title: Classic pattern of intellectual aging: test familiarity, difficulty, and performance.
abstract: Research has consistently identified a classic pattern of intellectual aging characterized by multidirectional age profiles in intellectual performance. Age-irrelevant abilities are relatively constant in adulthood, whereas age-sensitive abilities exhibit moderate to substantial decline with age. The purposes of the present study were to determine whether adults' ratings of test familiarity and difficulty differed for age-irrelevant versus age-sensitive tests and whether such ratings themselves were related to the age of judges. A sample (N = 100) of young, middle-aged, and elderly adults was administered three age-irrelevant and four age-sensitive ability tests and provided ratings of the familiarity, difficulty, effortfulness, and speed of each test. Results indicated that age-sensitive tests were rated as less familiar, more difficult, and more effortful than age-irrelevant tests by all age groups. In general, the differences between ratings of the two types of tests increased with increasing age. For both types of test, performance was associated positively with ratings of test familiarity and associated negatively with ratings of test difficulty, effortfulness, and speed. Several explanations for relations among age, test characteristics, and performance are discussed.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged