substantially a function of individual differences in information processing – one component of this is speed

Example: Hi vs. lo verbal test performers differed in speed of reaction to (A, a) vs. (A, A) stimulus sets when have to respond “same” if each letter has same name, “different” if they don’t (A, B)

Task componential analysis: In order to solve the (A, a) problem, must also retrieve the names of the two letters, so this is how much longer this takes over the (A, A) case

Speed of processing and working memory declines may account for much of aging losses in later life intelligence test performance

Occupational Effects on Intelligence in Adulthood Schooler’s work on occupational complexity and

intelligence

Male workers (and some wives) interviewed and tested in 1964, 1974, 1994 – mean age was 57 in 1994

Work complexity was rated, cognitive tests like recall, PMA verbal meaning, etc.

Used SEM to test a model of reciprocal influence between work and IQ, separated for older and younger worker groups

Schooler et al.’s Model of Effects for Young vs. Older Workers

Training Intelligence – Schaie and Willis Work Seattle Longitudinal

Study

Trained Spatial Orientation or Inductive Reasoning skills, depending on problems

Clear benefits in 65% of older adults

Persisted over 7 to 14 years in follow-ups

Schaie & Baltes