lec11. intelligence- ageing and outcomes

What was the Moray house test

All children born in 1921 in Scotland sat a standardised intelligence test – Moray house test

Age 11 at that time

Ian deary – one of the individuals who led to the retesting of this population

Tracked them down years later And they resat the exact same test

Results from moray house retest

We do see stability over time – explanations for people who don’t fit with the stability pattern

People tended to score better at age 77 than they did at age 11

People who did well in 1932 tended to do well in 1998

Ageing - crystallised vs fluid intelligence

Crystallised abilities increase then reach plateau at 50years then decline (vocabulary)

Fluid abilities decline (processing speed)

Cognitive decline with age and dementia

Risk factors for later life development of dementia : education in early life is a potentially modifiable risk factor of dementia , hearing loss is a large modifiable risk factor of dementia (8%), smoking, acohol, obesity also modifiable risk factor

What is cognitive reserve

Is the minds and brains ability to function even after cognitive decline or damage to the brain

Factors that build up cognitive reserve

living an active life, healthy diet, environment grew up in, mental health, education etc

Deary 2007 - IQ and life outcomes (education)

Deary 2007 – looked at IQ scores at age 11 and gcse scores at age 16

Iq at age 11 was a good predictor of educational attainment at age 16

Accounts for over 50% of differences in GCSE scores , so a little under 50% isn’t accounted for by IQ, so what else is?

Spinath conclusions of education predictions and intelligence

Concluded overall that school achievement is explained by both g and motivation

Inconsistent results across studies

Job success and intelligence

Tested age, interests, job experience, conscientiousness, psychometric intelligence test, work sample test and more

The work sample test (so the ppt doing a sample of work they would be doing at the job) was the strongest predictor of job performance

The psychometric intelligence test is almost as strong of a predictor

Structured interview was a good predictor which is what we use – but intelligence test would be just as good

What is higher emotional intelligence associated with

-              Better social and work relationships – definitely associated with job performance

-              More accurately able to detect variations in personal heartbeat

-              Recognise and reason emotional consequences

Batty 2009- iq and health

Batty 2009 – iq tests from 1 million Swedish men with 20yr follow up looking at number of casualties.

Every standard deviation increase in IQ (15 points) was associated with a 32% decrease in mortality risk 20 years later

Moray house cohort and health

Tracked the second cohort down and looked at mortality records.

Did a more elaborate analysis (Calvin et al 2017)

Looked at different causes of death

Found association between intelligence at 11yrs and major causes of death . Higher IQ – less likely to die (negative correlation)

Strongest relationships were with strokes, coronary heart disease, respiratory disease etc.

Lower childhood IQ is associated with an increased risk of:

-              Schizophrenia

-              PTSD

-              Depression