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Perspectives on Adult Cognitive Processes and Intelligence Evolution

Explore the intricate interplay between cognitive processes in adulthood, including perspectives such as organismic, formal operations, and post-formal operations. Delve into the complexities of intelligence—from inherited traits to acquired knowledge—and its multidimensional nature. Gain insights into intelligence testing, aging stereotypes, and cohort effects on intellectual functioning. Understand the impact of factors like health, education, and socio-historical context on intellectual performance in later life.

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Perspectives on Adult Cognitive Processes and Intelligence Evolution

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  1. Cognitive Processes in Adulthood

  2. Perspectives • Organismic: Piaget • formal operations: abstractions • Post-formal operations • Problem finding • Dialectical reasoning • Mechanistic: Social learning • Contextual: Vygotsky – interactions • Psychometric: intelligence

  3. Intelligence • What is it? • inherited and acquired • no general definition • Intelligent Behaviour • goal-oriented (conscious, deliberate) • adaptive (problem solving)

  4. Multidimensional • Diverse • Cattell’s “g” • Whatever intelligence tests measure: “IQ” • Thurstone: seven primary mental abilities • Sternberg: cognitive approach • analytic (academic) • practical (problem solving) • creative

  5. Cattell & Horn: two “competencies” • Fluid Intelligence: flexible reasoning • Basic mental abilities • E.g., abstract thinking, speed of thinking, problem solving • Crystallized intelligence: facts • Information acquired from education and experience

  6. Gardner: multiple intelligences • Logical/math • Linguistic • Visual/spatial • Musical • Body/kinesthetic • Interpersonal • Intrapersonal

  7. Intelligence and Aging • Stereotype: • intellectual activity peaks at 18-19 years • declines steadily with age

  8. Developmental Research Shows: • most intellectual abilities stable throughout early and middle adulthood • cohort differences = powerful influence on intelligence differences • many factors affect intellectual functioning: education, health, mental well-being

  9. Growth, Stability, or Decline? • Decrementalist vs. • Continued Potential views

  10. Psychometric Perspective • Focus on: • measuring the mind • individual differences • description, not explanation

  11. Intelligence Testing • Francis Galton • Cattell, Binet • Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales

  12. Verbal (language, knowledge) • Performance (manipulate info. to solve problems) • Greater decline in performance than verbal tests over age

  13. Fluid vs. Crystallized • Decline in fluid, stable/increase in crystallized

  14. Seattle Longitudinal Study (Warner Schaie, 1994) • 5,000 participants (representative) • Studied six times, at 7-year intervals • Several cohorts (21-71 years) • Began in 1956, latest testing in 1992

  15. Charted course of 6 primary mental abilities (PMAT) • inductive reasoning • numeric ability • verbal ability • spatial orientation • verbal memory • perceptual speed

  16. Cross-Sectional Results • Much individual variability • Maintenance/increase to @ age 50 • Decline in performance beyond 50 yrs. • Verbal memory best maintained • Perceptual speed most reduced

  17. Longitudinal Results • cohort differences • no change/increase in performance across age

  18. Performance of total sample at each measurement interval • peak at midlife • increasing decline with age • Cohort Effects (over 28 years) • Break data down by birth date • Positive Cohort Trends • Later-born perform better than earlier-born (in general)

  19. General Conclusions about Age-Effects • Large individual differences in degree, rate, and pattern of change with age • Different aspects of intelligence follow different patterns of change with time (e.g., crystallized vs. fluid intelligence)

  20. Cohort trends show influence of socio-historical context on cognitive development • In healthy adults, cognitive decline is small, at least until very late adulthood • Trends support combination of decrement and continued-potential

  21. Factors Influencing Intellectual Performance in Later Life • Health • normal vs. superior health (Botwinick & Birren, 1963) • superior > normal on WAIS • slight deviations from optimal health affect intelligence

  22. Hypertension (Wilkie et al., 1971) • WAIS administered twice over 10 years (Time 1: 60-69 years) • Largest decline for those with high blood pressure at first testing

  23. Sensory changes: e.g., hearing Loss • correlates negatively with intelligence (e.g., Baltes et al., 1997) • greater loss – poorer performance (esp. on information, vocabulary tests) • Why?

  24. Organic Brain Syndrome (institutionalized with dementia) • decline greater than in healthy

  25. Education • (Birren & Morrison, 1961) • Number of years correlated with intellectual performance in later life • “General Intelligence” related to years of education (50% of variance), and not strongly related to age (10% of variance)

  26. Initial Level of Ability • No differential effects on rate of intellectual decline with age • Relative levels maintained across lifespan

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