A Lifetime of Intelligence: Follow-up Studies of the Scottish Mental Surveys of 1932 and 1947

Advances in medicine and technology have dramatically extended the average life span. Despite these breakthroughs, cognitive longevity continues to vary among individuals. What causes a person's intelligence to diminish over a lifetime? What are the effects of this cognitive aging, and what are these individual differences attributed to? In two landmark and world-famous studies, over 150,000 11-year-old subjects participated in Scottish national intelligence tests, known as the Scottish Mental Surveys, which are the only studies to date to test an entire population. Over the past 10 years, editors Ian Deary, Lawrence Whalley, and John Starr have conducted follow-up studies with many of these now elderly subjects. Using the latest testing assessments and technology, they have further investigated the roles of biological and sociobehavioral factors in cognitive aging. This book is important to many fields and will surely become the source to consult on anything related to IQ and its effects on cognitive aging and physical longevity.