Does intelligence really decrease with aging?

Intelligence can be defined as\nthe competency for logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional\nknowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving.\nIt is also simply the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.\nEveryone does have a certain level of intelligence, but does it decrease as you\ngrow, or do you acquire more in the process.

\n\n

There are nine types of intelligence\nwhich are logical-mathematical, linguistics, naturalist, interpersonal, intra-personal, spacial, existential,\nbodily-kinaesthetic and musical

\n\n

In the 1960s, Raymond Cattal\ndivided intelligence into two kinds; Fluid\nintelligence and crystallized\nintelligence. Fluid intelligence\nis the knowledge acquired by reasoning and solving problems in a novelty way. Both types of intelligence increase throughout childhood and adolescence.\nSome of the features of fluid intelligence peak\nin adolescence and begin to decline progressively\nbeginning around age 30\nor 40. Examples of fluid intelligence include solving puzzles, identifying\npatterns, etc.

\n\n

A study by Jaeggi, Buschkuehl,\nJonides, and Perrig, published in 2018, Improving Fluid Intelligence with Training on Working Memory, proved\nthat intelligence can be increased to a significant degree through training.

\n\n

Crystallized\nintelligence\nis the knowledge acquire through experience and education. While fluid\nintelligence decrease with aging, crystallized intelligence continues to grow\nthroughout adulthood. Examples of crystallized intelligence include knowing the\nDNA system, degrees at which water boils and many more. Crystallized intelligence can, therefore, be measured through\nvocabulary, grammar, reading comprehension and other similar tests, as well as\nquizzes, game shows and trivia games

\n\n

New researches has shown that not\nall aspects of intelligence age in the same way, and while some peak during\nhigh school and college, others continue to improve after 40.

\n\n

To investigate how intelligence\nchanges with age, psychologists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology\n(MIT) and the Massachusetts General Hospital in the US ( 2015) tested 48,537\npeople between the ages of ten to eighty-nine who had visited the sites\nGamesWithWords.org and TestMyBrain.org, where they conducted language, IQ and\nmemory tests that measured their emotion-recognition, working memory, number\nskills, and vocabulary.

\n\n

Joshua Hartshorne and Laura\nGermine presented evidence from 48, 537 people from standardized IQ and memory\ntests. The results revealed that processing speed and short-term memory for\nfamily pictures and stories peak and begin to decline around high school\ngraduation; some visual-spatial and abstract reasoning abilities plateau in\nearly adulthood, beginning to decline in the 30s; and still other cognitive\nfunctions such as vocabulary and general information do not peak until people\nreach their 40s or later

\n\n

They found that, depending on\nyour definition of intelligence, the skills peak at very different times\nthroughout your life. While young participants mostly did the best on the\nnumber-to-symbol coding tasks, with a peak age of around 19 to 20 years old,\nworking memory peaked between the mid-20s and mid-30s, before starting to\nslowly decline. And while 20-somethings were really good at recognizing\nsomeone's emotions from simply looking at a photo of their eyes, this ability\nkept improving all the way up until the age of 48, after which the skill\ndropped very, very slowly. Vocabulary just kept getting better with age,\nfinally peaking in the 60s or 70s, without any obvious sign of decline.

\n\n

Therefore, from the researches\nabove , intelligence does not decline but partly decrease with age while part of\nit increases with age

\n\n

 A few things you can implement in your day to day\nlives that will help you train and improve your fluid intelligence are trying\nto learn from others, seeking out new challenges, reading widely and tacking\nnew problems with new strategies.

\n\n\n

1. https://www.sciencealert.com/
2. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/
3. https://blog.mindvalley.com/

\n\n\n

Keithley Tongai is a\nConsultant intern at Industrial Psychology Consultants (Pvt) Ltd, a business\nmanagement and human resources consulting firm.