The Stability of Individual Differences in Mental Ability from Childhood to Old Age: Follow-up of the 1932 Scottish Mental Survey

• Published in: Intelligence (Norwood) Vol. 28; no. 1; pp. 49 - 55
• Main Authors: Deary, Ian J, Whalley, Lawrence J, Lemmon, Helen, Crawford, J.R, Starr, John M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Orlando, FL Elsevier Inc 01.01.2000; Elsevier; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Adult. Elderly; Age Differences; Aging; Biological and medical sciences; Children; Developmental psychology; Followup studies; Foreign Countries; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Individual Differences; Intelligence; Intelligence Tests; Long term changes; Older Adults; Polls & surveys; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychometric intelligence; Scotland; Test Results; United Kingdom (Scotland); Human; Senescence; Intellectual development; Follow up study; Interindividual comparison; Intellectual ability; Cognition; Cognitive development; Elderly; Preadolescent
• ISSN: 0160-2896; 1873-7935
• DOI: 10.1016/S0160-2896(99)00031-8

All Scottish children born in 1921 and attending school on June 1, 1932 ( N=87,498) undertook a validated test of psychometric intelligence, The Moray House Test. We followed up 101 of these people at age 77 and re-administered the same mental ability test. Concurrent validity data are provided for the Moray House Test at age 11 ( n=1,000) and age 77 years ( n=97). The correlation between Moray House Test scores at age 11 and age 77 was 0.63, which adjusted to 0.73 when corrected for attenuation of ability range within the re-tested sample. This, the longest follow-up study of psychometric intelligence reported to date, shows that mental ability differences show substantial stability from childhood to late life.