Adolescent/Adult Development Middle Adulthood: Cognitive Development – Ch. 21 Adolescent/Adult Development Middle Adulthood: Cognitive Development – Ch. 21 Apr 7-12, 2010 Class #31-33

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

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

 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

 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

 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

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

 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)

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

Types of Intelligences  Fluid Intelligence  Crystallized Intelligence

What Is Expert Cognition?  What makes someone an expert at anything?

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”

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 all variables –Few attentional resources are needed

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

Implicit Learning: Expert Knowledge?  Examples: –Chess players –Football QB’s –Riding a bike

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

Implicit Learning: Mindless Learning  Rational and logical elements are missing yet we do better… –Why???

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

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

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

Optimization with Compensation  Do we consciously try to maximize gains and minimize losses?

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

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

Expertise in Daily Life  Developing expertise to cope with stress

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

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