Ebuenga, Desiree Lei P.

September 15, 2010

Datuin, Nathan Psych 162

The Relationship of Age, Gender and Generational Difference on Intelligence

While searching a good definition of intelligence in different studies and books it is then
found out that there is really no single definition of intelligence that is widely accepted as it is. It
is because the concept of intelligence is confusing. However the most common definition of it is
that it is a general mental ability (Butcher: 1968, 15). Furthermore, it is the “broadest and most
pervasive cognitive trait, and is conceived of as being involved in virtually every kind of
intellectual skill” (Ibid, 24). The idea of intelligence became a popular usage when it was being
studied by Sir Cyril Burt. But the introduction of the concept is credited to Herbert Spencer and
of Francis Galton during the nineteenth century. Other influential psychologists in introducing
this particular area are Hughlings Jackson and Sherrington. Intelligence and factors that may
affect it are being widely studied among the psychological societies in different countries until
now.

There are already numerous studies done in the past regarding intelligence and its
possible factors that can affect it. One of the most studied issues relating to intelligence is its
relationship with age. Intelligence could be subjected to positive and negative effects of aging
(Jones, ). The issue that whether intelligence decline as the age increases or not is still being
debated today among the psychological community. Research studies regarding this will be
discussed further especially their conclusions.

Two Forms of Intelligence

But before discussing different studies, it is better to first converse the two kinds of
intelligence that R.B. Cattell had determined—the fluid intelligence and the crystallized
intelligence. Fluid intelligence is related to our genetic make-up and deals with the ability of the
individuals to make decisions promptly and immediately. Crystallized intelligence refers to the
extent of information an individual has acquired and learned from the society and culture that he
belongs to over a period of time (West Virginia University). In a study of an Assistant Professor
of Psychology in West Virginia University named Julie Hicks Patrick, the majority of the
research done about the relationship of intelligence and age indicates that crystallized abilities
continue to be quite high in the old age compared to the fluid abilities that decreases in the later
years of life. Interestingly, the two forms of intelligence become more combined as people age.
Thus, it implies that older adults can notwithstanding function capably particularly on the areas
or fields that they are interested about or are expert into. Correspondingly, it has been generally
substantiated that various facets of intelligence persist to improve well among several middle-
aged individuals (Butcher, 1968: 29). However, the speed and ability to adapt with wholly novel
problems deteriorate (Ibid, 1968: 29). According to Horn (1970), crystallized intelligence
remains either relatively constant or increasing as an individual age. This is because “the rate at
which we acquire new information in the course of life tends to balance out the rate at which we
forget” whereas it declines in the old age (Ibid, 1970: 168). At this point of life of an individual,
the effect of losing work, relationships and most especially health become the reasons on the rate
of forgetting to surpass the rate at which knowledge is obtained (Ibid, 1970: 168).

Does Intelligence Decline with Age?

It is a big question in psychology whether intelligence decline with age or not. And if it
really is, what is the particular age that intelligence deteriorates? And do all the facets of
intelligence degenerate or just some components? What are the theories that support this notion
and what are the theories that contrast it? These are the some of the few questions that this paper
intends to answer.

Studies on Intelligence

In the study of Bugg and colleagues (2006), they mention the article written by Salthouse
in 2004. According to the article, Salthouse remarked that a certain features of cognition are
adversely affected by aging. These features include memory, reasoning, and processing speed.
The negative influence of age inclinations are often large and it has been said that the decline
begins at the age of 50. He also pointed out that certain characteristic of intelligence remain
fairly stable from the mid 50s onwards. In the past literature and studies regarding the
relationship between fluid intelligence and age, using the Block Design and Matrix Reasoning
tasks as measures, it has been substantiated that fluid intelligence decline as an individual age.
In this study of Bugg and his colleagues (2006), they found out according to their findings that
there are two things that contribute to the possible declining of the fluid intelligence in aging.
These two are the processing speed and the frontal functioning of an individual. Furthermore,
age does really have an effect on this said deterioration. Also, this influence of age on the
declining of fluid intelligence is partly due to the deterioration on the working memory ability.
In overall, there are multiple factors that contribute to the decline of fluid intelligence, including
age.

Another study was conducted by Clay, O.J and colleagues (2009) regarding age-related
decline in intelligence. Results of this study suggest that the relationship between age and
deterioration in various cognitive abilities specifically memory span and fluid intelligence can be
accounted for by the change in the age-related declines in the visual functioning as well as in the
processing speed. As people age, the central causes of declines in the processing speed are the
sensory abilities. It further means that there is a slower intellectual functioning in the old age
compared to the younger age.
 It is evident in the results of different studies that as people age, the one that really
affected is the memory skills. It is also necessary to take note of the patterns that emerge in
relation with the decline in the memory skills of an individual as he goes older and older. In the
study of Alloway (2010), between 5 to 19 years old, there is a tremendous growth in memory
skills with 23 standard points. However, with age 20 to 39 years old, there is a decline by an
average of 19 standard points. Between 50 to 69 years old, there was only an average of one
standard point. Some studies say that the peak memory capacity of an individual happens when
he is in his teenage years. In contrast, this study of Alloway and Alloway states that the memory
skill of an individual continues to rise up to its maximum capacity when he reaches in his 30s. In
fact, those in their age 60s can still perform the way they perform while in their 20s most
especially in the area of verbal working memory skills. In general, the decline in the working
memory skills of an individual is just minimal between 50 to 85 years old with an average of 6
standard points. Nonetheless, the case is different with the case of fluid intelligence. The
decline on fluid intelligence with 80 years old is 15 standard points below the average. When
Alloway and Alloway (2010) compared the working memory skills on the IQ of their
participants, the result was that “the growth of working memory occurs more rapidly and the
decline more slowly, with functioning in those in their sixties similar to those in their twenties.”

Intelligence and Gender Difference

Intelligence and its nature has been a matter of debate since time immemorial.
Researchers have often wondered what complex mechanisms govern our thought processing and
what factors may contribute to its creation and development. It is believed and applied in a lot of
countries that intelligence is actually a determinant for an individual’s success that’s why so
much research has been devoted to understanding it. Gender has been of special interest to
scientists all over the world with regards to the topic of intelligence. Throughout early history the
female involvement in academic, political, and economic pursuits is found to be less than desired
and for a time many believed that men were a superior sex. Of course this was untrue because
women were only socially, politically, and economically oppressed for a long time thus;
establishing across cultures the roles that men and women must play. Knowledge of this notion
promote within families the discouragement of their female children from pursuing what has
been culturally accepted as fields for men. This enervated women to pursue fields that were of
interest to them thus, being unable to reach their full potential.

Today, the world has slowly started to recognize the falsehood of their beliefs with
regards to gender. With more countries showing special interest in developing their nation as a
whole and providing more opportunities to women of different statures in different aspects of
social participation. With more and more women entering respectable positions and achieving
distinction in their chosen field more and more women can gain more confidence in pursuing
their desired fields as well as their dreams. This paper identifies issues with regards to gender
differences in intelligence and how researchers have studied these differences.

The X chromosome

Humans follow the XY se-determination system wherein females have the same type of
sex chromosome (XX) while males have distinct sex chromosomes (XY). In genetics some
species have a gene or genes on their y chromosome which determine maleness. In humans a
single gene on the Y chromosome acts as the signal to set the developmental pathway towards
maleness. On the other hand females use two X chromosomes which determine femaleness.

In the issue of intelligence, scientists in recent years have started paying great attention
to its involvement with the nature of the X chromosome. The X chromosome (1,098 genes) - one
of the 24 distinct chromosomes found in humans – is quite large compared to the relatively small
Y (78). This means that females have a thousand more genes than males which the female body
compensates for by turning off one X chromosome randomly thus, evening up protein production
for both genders. But research has discovered that some genes within the X chromosome actually
escape inactivation, therefore, females actually do express more genes than males.

Most of the genes for general intelligence are found on the X chromosome. It has been
found that the average IQ of males and females are equal but men are more frequently found at
both extremes of intelligence. The explanation behind this is that females express all the genes
for general intelligence in both chromosomes thus, mixing the intelligent genes with the average
ones giving birth to a female individual with an intelligence that lies somewhere in between. On
the other hand, males only have one X chromosome, which completely expresses itself within an
individual.

Another interesting thing about the X chromosome in females is its ability to protect or
harm its carrier, depending on their gender. There have been 300 conditions so far, have been
found to be related or linked to the X chromosome including mental retardation and autism. All
humans are susceptible to these but females are shielded from the full blow of these diseases and
disorders because they usually have a healthy copy of the gene expressed in the other X
chromosome. On the other hand, males tend to express these genetic disorders because they
don’t have anything to compensate for the defective gene in the other chromosome.

Mathematical ability

In the 1990s there were two researches that explored the possibility that there may be
gender differences in mathematical performance. This was sparked by the trend in the 1970s
noticed by political scientists, for females to avoid and feel anxious about math, something that
they attributed to social conditioning (females have been discouraged throughout history to
pursue math as a profession). One study examined differences in Mathematical reasoning using
the School and College Ability Test (SCAT). The test involved identifying the quantitative
difference (as well as whether or not there was enough information provided) between 50 pairs
of quantities. Males scored higher than females overall and the average gender differences was
the same for all grade levels in this study. Another study in the University of South Wales and La
Trobe University that involved classifying whether or not there was sufficient information to
solve the problem and whether there was irrelevant information mixed in. Males and females
performed equally well in identifying problems containing sufficient information, but males were
more able than females to detect problems that had irrelevant information, or those that had
missing information. Males and females performed equally well in identifying problems
containing sufficient information, but males were more able than females to detect problems that
had irrelevant information, or those that had missing information. The participants of the second
study were then asked to solve the problems. On problems with sufficient information, the
females performed as well as males on the other hand, on problems with irrelevant information,
the females were not able to perform as well as males. These findings led the researchers to
hypothesize that females assumed that test designers would not give facts that were unnecessary
to reaching a solution. In later studies it will be proven that U.S. girls perform as well as boys in
standard mathematics test on all grade levels given the same educational opportunities.

A more recent study examined data from the Trend in International Mathematics and
Science Study (TIMMSS, focuses basic math knowledge) and the Programme for International
Student Assessment (PISA, assessment of students’ abilities in applying math in real world
skills), representing 493,495 students ages 14-16 from 69 countries. The results were released in
2003. On average, each participating nation exhibited only small gender differences. The two
studies also assessed students’ level of confidence in their mathematical ability and the
significance in one’s career, despite overall similarities in math skills, males exhibited a greater
degree of confidence with regards to their abilities more than females and were very motivated to
do well.

Various studies showed the difference of general intelligence level on account of gender.
They have observed that there is a greater male variability in at least the two of the three
important facets of specific cognitive abilities namely quantitative abilities and visuospatial
abilities (Johnson, W., Carothers, A., and Deary, I., 2009). The variability on sex differences on
the third facet which is the verbal abilities have been much less clear (Ibid, 2009). In addition,
Johnson and colleagues evaluated the specific differences in the variability between male and
female in certain aspects of cognitive abilities:

…the quantitative and nonverbal abilities showed effectively no sex

differences in means, but there were greater proportions of males at both the low
and high ends of the distributions. For nonverbal ability, the ratios were greater at
the low end than at the high end, but the reverse was true for quantitative ability.
At a minimum, this indicates that the pattern of greater male representation in the
 highest levels of achievement in math, science, and technology-related
professions is present in the contributing underlying abilities by age 11.

On the physiological level, it has been said that the brain of women have nine times more
white matter compared to men (Ali, M.S., Suliman, M.I., Kareem, A. and Iqbal, M., 2009). This
white matter in particular areas of the brain is believed to be consorted with intelligence (Ibid
2009). Nevertheless, in terms of the size of the brain, men have larger brains in contrast to
women by 8-10% (Ibid 2009). Other studies have shown that the IQ scores of men and women
are similar on the average. However, some gender-specific findings stated that men are better
than women in terms of spatial questions. Women, on the other hand, outperform men on
reading skills and other verbal skills (Ibid 2009).

References:

Ali, M.S., et al., (2009). Comparison of Gender Performance on an Intelligence Test among
Medical Students. J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad 21:3. Accessed September 6, 2010 from
http://www.ayubmed.edu.pk/JAMC/PAST/21-3/Sohail.pdf

Alloway, T.P., et al., (2010). It is Better than you Think: Fluid Intelligence across the Lifespan.
Nature Preceedings.

Bugg, J.M., et al., (2006). Age Differemces in Fluid Intelligence: Contibutions of General
Slowing and Frontal Decline. Science Direct: Brain and Cognition. Accessed August 11,
2010 from http://www.iapsych.com/articles/bugg2006.pdf

Butcher, H.J. (1968). The Concept of Intelligence. Human Intelligence: Its Nature and
Assessment. London: Methuen and Co Ltd

Clay, J.O., et al., (2009). Visual Function and Cognitive Speed of Processing Mediate Age-
Related Decline in Memory Span and Fluid Intelligence. Journal of Aging and Health.

Johnson, W., et al., (2009). A Role for the X- Chromosome in Sex Differences in Variability in
General Intelligence. Perspectives on Psychological Science. Accessed September 7, 2010
from http://pps.sagepub.com/content/4/6/598

Jones, H.E. (). Intelligence and Problem-solving.

West Virginia University. (2010). Does Intelligence Decline with Aging? Accessed August 24,
2010 from