
When Does Intelligence Peak? - headalgorithm
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/when-does-intelligence-peak/
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xyzzyz
This[1] is the paper they quote. The paper is pretty confused, mostly by their
own fault. For example:

 _Recent evidence shows that whereas short-term memory for names and inverted
faces peaks around the age of 22 years, neither short-term memory for faces
nor quantity discrimination peaks until around the age of 30, a fact difficult
to assimilate into the fluid- /crystalized-intelligence dichotomy (Germine,
Duchaine, & Nakayama, 2011; Halberda, Ly, Wilmer, Naiman, & Germine, 2012).
Whether face memory and quantity discrimination are exceptions to the
fluid/crystalized rule or represent more systematic and previously
unrecognized patterns of age-related difference is an open question_

First, there's no "fluid-/crystalized-intelligence __dichotomy __" , since the
two factors are highly correlated with each other, to the point where
psychometricians prefer to derive the higher-order order factor, g.

Second, clearly the authors will be very confused by results like this if they
don't actually calculate g-loadings, and at the very least correlate the
vector of g-loadings with the vector of age declines.

Now compare the above paper with a paper studying basically same question, but
using proper factor analysis[2]. In particular, if you're low on time or
background, look at the graphs in Fig 2. Clearly, being able to separate
g-loading from group factors and test-specific measurement error gives us much
clearer picture of age-related decline.

[1] - [https://sci-hub.tw/10.1177/0956797614567339](https://sci-
hub.tw/10.1177/0956797614567339) [2] -
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3637652/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3637652/)

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gumby
FWIW I turned 55 this week and feel smarter and more capable than any time
before in my life.

I feel I write better code, and faster, than before. I understand articles and
books better.

I can't ski, bike, run, or backpack like I used to in my 20s. This is not a
huge surprise.

~~~
AlexTWithBeard
Lucky you!

I feel like my coding peak was at 35 and is slowly declining ever since.

I'm slowly getting better in dealing with people though.

~~~
ken
I don't believe that "coding" is a single axis of quality, either. I'm now
better at some types, and worse at others.

When I was young, I was much better at reading or writing complex functions
that worked correctly. As I get older, I'm much less able to, but I also
wouldn't want to even if I could.

I don't think that's just sour grapes. I don't want to inflict complex code on
my coworkers, either. And there's many times (when I'm tired, when I'm fixing
an emergency bug, etc) that I'm not at 100% mental capacity and I value not
having to work right at my brain's complexity limit.

16 year old me would probably not have believed that.

~~~
thoman23
It is orders of magnitude harder to write a “simple” solution. Developers
should not be proud of complexity at any age.

~~~
ken
Are you suggesting one should be proud of something just because it's harder?

~~~
thoman23
No, one should be proud of creating an elegant solution.

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torstenvl
> _processing speed and short-term memory for family pictures and stories peak
> and begin to decline around high school graduation_

I am skeptical that "short term memory for family pictures" is a discrete
cogntive function.

I'm even more skeptical that you can extrapolate anything generally useful
about cognitive decline, since this result is exactly what I'd _expect_ if
there _were_ no cognitive decline -- people are better at remembering things
they can contextualize to the familiar, so _of course_ they'll be able to
remember new information about their families better when they still live with
them than after they move out.

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wetwiper
agreed. I'd even be inclined to take it further and suggest that once leaving
high school, pressures and stresses related to self sustainability (being
employable, financial concerns, housing, etc etc) would become more real than
any previous family memory.

Also, wouldnt an understanding that materializes as one gets older of the back
story into each memory story (with the frame that memory stories here as
having a positive impact) have the potential to change the frame of the
memory, which decreases the likelihood of it being remembered? As in, certain
memories are pretty great until ypu understand how it came to be that way, in
which case either the back story becomes more signigicant or it becomes more
mediocore than remembered. And mediocrity is easily forgotten...

I'd also suppose that as people move on with their lives, people relate to
each other via shared stories... family stories have little meaning to those
not involved, and so have little impact in "fitting in" in the rest of
society. As that dawns on individuals leaving home, so are such stories
repressed until they more actively need to be remembered.

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badrabbit
Come now,this is silly.

There are people in their 60s that are so physically fit they can win a fair
fist fight against a 20 something year old who ever so rarely works on his/her
muscles.

Why is there a presumption that intellectual capacity is any different? A
person that trains their mind will do better than those that don't,that's
obvious.but how many people reach anywhere near their intellectual maximum
capacity?

My theory is that as people get older the items of life take up much more of
their time than in their earlier years which steals their potential to
maintain or exceed their earlier intellectual capacity. Those that manage to
make time for a mental workout in latter years would likely feel as competent
as when they were young if not more.

Just a theory based on observation.

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Waterluvian
I hear you. But consider this. So you're making a case that you can exercise
muscles and cardiovascular system, so therefore you can exercise the brain.

But what about other organs? Can you keep skin youthful through exercising it?
What about hair? Eyes?

I think it's equally as plausible that no, you can't exercise the brain just
by using it well. (though I don't personally believe this)

~~~
aeternus
There is also clearly a peak and decline, even with exercise. The article does
seem to cover this given the wide error bars for some of the cognitive tasks.

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hyperpallium
PSA: Being determined is a superior predictor of success than intelligence.
With age, you have a better idea of what you feel is worth doing, and why,
than the easy enthusiasms of youth.

Of course, those with wisdom, intelligence and youth will beat you. It's rare.

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z3t4
You are probably the smartest at around 5 to 10 years old. At least when it
comes to creativity and learning. Peak performance of brain capacity is
probably around 20 to 25. After that you aren't getting particular less
intelligent per see but stress and lack of sleep are deterrent. The risk of
stroke also increases as you get older. There are probably a peak of
intelligence at around age 50 when your brain is still healthy and you have
acquired experience and knowledge.

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billf1953
Degree of change would be nice. These traits could all be very flat over time
and therefore small peaks make things statistically significant.

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projectramo
Disappointed by the tasks they chose. This is because the data is collected in
a lab but we have so much more data these days.

Does anyone work for Udacity/EdX/Coursera? I would be interested to know
if/how performance on those courses decline/improve with age.

It would also be interesting to see if performance is correlated because of
lurking third factor. (My money is on exercise, or time).

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psalminen
Performance in MOOCS (or any educational setting) != Intelligence or ability
to perform

~~~
projectramo
I guess I'm more interested in whether my ability to learn machine learning
(or whatever the equivalent is in 10 years) will decrease over whether I'll be
able to remember a 7 digit number.

Call that what you will.

I am confused about what you consider "ability to perform". Education is a
context for performance.

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ohaideredevs
The theory is that your ability to memorize a 7 digit number (working memory)
IS fluid intelligence.

The problem is that memorizing an x digit number is proven to be trainable,
without much carry over to g or even other working memory tasks. I.e. - it's
hard to train fluid intelligence rather than train the specific task which it
is applied to.

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yters
I feel my ability to think quickly and see intuitive connections has
decreased, but on the other hand I've become more logical and rational in my
thinking. I think the latter has become more valuable to me, because it is key
for communicating with others. And clear communication is much more useful
right now than rapid thought.

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ohaideredevs
Fluff article with misleading quote: "In this view, knowledge does not
compensate for a declining adult intelligence; it is intelligence!"

This doesn't introduce anything of interest to people who already know that
fluid intelligence decreases and knowledge can continue increasing.

Depressing.

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projectramo
What if the article is aimed at people who didn't know that?

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ohaideredevs
Then you got a decent introduction sprinkled with misleading commentary.

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bhl
Humans have an odd focus on individual intelligence, even though most of the
achievements that we have accomplished as a species have been through
collective intelligence – rarely would I say that people function and create
alone.

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closeparen
Our obsession with individual intelligence is usually about selection for
(leadership of) elite teams.

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runxel
For a brief moment I thought this article will talk about the point where
humanity itself peaks in intelligence and knowledge.

On the other hand looking at the USA, I'd definitely say it already happened.

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blunte
And when does the definition of intelligence stabilize?

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mirimir
This is a classic example of Betteridge's law.

Edit: QED

>It seems that the question "When does intelligence peak?" is actually a
rather meaningless question. Not only do our various cognitive functions peak
at different times, but past a certain age it might make more sense to view
adult intelligence not through the lens of youthful general processing speed
and reasoning, but through the lens of expertise, wisdom, and purpose.

