And other skills, including our ability to do basic math (black line) and use a larger vocabulary (yellow line), rise even later, in most cases not reaching their apex until age 50:"At almost any given age, most of us are getting better at some things and worse at others," lead study author and MIT department of brain and cognitive sciences researcher Joshua Hartshorne told Business Insider.A leading-edge research firm focused on digital transformation.Still, the results are striking, and they appear to square with other recent studies that challenge the idea we reach peak intelligence in early adulthood.It's not all downhill once you hit your 20s — at least as far as some markers of intelligence are concerned."There may not be an age where you're the best at everything," Hartshorne said.This gave them access to a huge database of information from people of all ages: Overall, the study included the test results of 48,537 people between ages 10 and 89, with about 10,000 people participating in each test.The researchers got their results by widening the net of people they studied and looking specifically at how age affected people's results on different types of tests, rather than simply lumping similar tests together and looking at their overall results.One important caveat of this approach is that because it didn't follow the same people over the course of their lives, the results could overlook differences based on socioeconomic status, culture, or generation. Perhaps data can be correlated from other studies and research experiments. 3,4 Aging is associated with gradual changes in the brain that slow and reduce its function. 1,2 With life expectancies increasing dramatically in the last century, cognitive decline and dementia have become major contributors to disability and mortality. They dug out sets of data, collected decades ago, on adult performance at different ages on the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale, which is used to measure IQ, and the Weschler Memory Scale. I know, I know; this is all rather trivial to point out. However, this statement should be clarified and expounded upon as the ability to recognize faces cannot be attributed solely to fluid reasoning. “We were mapping when these cognitive abilities were peaking, and we saw there was no single peak for all abilities. But our other abilities, from reading others' emotions to recalling events that have just happened, continue to improve until we turn 30.
Cognitive function appears to peak around age 20 and diminish steadily over the remaining years of life. For example, it clearly has survival value for the infant if his/her parents recognize him/her as theirs, and don't waste their scarce resources on similar looking other infants in the troop. Nevertheless, that kind of cognitive ability is pretty crucial and fundamental to innovation and socio/technological progress.I should think some of the findings might result from evolutionary pressures -- particularly the survival value of certain skills at certain ages. However, more recent findings, including a new study from neuroscientists at MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), suggest that the real picture is much more complex.Interesting research! Incredible chart shows how intelligence changes as we age.