Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Biological Influences on Intelligence

Biological Influences on Intelligence

Intelligence is often thought to be linked to brain size, but the relationship is more complex than that. While brain size does correlate modestly with some abilities, like verbal skills, the connection is weaker for others, such as spatial reasoning. Other factors, like brain structure, also play crucial roles. For instance, despite Einstein's smaller-than-average brain, his parietal cortex, which is involved in spatial reasoning, was 15% wider, suggesting that neural density might matter more...

Measures of Intelligence

Measures of Intelligence

Psychologists measure intelligence by using standardized tests that produce a score known as the intelligence quotient or IQ. To understand IQ tests, it's important to recognize the key principles behind their construction: validity, reliability, and standardization.
Validity refers to how well a test measures what it claims to measure. An intelligence test should accurately assess intelligence rather than another characteristic, like anxiety. Criterion validity is one way to evaluate this; it...

Wechsler's Contribution to Measures of Intelligence

Wechsler's Contribution to Measures of Intelligence

David Wechsler, a psychologist who worked with World War I veterans, developed a significant IQ test in 1939 called the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale. This test was innovative because it combined several subtests that measured both verbal and nonverbal skills, reflecting Wechsler's belief that intelligence is a global capacity involving purposeful action, rational thinking, and effective interaction with the environment. This test later evolved into the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale...

Cognitive Development During Adulthood

Cognitive Development During Adulthood

Cognitive development continues throughout adulthood, undergoing significant shifts across early, middle, and late stages. Individual transition occurs from adolescent idealism to pragmatic and adaptable thinking in early adulthood. During this period, individuals learn to integrate personal beliefs with the recognition that other perspectives are equally valid. Exposure to the complexities of modern society, diverse experiences, and higher education contribute to this adaptive thought process,...

Environmental Influences on Intelligence

Environmental Influences on Intelligence

Despite the strong genetic influence on traits like intelligence, environmental factors significantly shape outcomes. For example, while over 90% of height variation is due to genetic differences, environmental factors such as nutrition also have a notable impact. Similarly, for intelligence, changes in a child's surroundings can significantly alter their IQ. Research shows that enriched environments boost children's academic success and help them develop key cognitive skills. Children from...

Cattell's Theory of Intelligence

Cattell's Theory of Intelligence

Raymond Cattell, along with John Horn, made significant contributions to our understanding of intelligence by distinguishing between two types: fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence.
Fluid intelligence involves the capacity to solve new problems and adapt to unfamiliar situations. It's the type of intelligence individuals use when they encounter a novel problem or puzzle that requires innovative thinking. For instance, figuring out how to operate a new gadget relies heavily on fluid...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

The interplay between selective attention and summary statistics.

The Behavioral and brain sciences·2025

Same author

A selective sampling account of forming numerosity representations.

Psychological review·2025

Same author

Using diffusion models for symbolic numeracy tasks to examine aging effects.

Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition·2024

Same author

Beyond discrete-choice options.

Trends in cognitive sciences·2024

Same author

Age-related similarities and differences in cognitive and neural processing revealed by task-related microstate analysis.

Neurobiology of aging·2024

Same author

Parsing memory and nonmemory contributions to age-related declines in mnemonic discrimination performance: a hierarchical Bayesian diffusion decision modeling approach.

Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.)·2023

Same journal

Sublexical semantic decoding during incidental novel word learning in natural Chinese reading.

Cognitive psychology·2026

Same journal

Seeing, hearing, and feeling causation.

Cognitive psychology·2026

Same journal

Separating decision and motor contributions to behavioral biases induced by manipulating stimulus probability.

Cognitive psychology·2026

Same journal

Congruency drives "conflict adaptation" independent of conflict: Converging evidence from behavior and computational modeling.

Cognitive psychology·2026

Same journal

Corrigendum to "Network analyses identify critical factors for facilitating future-oriented decision-making" [Cogn. Psychol. 165 (2026) 101815].

Cognitive psychology·2026

Same journal

The time course of local coherence effects in German: Evidence from self-paced reading times and event-related potentials.

Cognitive psychology·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 18, 2026

Assessment of Age-related Changes in Cognitive Functions Using EmoCogMeter, a Novel Tablet-computer Based Approach

Assessment of Age-related Changes in Cognitive Functions Using EmoCogMeter, a Novel Tablet-computer Based Approach

Published on: February 14, 2014

Individual differences, aging, and IQ in two-choice tasks.

Roger Ratcliff¹, Anjali Thapar, Gail McKoon

¹Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, United States. ratcliff.22@osu.edu

Cognitive Psychology

|December 8, 2009

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Aging and IQ impact cognitive performance, with IQ significantly affecting decision evidence quality, not age. Performance declines with age were similar across IQ levels.

More Related Videos

The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies

The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies

Published on: August 25, 2023

Highlighting and Reducing the Impact of Negative Aging Stereotypes During Older Adults' Cognitive Testing

Highlighting and Reducing the Impact of Negative Aging Stereotypes During Older Adults' Cognitive Testing

Published on: January 24, 2020

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 18, 2026

Assessment of Age-related Changes in Cognitive Functions Using EmoCogMeter, a Novel Tablet-computer Based Approach

Assessment of Age-related Changes in Cognitive Functions Using EmoCogMeter, a Novel Tablet-computer Based Approach

Published on: February 14, 2014

The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies

The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies

Published on: August 25, 2023

Highlighting and Reducing the Impact of Negative Aging Stereotypes During Older Adults' Cognitive Testing

Highlighting and Reducing the Impact of Negative Aging Stereotypes During Older Adults' Cognitive Testing

Published on: January 24, 2020

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Psychometrics

Background:

Cognitive aging research explores how age affects mental processes.
Intelligence (IQ) is a key factor in cognitive abilities.
Understanding the interplay between aging, IQ, and cognitive tasks is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the effects of aging and IQ on performance in cognitive tasks.
To analyze how different components of cognitive processing are influenced by age and IQ.
To examine the validity of the diffusion model in explaining age and IQ effects on performance.

Main Methods:

Utilized three two-choice tasks: numerosity discrimination, recognition memory, and lexical decision.
Applied Ratcliff's (1978) diffusion model to analyze accuracy, response times, and distributions.
Compared processing components across different age groups (young adults, 60-74, 75-90) and IQ levels (83-146).

Main Results:

The diffusion model accurately explained performance data across tasks, age, and IQ.
Age-related performance declines were consistent across low and high IQ groups.
IQ, not age, significantly impacted the quality of evidence used for decision-making.

Conclusions:

Cognitive processing components correlate across tasks for individuals.
Age and IQ effects are more pronounced on slower responses, supporting the 'worst performance rule'.
Findings highlight IQ's role in decision evidence quality, independent of age-related performance decline patterns.