Kathleen Stassen Berger

Prepared by Madeleine Lacefield Tattoon, M.A.

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Part VII

Adulthood: Cognitive Development

Chapter Twenty-one

What is Intelligence?

Selective Gains and Losses

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Adulthood: Cognitive Development

Do people get smarter 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-Sequential Research

– Seattle Longitudinal Study• the first cross-sequential study of adult intelligence—this study began in 1956;

the most recent testing was conducted in 2005 – this study confirmed and extended what others had found—people

improve in most mental abilities during adulthood

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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 thorough—abilities such as short-term memory 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 examples—some 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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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 contextstheir 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 don’t go as planned