MORE ABOUT FINDING AND STUDIES ON AGING AND IQ
The finding about aging and IQ has been demonstrated repeatedly: people who have a complex life-style, who have compelling interests, activities, and - just as important - meaningful, stimulating contact with other people tend, if anything, to increase their scores on the first part of the IQ test. When crystallized intelligence does decline after age fifty, or seventy, it is often because our lives have become less stimulating - through illness, or lack of opportunity, or losing interest in learning new things.
Unfortunately, the findings are not so upbeat for fluid intelligence. This type of intelligence does begin to decline rapidly and quite early, by our late twenties or early thirties. The main reason is loss of speed. As we get older we get slower, not so much in how fast we move, but in how fast we think. The gradual loss in fluid intelligence begins right after we reach adulthood. But it only becomes a real problem in some limited situations by about midlife.
For instance, an air-traffic controller may notice his performance at work getting worse by his early forties. His job depends on split-second decisions, and so his skill is likely to be affected a good deal by age. Luckily, relatively little of what most of us do depends on analyzing ever-changing information very fast. The few minutes or seconds of decision-making time we lose is usually more than offset by our crystallized intelligence - the knowledge and experience we also accumulate over the years.
Let's illustrate the fluid/crystallized difference by placing odds on a twenty-five-year-old lawyer versus his sixty-year-old opposing attorney to win a court case. The young lawyer, with his fluid intelligence at its peak, could reason and write faster. But our betting odds should be on the seasoned veteran. He is at a clear advantage because of his greater crystallized intelligence, his years of experience in what to research and how best to argue the case.
A study of 150 members of the 1973-74 Vermont legislature makes just this point. Although the younger legislators proposed about twice as many bills, an older legislator's chance of getting a given proposal passed was more than twice as great. The slower production rate of the older legislators was easily counterbalanced by the gift that being older conferred: knowing how to prepare legislation better and understanding which types of bills would pass.
There is a physical basis for our gradual loss of fluid intelligence. Our brain cells (neurons) do not send signals and communicate with one another as quickly as they once did. So it takes us more time to process information, from a few milliseconds to a few seconds longer depending on our age, our individual capacities, and the complexity of what we are asked to do. But though this decline is biological, there is an encouraging physical basis for the fact that crystallized intelligence can increase almost to the end of life.
*24/159/5*
GENERAL HEALTH
- The expiry date is mentioned on each blister. It is different for different batches. The shelf life is 2 years from the date of manufacture and would differ from batch to batch depending on when they were manufactured.
- Read the product information leaflet provided with the product before using it.
Information that this website contains are general information only and are not intended as a replacement for advise and recommendations made by your medical practitioner. We do not make any warranty or represent the accuracy of information supplied herein. We reserve the right to omit portions, correct errors or withdraw an entire page on this website as we see fit without prior notice.
Information about a certain drug, its uses, recommended dosages and side effects do not serve as a substitute to a prescription or information relayed to you by a licensed medical practitioner. These materials are just a general overview about the product. Likewise, we do not endorse use of any drug found on this site.
Use of this site is at your sole risk. We disclaim responsibility for reliance you place upon the information that we posted on this site. Always seek medical advice from a professional healthcare and discuss thoroughly your intention of using any of the medicine that is offered in this website.
|
