When does cognitive functioning peak? The asynchronous rise and fall of different cognitive abilities across the life span.

ABSTRACT: Understanding how and when cognitive change occurs over the life span is a prerequisite for understanding normal and abnormal development and aging. Most studies of cognitive change are constrained, however, in their ability to detect subtle, but theoretically informative life-span changes, as they rely on either comparing broad age groups or sparse sampling across the age range. Here, we present convergent evidence from 48,537 online participants and a comprehensive analysis of normative data from standardized IQ and memory tests. Our results reveal considerable heterogeneity in when cognitive abilities peak: Some abilities peak and begin to decline around high school graduation; some abilities plateau in early adulthood, beginning to decline in subjects' 30s; and still others do not peak

SUBMITTER: Hartshorne JK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4441622 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature