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Outline for PowerPoint Presentation

Learning in Adulthood

Chapter Summary

Margaret Gray

ADE 6381

Chapter Eight

Prevailing Attitude

• You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
• Adults lose their ability to learn as they age.
• Research has NOT substantiated this.

Concept of Intelligence and Its Measurement

• Berg’s Perspectives
• Psychometric Tradition
• Process Orientation
• Information Processing
• Contextual Perspective
• Schaie’s Perspectives
• Information Processing
• Psychometric Tradition
• Practical Intelligence

Psychometric Perspective

• Binet and Spearman
• Innate capacity that is genetically determined
• Schaie sees this as appropriate for childhood but not as useful beyond adolescence.

Intelligence Testing with Adults

• Army Alpha Tests of Intelligence during World War I
• Thorndike, Bregman, Tilton, and Woodyard (1928)
• Adults aged 25-45 learn as quickly as adults aged 20.
• Kidd’s observation about Thorndike’s work:
• Raised the age of onset of downhill slide
• Helped colleagues to reject traditional views

Intelligence Tests

• Weschsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised (WAIS-R)
• Primary Mental Abilities test (PMA)

WAIS—R

• Eleven sub-tests
• Three scores
• Verbal
• Performance
• Overall Score
• Results indicate decline in intellectual functions not equal for all tasks

PMA

• Schaie and colleagues
• Measures five factors
• Verbal Meaning
• Space
• Reasoning
• Number
• Word Fluency
• Certain primary mental abilities do predict competent behavior in specific situations.

Major Issues

• Two Issues
• Tests themselves
• Social and policy implications of IQ scores
• Tenet and Pogson maintain tests are too "culture specific."
• Constructed from context of schooling rather than everyday life
• Timed nature is biased against older adults.
• The Bell Curve – Hernstein and Murray
• Intelligence is "inheritable."

Future Concerns

• Develop assessment tools to measure academic and practical notions of intelligence, including emotional intelligence.
• Pay more attention to designing tests that are "age fair."

Theories of Intelligence

• Theory of Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence
• Guilford’s Structure of Intellect Model
• Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Theory of Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence

• Cattell and Horn
• Two primary factors
• Fluid Intelligence
• Ability to perceive complex relations
• Concept formation
• Reasoning and Abstraction
• Crystallized Intelligence
• Acculturated information
• Verbal comprehension, vocabulary, and the ability to evaluate experience

• No single test
• Both types can be nurtured until very old age.
• Fluid intelligence begins to decline much earlier (perhaps age 35 or 40) than crystallized intelligence.
• Lohman and Scheurman assert that educators must encourage fluidization, not merely crystallization of knowledge and skills.

Guilford’s Structure of Intellect

• Three major categories
• Contents
• Operations
• Product
• Building block for expanding our thinking about the fundamental nature of human intelligence
• Decline in divergent thinking abilities with age (Alpaugh, Parham, Cole, and Birren)

Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences

• Several autonomous human intellectual competencies
• Linguistic, Logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, naturalist
• Entire curricula developed using this conceptualization of intelligence

Sternberg’s Theories of Intelligence

• Most theories ignore notion of practical intelligence.
• Triarchic Theory – "Successful Intelligence"

Triarchic Components

• Componential
• Analytical mental processes
• Experiential
• How does experience, insight, and creativity affect thinking?
• Contenxtual
• Role of environment in defining intelligent behavior at any given moment
• Intelligence can be taught.

Sternberg’s Successful Intelligence

• Analytical Thinking—Problem Solving
• Creative Thinking—Problem Formulating
• Practical Intelligence—Use Ideas Effectively
• Intelligent people choose how and when to use these abilities effectively.

Goleman’s Theory of Emotional Intelligence

• Two ways of knowing
• Rational
• Emotional
• Emotional Intelligence determines success.
• Knowing one’s emotions
• Managing emotions
• Motivating oneself
• Recognizing emotions in others
• Handling relationships

Contextual Perspective

• Intellectual abilities lie at the intersection between mind and context.
• Intelligence is defined differently by different social classes and cultural groups.
• Intelligence involves the ability to adapt to new environments.

Cultural Issues

• Kohl de Oliveira
• Cultural settings influence conceptions about intelligence.
• Study of adults in favela
• Intelligent people "make things."
• Intelligent people learn survival skills quickly.
• Similar to Practical Intelligence

Age and Intellectual Abilities

• Variety of theories/opinions--Controversy
• Botwinick’s Four Key Factors
• Definitions of age
• Definitions of intelligence
• Types of tests used
• Research methods

What is Age/Aging?

• Some functions increase with age.
• Some decline in functioning between 60-70.
• Terminal Drop – Intelligence drops within a few years of death.
• Centenarians report rich late-life learning experiences primarily through social interaction.

Definitions of Intelligence

• Multifaceted definitions indicate some abilities decline.
• Other abilities remain stable or increase.
• Fluid intelligence decreases with age.
• Crystallized intelligence first increases and then remains stable.
• Do current tests capture a holistic picture of adult intelligence?

Research Methods

• Cross-sectional studies have been misinterpreted to show that intelligence declines with age.
• Longitudinal studies show that intelligence remains stable.
• Researches have adopted alternative designs, such as Seattle Longitudinal Study used by Schaie and associates.
• Conclusions indicate no significat decline until 80 or 90 (barring illness, environmental circumstances, etc.).

Intelligence, Aging, and Adult Learning

• Researchers must frame more holistic conceptions of adult intelligence.
• Race and ethnic backgrounds
• Schaie’s contributions of greater understanding of strengthening factors
• Adult learners must have a variety of educational opportunities to inhibit decline and expand intellectual capacity.