Adolescent/Adult Development Middle Adulthood: Cognitive Development – Ch. 21

1. Adolescent/Adult DevelopmentMiddle Adulthood: Cognitive Development – Ch. 21 Mar 27-Apr 1, 2008 Classes #28-30

2. What is Intelligence? General intelligence Old view: Single entity New view: Several distinct intellectual capacities

3. Studying Intelligence During the Twentieth Century Psychometricians disagreed about whether general intelligence rises or falls after age 20 or so

4. Yerkes (1923) this classic cross-sectional study found that the average male: reached his intellectual peak at about age 18 intellectual decline began by mid-20s for most Cross-Sectional Research

5. Bayley and Oden (1955) Found that most of the 36-year-olds in this study were still improving in vocabulary, comprehension, and information Longitudinal Research

6. Schaie (1956) Tested cross-section of 500 adults of different age groups on 5 standard primary mental abilities = foundations of intelligence verbal meaning spatial orientation inductive reasoning word fluency number ability Cross-Sequential Research

7. Schaie (1956) • Concluded people improve in most mental abilities until their 80s, at which point they fall below the mid-range performance of young adults

8. A trend toward increasing average IQ over generations comes from research comparing test scores over time in every country, younger cohorts outscored older ones Flynn (1984, 1987)

9. What are some reasons for overall IQ rise??? Flynn (1984, 1987)

10. Types of Intelligences Fluid Intelligence Crystallized Intelligence

11. What Is Expert Cognition? What makes someone an expert at anything?

12. What Is Expert Cognition? • Reber (1967) • Implicit learning • Learning that appears to occur without awareness or intention to learn and often cannot be described in words what has been learned • “Cognitive unconscious”

13. Implicit Learning: Learning that lacks perception? • Reber (1980) • Too many variables involved – too much to remember • In explicit learning, we consciously select only the key variables • In implicit learning, we are unselective and pay attention to allvariables • Few attentional resources are needed

14. Implicit Learning: Expert Knowledge? • McGeorge and Burton (1990) • Implicit learning allows us to skip steps • Everything becomes automatic • We become experts

15. Implicit Learning: Expert Knowledge? • Examples: • Chess players • Football QB’s • Riding a bike

16. Implicit Learning: Mindless Learning • Interestingly, its not based on logic… • Reber says when participants are observed making choices and solving problems of complexity they are irrational

17. Implicit Learning: Mindless Learning • Rational and logical elements are missing yet we do better… • Why???

18. Expertise and Age Practice is crucial Motivation is crucial Expertise can sometimes overcome effects of age, but response time slower

19. Selective Gains and Losses Many researchers believe that adults make deliberate choices about their intellectual development, separate from their culture or education

20. Optimization with Compensation Baltes and Baltes (1990) People try to maintain a balance in their lives by looking for the best way to compensate for physical and cognitive losses

21. Optimization with Compensation • Do we consciously try to maximize gains and minimize losses?

22. Expertise on the Job Research on cognitive plasticity often shows the use of selective optimization with compensation especially apparent in the everyday workplace

23. Expertise on the Job • Examples: • Waiting on Tables • Perlmutter et al. (1990) • Office Workers • Salthouse (1984)

24. Expertise in Daily Life Developing expertise to cope with stress

25. The Stresses of Life Middle-aged adults in the thick of things

26. Ways of Coping with Stress Psychologists have differentiated 2 major ways of coping with stress Problem-focused coping—attacking problem Emotion-focused coping—changing feelings about the stress