Aging and Intellectual Ability in Young, Middle-Aged, and Older Educated Adults: Preliminary Results from a Sample of College Faculty

Abstract

52 members of the college community at a small liberal arts university (Ages 25–72) were administered a 60-min. battery of tests measuring different aspects of cognitive performance. Stepwise regression equations detected significant relationships between the predictor variables of age and education and measures of the WAIS-R, the Logical Memory subtests and Trails A. Age predicted performance on Trails A, the Digit Symbol subtest of the WAIS-R, the Logical Memory II component of the Wechsler Memory Scale-R, some measures of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and Full Scale WAIS-R IQ. Education was a significant predictor of performance on the remaining WAIS-R subtests and the Failure-To-Maintain Response Sets measure of the card sorting. However, the results of the present study also suggest that over-all cognitive decline with advancing age is not an eventuality, at least among the highly educated, intellectually active individuals.