PSYCH M140 Chapter 3: CONTROVERSY 3
CONTROVERSY 3: DO INTELLIGENCE AND CREATIVITY DECLINE WITH AGE?
Do Intelligence and
Creativity Decline with
Age?
• The view that intelligence and creativity decline with age is widely
shared
o A common stereotype that older people take longer to learn new
things is true, but it doesn’t usually affect everyday performance
o Chronological age alone doesn’t explain much about
learning ability
§ Lack of practice, differences in learning styles, and
motivation explain much more
• Many obstacles hinder scientific research on intellectual and
creative functioning in late life
o Especially finding a basic definition of creativity
Elements of Cognitive
Function
a/ Fluid Intelligence—intelligence applied to new tasks or the
ability to come up with novel or creative solutions to unforeseen
problems
o Creativity has been linked to fluid intelligence
b/ Crystallized intelligence—reflects accumulated past
experience and the effects of socialization
o Crystallized intelligence reflects gains made in practical,
everyday life expertise, often associated with wisdom
• In some societies around the world (particularly in the East), old age
is viewed as an appropriate time for spiritual exploration and
artistic development
o This may be enhanced by the fact that the sources of creativity
and productivity in later life are complex and result from many
different factors
• Many examples of creativity in later life focus on extraordinary older
people
o But “ordinary” people also show increased abilities in new ways
of thinking and acting with innovation and creativity
The Classic Aging
Pattern
• Creativity is difficult to define or measure
• But social scientists have been researching and measuring intellect
for a long time
o Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)—the best measure
of global or general intelligence in use today; includes verbal and
performance scales
§ Verbal scores tend to remain stable; performance scores
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tend to decline
• Classic aging pattern—the persistent difference in scores on
measures of verbal and performance intelligence
Measures of Late-Life
Intelligence
• The validity problem—the problem of measuring “real” intelligence
o Has helped fuel the debate over whether any positive cognitive
developments come with age
• Everyday intelligence—aka “common sense”; involves pragmatic
or social judgment, which is more than abstract reasoning
o Everyday problem solving—aka expertise in life planning
o Wisdom—an expert knowledge system derived from
experience and capability of dealing with pragmatic problems
• Research on intelligence in later life often conflates (confuses)
intelligence, wisdom, and creativity
• There aren't agreed on definitions of wisdom and creativity, nor
ways of measuring these capacities
• Results of research depend on the design— longitudinal or cross-
sectional
Studies of Age and
Cognitive Function
• Cross-sectional studies—look at groups of young and old people
at a single point in time
• Longitudinal studies—follow the same individuals over many
years
o Make more sense in this area because cross sectional studies
tend to overestimate the impact of chronological age
o Have found the steepest average intellectual declines come
after age 60
• Young people taking IQ tests may do better than older people for
several reasons:
o Tend to be more familiar with test taking from recent
experience in school and have less test anxiety
o Many older people have internalized ageist beliefs that
cognitive functioning declines as a normal part of aging, and
thus expect to do poorly—a self-fulfilling prophesy?
o Current cohorts of older adults have different educational
experiences and exposure to technology
• Longitudinal studies have also found that few people show any
“global” declines in intelligence as they age
• Cognitive reserve capacity—the degree of unused potential for
learning that exists at any given time
o Aging is accompanied by a clear loss in cognitive reserve
capacity
• Although fluid intelligence declines with age, crystallized intelligence
abilities increase
• Decrement with compensation—declines in cognitive ability
among older people can often be compensated for by the expertise
acquired from living a long time.
Correlates of Cognitive
Stability
• Difference between “realists” and “optimists” in the debate over
the causes and meanings of the measured declines in IQ scores with
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