Abstract
In this chapter we explore the development of adult intelligence from four different perspectives: the psychometric, cognitive, neo-Piagetian, and contextual. These four perspectives were chosen to review the literature on adult intelligence because they offer a fairly diverse representation of guiding theories to adult intelligence that are dominant in the field at the present time (see Sternberg & Berg, 1992, for a review). Other perspectives on intelligence (e.g., comparative, biological, artificial intelligence) have not had the same presence in the field of adult intelligence as have these four perspectives.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Abraham, J. D., & Hansson, R. O. (1995). Successful aging at work: An applied study of selection, optimization, and compensation through impression management. Journal of Gerontology, 50B, P94–P103.
Adams, C., Labouvie-Vief, G., Hobart, C. J., & Dorosz, M. (1990). Adult age group differences in story recall style. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 45, P17–P25.
Anderson, J. R. (1983). The architecture of cognition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Anderson, J. R. (1991). The adaptive nature of human categorization. Psychological Review, 98, 409–429.
Anderson, J. R. (1996). ACT: A simple theory of complex cognition. American Psychologist, 51, 355–365.
Arbuckle, T. Y., & Gold, D. P. (1993). Aging, inhibition, and verbosity. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 48, 225–232.
Atkinson, R. C., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1968). Human memory: A proposed system and its control processes. In K. W. Spence & J. T. Spence (Eds.), The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory, Vol. 2. New York: Academic Press.
Backman, L., & Dixon, R. A. (1992). Psychological compensation: A theoretical framework. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 1–125.
Baddeley, A. D. (1992). Working memory. Science, 255, 556–559.
Baddeley, A. D. (1995). Working memory. In M. S. Gazzaniga (Ed.), The cognitive neurosciences (pp. 755–764). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Baltes, P. B., & Staudinger, U. M. (2000). Wisdom: A metaheuristic (pragmatic) to orchestrate mind and virtue toward excellence. American Psychologist, 55, 122–136. Wisdom: The orchestration of mind and virtue. Boston: Blackwell.
Baltes, P. B., Lindenberger, U., & Staudinger, U. M. (1998). Life-span theory in developmental psychology. In W. Damon (Series Ed., R. M. Lerner, Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology, Vol. 1 (pp. 1029–1143). New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Baltes, P. B., Mayer, K. U., Helmchen, H., & Steinhagen-Thiessen, E. (1993). The Berlin Aging Study (BASE): Overview and design. Aging and Society, 13, 483–515.
Baltes, P. B., & Willis, S. L. (1982). Plasticity and enhancement of intellectual functioning in old age: Penn State’s adult development and enrichment project (ADEPT). In F. I. M. Craik & S. E. Trehub (Eds.), Aging and cognitive processes (pp. 353–389). New York: Plenum Press.
Berg, C. A. (2000). The development of adult intelligence. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of human intelligence, (pp. 117–137). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Berg, C. A., & Calderone, K. S. (1994). The role of problem interpretations in understanding the development of everyday problem solving. In R. J. Sternberg & R. K. Wagner (Eds.), Mind in context: Interactionist perspectives on human intelligence (pp. 105–132). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Berg, C. A., Hertzog, C., & Hunt, E. (1982). Age differences in the speed of mental rotation. Developmental Psychology, 18, 95–107.
Berg, C. A., & Sternberg, R. J. (1985). A triarchic theory of intellectual development during adulthood. Developmental Review, 5, 334–370.
Berg, C. A., & Sternberg, R. J. (1992). Adults’ conceptions of intelligence across the life span. Psychology and Aging, 7, 221–231.
Berg, C. A., Strough, J., Calderone, K. S., Sansone, C., & Weir, C. (1998). The role of problem definitions in understanding age and context effects on strategies for solving everyday problems. Psychology and Aging, 13, 29–44.
Birren, J. E. (1974). Translations in gerontology-From lab to life: Psychophysiology and speed of response. American Psychologist, 29, 808–815.
Blanchard-Fields, F., Chen, Y., & Norris, L. (1997). Everyday problem solving across the life span: The influence of domain-specificity and cognitive appraisal. Psychology and Aging, 12, 684–693.
Burke, D. M. (1997). Language, aging, and inhibitory deficits: Evaluation of a theory. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, P254–264.
Carroll, J. B. (1993). Human cognitive abilities: A survey of factor-analytic studies. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Cerella, J. (1990). Aging and information processing rate. In J. E. Birren & K. W. Schaie (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of aging (pp. 201–221). San Diego: Academic Press.
Charness, N. (1981). Age and skilled problem solving. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 110, 21.
Cohen, G. (1988). Age differences in memory for texts: Production deficiency or processing limitations? In L. L. Light & D. M. Burke (Eds.), Language, memory and aging (pp. 171–190). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Colonia-Willner, R. (1998). Practical intelligence at work: Relationships between aging and cognitive efficiency among managers in a bank environment. Psychology and Aging, 13, 45–57.
Connelly, S. L., Hasher, L., & Zacks, R. T. (1991). Age and reading: The impact of distraction. Psychology and Aging, 6, 53 3–541.
Cornelius, S. W., & Caspi, A. (1987). Everyday problem solving in adulthood and old age. Psychology and Aging, 2, 144–153.
Engle, R. W., & Oransky, N. (1999). Multi-store versus dynamic models of temporary storage in memory. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), The nature of cognition (pp. 515–556). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Flynn, J. R. (1984). The mean IQ of Americans: Massive gains 132 to 1978. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 29–51.
Flynn, J. R. (1987). Massive IQ gains in 14 nations: What IQ tests really measure. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 171–191.
Freund, A. M., & Baltes, P. B. (1998). Selection, optimization, and compensation as strategies of life management: Correlations with subjective indicators of successful aging. Psychology and Aging, 13, 531–543.
Hale, S., Myerson, J., Smith, G. A., & Poon, L. W. (1988). Age, variability, and speed: Between-subjects diversity. Psychology and Aging, 3, 407–410.
Hasher, L., & Zacks, R. T. (1988). Working memory, comprehension, and aging: A review and a new view. The Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 22, 193–225.
Havighurst, R. (1972). Developmental tasks and education. New York: Van Nostrand.
Hertzog, C. (1989). Influences of cognitive slowing on age differences in intelligence. Developmental Psychology, 25, 636–651.
Hertzog, C., Vernon, M. C., & Rypma, B. (1993). Age differences in mental rotation task performance: The influence of speed/accuracy tradeoffs. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 48, P150–P156.
Horn, J. L. (1994). Theory of fluid and crystallized intelligence. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Encyclopedia of human intelligence, Vol. 1 (pp. 443–451). New York: Macmillan.
Horn, J. L., & Cattell, R. B. (1967). Age differences in fluid and crystallized intelligence. Acta Psychologica, 26, 107–129.
Horn, J. L., & Hofer, S. M. (1992). Major abilities and development in the adult period. In R. J. Sternberg & C. A. Berg (Eds.), Intellectual development (pp. 44–99). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hunt, E. B. (1995). Will we be smart enough? A cognitive analysis of the coming workforce. New York: Russell-Sage Foundation.
Jensen, A. R. (1998). The g factor. Westport, CT: Praeger.
King, P. M., Kitchener, K. S., Wood, P. K., & Davison, M. L. (1989). Relationships across developmental domains: A longitudinal study of intellectual, moral, and ego development. In M. L. Commons, J. D. Sinnott, F. A. Richards, & C. Armon (Eds.), Adult development, Vol. 1: Comparisons and applications of developmental models (pp. 57–72). New York: Praeger.
Kitchener, K. S., & King, P. M. (1981). Reflective judgement: Concepts of justification and their relationship to age and education. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 2, 89–116.
Kitchener, K. S., King, P. M., Wood, P. K., & Davison, M. L. (1989). Consistency and sequentiality in the development of reflective judgement: a six year longitudinal study. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 10, 73–95.
Kitchener, K. S., Lynch, C. L., Fischer, K. W., & Wood, P. K. (1993). Developmental range of reflective judgement: The effect of contextual support and practice on developmental stage. Developmental Psychology, 29, 893–906.
Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition (1982). Culture and intelligence. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of human intelligence (pp. 642–719). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Labouvie-Vief, G. (1984). Logic and self-regulation from youth to maturity: A model. In M. L. Commons, F. A. Richards, & C. Armon (Eds.), Beyond formal operations. New York: Praeger.
Labouvie-Vief, G. (1992). A Neo-Piagetian perspective on adult cognitive development. In R. J. Sternberg & C. A. Berg (Eds.), Intellectual developmental. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Labouvie-Vief, G., Chiodo, L. M., Goguen, L. A., Diehl, M., & Orwoll, L. (1995). Representations of self across the life span. Psychology and Aging, 10, 404–415.
Labouvie-Vief, G., DeVoe, M., & Bulka, D. (1989). Speaking about feelings: Conceptions about emotion across the life span. Psychology and Aging, 4, 425–437.
Lindenberger, U., & Baltes, P. B. (1997). Intellectual functioning in old age and very old age: Cross-sectional results from the Berlin Aging Study. Psychology and Aging, 12, 410–432.
Marsiske, M., & Willis, S. L. (1995). Dimensionality of everyday problem solving in older adults. Psychology and Aging, 10, 269–283.
McDowd, J. (1997). Inhibition in attention and aging. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, P265–273.
McDowd, J. M., Oseas-Kreger, D. M., & Filion, D. L. (1995). Inhibitory processes in cognition and aging. In F. N. Dempster & C. J. Brainerd (Eds.), Interference and inhibition in cognition (pp. 363–400). San Diego: Academic Press.
Neely, A. S., & Backman, L. (1993). Long-term maintenance of gains from memory training in older adults: Two 3½-year follow-up studies. Journal of Gerontology, 48, 233–237.
Neisser, U. (1979). The concept of intelligence. In R. J. Sternberg & D. K. Detterman (Eds.), Human Intelligence: Perspectives on its theory and measurement (pp. 179–189). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Neisser, U. (Ed.) (1998). The rising curve. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Pascual-Leone, J. (1984). Attentional, dialectic, and mental effort: Toward an Organismic theory of life stages. In M. L. Commons, F. A. Richards, & C. Armon (Eds.), Beyond formal operations (pp. 182–215). New York: Praeger.
Perry, W. G. (1968). Forms of intellectual and ethical development in the college years. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Reinert, G. (1970). Comparative factor analytic studies of intelligence throughout the human life-span. In L. R. Goulet & P. B. Baltes (Eds.), Life-span developmental psychology: Research and theory (pp. 467–484). New York: Academic Press.
Riegel, K. F. (1976). The dialectics of human development. American Psychologist, 31, 689–700.
Rogoff, B. (1982). Integrating context and development. In M. E. Lamb & A. L. Brown (Eds.), Advances in developmental psychology, Vol. 2 (pp. 125–170). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Salthouse, T. A. (1984). Effects of age and skill in typing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 113, 345–371.
Salthouse, T. A. (1991). Theoretical perspectives on cognitive aging. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Salthouse, T. A. (1992a). Mechanisms of age-cognition relations in adulthood. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Salthouse, T. A. (1992b). The information-processing perspective on cognitive aging. In R. J. Sternberg & C. A. Berg (Eds.), Intellectual development (pp. 261–277). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Salthouse, T. A. (1996). The processing-speed theory of adult age differences in cognition. Psychological Review, 103, 403–428.
Salthouse, T. A., Kausler, D. H., & Saults, J. S. (1988). Utilization of path analytic procedures to investigate the role of processing resources in cognitive aging. Psychology and Aging, 3, 158–166.
Salthouse, T. A., Mitchell D. R., Skovronek, E., & Babcock, R. L. (1989). Effects of adult age and working memory on reasoning and spatial abilities. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 15, 507–516.
Schaie, K. W. (1984). Historical time and cohort effects. In K. A. McCloskey & H. W. Reese (Eds.), Life-span developmental psychology: Historical and generational effects (pp. 1–15). New York: Academic Press.
Schaie, K. W. (1988). Variability in cognitive functioning in the elderly: Implications for societal participation. In A. D. Woodhead, M. A. Bender, & R. C. Leonard (Eds.), Phenotypic variation in populations: Relevance to risk assessment (pp. 191–212). New York: Plenum Press.
Schaie, K. W. (1996a). Intellectual development in adulthood. In J. E. Birren & K. W. Schaie (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of aging (pp. 266–286). New York: Academic Press.
Schaie, K. W. (1996b). Intellectual development in adulthood: The Seattle Longitudinal Study. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Schaie, K. W., & Willis, S. L. (1986). Can decline in adult intellectual functioning be reversed? Developmental Psychology, 22, 223–232.
Schaie, K. W., & Willis, S. L. (1996). Psychometric intelligence and aging. In F. Blanchard-Fields & T. Hess (Eds.), Perspectives on cognitive change in adulthood and aging. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Schooler, C., Mulatu, M. S., & Oates, G. (1999). The continuing effects of substantively complex work on the intellectual functioning of older workers. Psychology and Aging, 14, 483–506.
Sinnott, J. D. (Ed.) (1989). Everyday problem solving: Theory and applications. New York: Praeger.
Sinnott, J. D. (1996). Post-formal intelligence. In F. Blanchard-Fields & T. M. Hess (Eds.), Perspectives on cognition in adulthood and aging. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Smith, J., & Baltes, P. B. (1990). Wisdom-related knowledge: Age/cohort differences in response to life-planning problems. Developmental Psychology, 26, 494–505.
Spearman, C. (1927). The abilities of man: Their nature and measurement. New York: Macmillan.
Sternberg, R. J. (1985). Beyond IQ: A triarchic theory of human intelligence. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Sternberg, R. J. (1997). Successful intelligence. New York: Plume.
Sternberg, R. J. (1998). A balance theory of wisdom. Review of General Psychology, 2, 347–365.
Sternberg, R. J. (Ed.) (1999). The nature of cognition. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Sternberg, R. J., & Berg, C. A. (1992). Intellectual development. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Sternberg, R. J., Forsythe, G. B., Hedlund, J., Horvath, J., Snook, S., Williams, W. M., Wagner, R. K., & Grigorenko, E. L. (2000). Practical intelligence in everyday life. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Sternberg, R. J., Wagner, R. K., Williams, W. M., & Horvath, J. A. (1995). Testing common sense. American Psychologist, 50, 912–927.
Stolzfus, E., Hasher, L., & Zacks, R. T. (1996). Working memory and aging: Current status of the inhibitory view. In J. T. E. Richardson, R. W. Engle, L. Haher, R. H. Logie, E. R. Stolzfus, & R. T. Zacks (Eds.), Working memory and human cognition. New York: Oxford University Press.
Wagner, R. K., & Sternberg, R. J. (1985). Practical intelligence in real-world pursuits: The role of tacit knowledge. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48, 436–458.
Wagner, R. K., & Sternberg, R. J. (1986). Tacit knowledge and intelligence in the everyday world. In R. J. Sternberg & R. K. Wagner (Eds.), Practical intelligence. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Willis, S. L. (1987). Cognitive training and everyday competence. In K. W. Schaie (Ed.), Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Vol. 7 (pp. 159–188). New York: Springer.
Willis, S. L., & Nesselroade, C. S. (1990). Long-term effects of fluid ability training in old-old age. Developmental Psychology, 26, 905–910.
Zacks, R. T., Radvansky, G. A., & Hasher, L. (1994). Studies of directed forgetting in older adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory, and Cognition, 22, 143–156.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2002 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Berg, C.A., Sternberg, R.J. (2002). Multiple Perspectives on the Development of Adult Intelligence. In: Demick, J., Andreoletti, C. (eds) Handbook of Adult Development. The Springer Series in Adult Development and Aging. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0617-1_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0617-1_6
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-5160-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-0617-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive