It is common to think that All human capacities decline with age after thirty, and that intelligence is no exception to this rule. However, it seems that this is not entirely true and does not always occur equally with all cognitive abilities.
We can believe this, among other things, because a team of researchers has found evidence that certain aspects of intelligence reach their peak once they are past youth, while others do so much earlier, around the age of 20.
Although we all tend to associate the concept “intelligence ” to the set of skills that are put into practice when completing the famous IQ tests, more and more nuanced layers are found in what might seem like a rigid, monolithic definition. There has been talk, for example, of emotional intelligence and multiple intelligences, conceptions of intelligence that go far beyond what is measured through the classic sheets on which you have to write down the correct answer. One of these interesting breaks in the idea of intellect has occurred with the proposal of two kinds of cognitive abilities: those that give shape to fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence.
These different ways of classifying types of intelligence are not free: They are theoretical models that try to explain deep processes that occur in our brain and, therefore, our way of thinking. That is why it is interesting when evidence is found that different types of intelligence evolve differently. In this sense, an article published in the Journal of Applied Psychology points out that, while fluid intelligence (that is, that which is associated with the successful resolution of new problems) begins to decline in the third decade of life, crystallized intelligence, related to the management of what has already been learned, continues to improve with age until it reaches, in some cases, 70 years or more.
For this research, a group of 3,375 volunteers between 20 and 74 years old with a professional profile at the level of an executive was used. As the research was focused on the evaluation of skills linked to the work environment, these people filled out a battery of questions related to certain professional capabilities, creativity, and management and administration style. In addition to all this, they were given a test on fluid and crystallized intelligence and the skills associated with each of them.
To measure each of these modalities, the tests proposed exercises related to logical and analytical capacity to measure fluid intelligence (such as following a series of letters), while crystallized intelligence was evaluated from tasks related to verbal ability
After analyzing the data collected, the researchers saw that Older people showed significantly lower fluid intelligence scores than people under 30 years of age, especially after fifty. However, in the verbal ability tasks associated with crystallized intelligence the trend was reversed: the mean scores corresponding to the older group were higher.
Although this is not the only study that describes these trends in the evolution of these types of intelligence, it is one of the few that focuses on the professional context. Research along these lines could be useful when it comes to knowing what type of tasks are easier to solve in one age group or another, with beneficial results for both the person and the work group in which they are found.
Of course, Both types of intelligence decline with age, what happens is that they do it differently and from a different moment of maturity. It makes sense that it is like that. Fluid intelligence is especially useful for adapting to relatively new environments to which one is not very adapted and which can still cause unforeseen events given the individual’s little experience. Crystallized intelligence, however, has a more conservative application, linked to solving problems based on what is already known.
These two types of skills are deployed at different stages, and our brain seems to be able to adapt to these stages by adjusting to what is expected of it. Somehow, It seems as if evolution aspired to make us as wise as it is
