Psychological Science· 2015Q1
When Does Cognitive Functioning Peak? The Asynchronous Rise and Fall of Different Cognitive Abilities Across the Life Span
- 802citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2015year
Short summary
Cognitive abilities do not peak uniformly; instead, different functions reach their maximum performance at distinct ages, with some declining as early as late adolescence while others continue to improve into middle age.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Cognitive abilities peak at different life stages, not all at once.
- Some cognitive functions decline after high school graduation.
- Other abilities plateau in early adulthood and decline in the 30s.
- Certain cognitive skills continue to improve until age 40 or beyond.
- Data analyzed from 48,537 online participants.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Understanding how and when cognitive change occurs over the life span is a prerequisite for understanding normal and abnormal development and aging. Most studies of cognitive change are constrained, however, in their ability to detect subtle, but theoretically informative life-span changes, as they rely on either comparing broad age groups or sparse sampling across the age range. Here, we present convergent evidence from 48,537 online participants and a comprehensive analysis of normative data from standardized IQ and memory tests. Our results reveal considerable heterogeneity in when cognitive abilities peak: Some abilities peak and begin to decline around high school graduation; some abilities plateau in early adulthood, beginning to decline in subjects' 30s; and still others do not peak until subjects reach their 40s or later. These findings motivate a nuanced theory of maturation and age-related decline, in which multiple, dissociable factors differentially affect different domains of cognition.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Psychological Science, 2015 · DOI ↗
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Field: Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
Neuropsychology and Physiological PsychologyPsychology