Adulthood: Cognitive Development

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Part VII
Chapter Twenty-one

• Adulthood Cognitive Development

What is Intelligence? Selective Gains and Losses
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Adulthood Cognitive Development

• Do people get smarter or dumber as they get
  older?

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What is Intelligence?

• general intelligence
• the idea that intelligence is one basic trait,
  underlying all cognitive abilities
• according to this concept people have varying
  levels of this general ability

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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

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Research on Age and Intelligence

• Cross-Sectional Research
• in the first half of the twentieth century,
  psychologists used this method of research
  convinced that intelligence rose in childhood,
  peaked in adolescence, and then declined gradually

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Research on Age and Intelligence

• Longitudinal Research
• a research design that follows the same
  individuals over time, repeatedly assessing their
  development.
• Bailey retested another group of adults who had
  been tested as children and who were then
  36-years-old and concluded that the intellectual
  potential for continued learning is unimpaired
  through the first 36 years of life and probably
  beyond

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Research on Age and Intelligence

• The Flynn Effect
• a trend toward increasing average IQ found in all
  developed nations during the twentieth century

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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 cross-sectional approach) and then follow
  those groups over the years (a longitudinal
  approach) (also called cohort-sequential or
  time-sequential research)

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Research on Age and Intelligence

• Cross-Sequential Research
• Seattle Longitudinal Study
• the first cross-sequential study of adult
  intelligencethis study began in 1956 the most
  recent testing was conducted in 2005
• this study confirmed and extended what others had
  foundpeople improve in most mental abilities
  during adulthood

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Research on Age and Intelligence

• Components of Intelligence Many and Varied
• developmentalists look at patterns of cognitive
  gains and losses over the adult years

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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
  thoroughabilities 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 examplessome developmental
  psychologists think crystallized intelligence
  increases with age, while fluid intelligence
  declines

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Research on Age and Intelligence

• Three forms of intelligence Sternberg
• analytic intelligence
• a form of intelligence that involves such mental
  processes as abstract planning, strategy
  selection, focused attention, and information
  processing, as well as verbal and logical skill
• creative intelligence
• a form of intelligence that involves the capacity
  to be intellectually flexible and innovative
• practical intelligence
• the intellectual skills used in everyday problem
  solving

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Research on Age and Intelligence

• Eight (brain-based) Intelligences Gardner
• linguistic
• logical-mathematical
• musical
• spatial
• bodily-kinesthetic
• naturalistic
• social-understanding
• self-understanding

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Research on Age and Intelligence

• Diversity and Intelligence
• analytic intelligence,
• valued in high school and college
• students are expected to remember and analyze
  ideas
• creative intelligence,
• prized if life circumstances change and new
  challenges arise
• which makes it much more valued in some cultures
  and eras than others
• practical intelligence,
• useful after college days are over
• when the demands of daily life are omnipresent

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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

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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

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Selective Gains and Losses

• aging neurons, cultural pressures, past
  education, current life events all affect
  intelligencenone of these is under direct
  individual control

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Selective Gains and Losses

• Optimization and Compensation
• selective optimization with compensation
• the theory, developed by Paul and Margaret
  Baltes, 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

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Selective Gains and Losses

• Expert Cognitive
• an expert is notably more skilled, proficient,
  and knowledgeable at a particular task than the
  average person

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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

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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 nonconscious

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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

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Selective Gains and Losses

• flexible
• because they are intuitive, automatic, and
  strategic, experts are also more flexible
• they enjoy the challenges when things dont go as
  planned

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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

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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 onesif motivated

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Selective Gains and Losses

• Human Relations Expertise.
• the most important skill for people of every age
  to learn is how to get along with other people,
  understanding their emotional needs, and helping
  them function well
• the most common test of expert human relations
  occurs with parentinga parent is patient, good
  humored and consistenttraits that become more
  common with age