Chapter 21: Adulthood: Cognitive Development
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The way psychologists conceptualize intelligence has changed considerably in recent years. Chapter 21 begins by examining the multidirectional nature of intelligence, noting that some abilities (such as short-term memory) decline with age, while others (such as vocabulary) increase with age. This section includes a discussion of the debate over whether cognitive abilities inevitably decline during adulthood, or may possibly remain stable or even increase.
The chapter then examines the contemporary view of intelligence, which emphasizes its multidimensional nature. Most experts now believe that there are several distinct intelligences rather than a single general entity.
The next section of the chapter discusses the cognitive expertise that often comes with experience, pointing out the ways in which expert thinking differs from that of the novice. Expert thinking is more specialized, flexible, and intuitive, and is guided by more and better problem-solving strategies. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of the recent shift in society in which family skills have become more highly valued when performed by both women and men.
Chapter Guide
I.What Is Intelligence?
1.Historically, psychologists considered intelligence to be a single ability, what Charles Spearman referred to as g, or general intelligence.
2.For the first half of the twentieth century, researchers believed that intellectual ability rises in childhood, peaks during adolescence, then declines steadily as age advances. This belief was based on the results of cross-sectional research.
3.More recently, researchers have begun to doubt whether there is an inevitable decline in cognitive functioning with age. The longitudinal studies of Nancy Bayley and Melita Oden, for example, indicate that the IQ scores of Terman’s gifted individuals increased between ages 20 and 50. A follow-up study by Bayley found that the typical person at age 36 had improved on tests of vocabulary, comprehension, and information.
4.The earlier evidence of a decline in cognitive ability may be attributable to the shortcomings of cross-sectional research. Because it is impossible to match people in every aspect except age, cohort effects are inevitable. Longitudinal research also has shortcomings. People’s performance on tests might improve with practice. Also, some people leave the study; those who remain are usually the most stable, well-functioning adults.
5.Throughout the world, studies have shown a general trend toward increasing average IQ over successive generations. This trend is called the Flynn effect.
6.To correct for the limitations of the cross-sectional and longitudinal research methodologies, K. Warner Schaie developed the cross-sequential research design for his Seattle Longitudinal Study. Each time his original cross section of adults was retested on primary mental abilities(longitudinal design), he also tested a new group of adults at each age interval and then followed them longitudinally as well, thus controlling for the possible effects of retesting, as well as uncovering the impact of cohort differences. Schaie’s results confirmed and extended what others had found: People improve in most mental abilities in adulthood.
7.In testing older Germans, Paul Baltes found that not until the 80s does every cognitive ability show age-related average declines.
II.Components of Intelligence: Many and Varied
1.In the 1960s, Raymond Cattell and John Horn differentiated fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence.
a.Fluid intelligence is flexible reasoning and is made up of the basic mental abilities such as inductive reasoning, abstract thinking, and speed of thinking required for understanding any subject.
b.Crystallized intelligence refers to the accumulation of facts, information, and knowledge that comes with education and experience.
2.Fluid intelligence declines during adulthood, although this decline is temporarily masked by an increase in crystallized intelligence.
3.Robert Sternberg has proposed that intelligence is composed of three distinct parts: an analytic, or academic,aspect consisting of mental processes that foster efficient learning, remembering, and thinking; a creative aspect involving the capacity to be flexible and innovative when dealing with new situations; and a practical aspect that enables the person to adapt his or her abilities to contextual demands.
4.Practical intelligence, sometimes called tacit intelligence, is particularly useful in adulthood, when the demands of daily life are omnipresent. Interestingly, practical intelligence is unrelated to traditional intelligence as measured by IQ tests.
5.Which kind of intelligence is most valued depends on events in each person’s life, partly because of culture and cohort, and partly because of age.
III. Selective Gains and Losses
1.A hallmark of successful aging is the ability to strategically use one’s intellectual strengths to compensate for the declining capacities associated with age. Paul and Margaret Baltes call this selective optimization with compensation.
2.Some researchers believe that as we age, our intelligence increases in specific areas that are of importance to us; that is, each of us becomes a selective expert in a particular area.
3.Research suggests that four features distinguish the expert from the novice.
a.Experts tend to rely more on their accumulated experience than on rules to guide them and are thus more intuitive and less stereotyped in their performance.
b.Many elements of expert performance are automatic.
c.The expert has more, and better, strategies for accomplishing a particular task.
d.Experts are more flexible in their work.
4.In developing their abilities, experts point to the importance of practice, usually 10 years or more and several hours a day before full potential is achieved.
5.Research studies also indicate that expertise is quite specific, and that practice and specialization cannot always overcome the effects of age.
6. Historically, research on expertise has focused on occupations that once had more male than female workers. Today, more women are working in occupations traditionally reserved for men. In addition, domestic and caregiving tasks that were once considered women’s work have gained new respect and are considered important when performed by both women and men.