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Cognitive development (great article at Frontiers for Young Minds; a new publication “edited for kids, by kids”):
“…The distinction between fluid and crystallized intelligence is important because the two are influenced by different factors. While the former is more biologically determined and genetically predisposed, the latter is shaped more by experience. This is a little bit similar to what we know of sports: some people are more likely to develop stronger muscles than others, but this does not turn them automatically into world-class athletes. Instead, they need many years of training and experience to make it to the top. Likewise, people need to apply their fluid intelligence to a particular domain of knowledge, such as physics or history or neuroscience, to become really good at what they are doing…
Although fluid intelligence does not get much better after maturity, and even starts to decline, crystallized intelligence steadily continues to get better and better for a long time. You can even do a little experiment to test this yourself: the next time you watch a game show like Who Wants to be a Millionaire together with your parents, write down who of you can correctly answer most of the questions. Likely, this will be your mom or dad, because of their higher levels of crystallized intelligence (if this is the case, tell them they only won because of their “crystallized intelligence” and they will be very impressed!). Then, ask your parents to play a tile matching video game like Tetris with you. With just a little bit of practice, you will probably become as good as, or even better than, your parents, because this game depends less on crystallized than on fluid intelligence…
As you can see, cognitive abilities develop quickly in early ages but then slowly start to decline. In contrast, crystallized intelligence develops much more slowly but also suffers from a lesser decline later on.”
Learn more:
- Cognitive development (Frontiers for Young Minds)
- Cognitive and emotional development through play
- What are cognitive abilities, and some brain teasers for each
