Document Type

Research

Abstract

Investigations concerning the effects of age upon mental ability commonly report that individual differences increase with age. (1, 2, 4) Further those authors who attempt an explanation of this increase generally attribute it to a differential gain or loss by initial ability level. Jones and Conrad (2) imply that increased variability with age of certain sub-tests of Alpha is attributable to a longer duration of growth for the more able than for the less able, and conversely that a decrease in variability is due to a longer duration of growth for the less able. A later investigation by Foulds and Raven (1) embraces essentially the ·same explanation for the increased variability observed in mental test scores of engineers through age sixty. In that the above mentioned investigations employed a cross-sectional approach, one disadvantage becomes apparent; i.e. the initial ability level of the older S's is known only by inference. The foregoing discussion sets the problem of the present investigation, which is to educe some evidence as to whether age is, in fact, kinder to the initially more able than to the initially less able.

Publication Date

1954

Journal Title

Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science

Volume

Issue

First Page

439

Last Page

441

Copyright

Language

File Format

application/pdf

Recommended Citation

Thompson, Duane E. (1954) "Is Age Kinder to the Initially More Able?," Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, 61(1), 439-441.
Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol61/iss1/59

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Is Age Kinder to the Initially More Able?

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