Intelligence and Spontaneous Flexibility in Adulthood and Old Age

Interrelationships among measures of intelligence and spontaneous flexibility were examined at two age levels using a multitrait-multimethod matrix design and other multivariate procedures. Measures of intelligence were Ravens Matrices and WAIS Vocabulary, WAIS Digit Symbol, and WAIS Similarities. Blots, Hidden Pictures, Brick Uses, and Impossibilities were used as measures of spontaneous flexibility. Subjects were 100 younger (X = 19.54, S.D. = 1.23) and 100 older (X = 63.99, S.D. = 2.94) men and women tested at two occasions. Adult age differences in factor structure were explored using a maximum likelihood analysis; common variances among the measures were greater for the elderly compared to the younger adults. Findings supported a dedifferentiation hypothesis with regard to both intelligence and spontaneous flexibility. Al though it is generally accepted that intelligence is a multidimensional c o n s t r u c t and t h a t the f a c t o r s t r u c t u r e o f in t e l l igence changes developmental ly during adul thood (Horn, 1970, 1976; Schaie, 1970), there are actually relatively few studies of adul thood age differences along multiple measures of intelligence. The crystallized-fluid distinction (e.g., Horn, 1970), the differentiation--dedifferentiation hypothesis of Reinert (t 970), and issues related to age and cohor t or generational factors have provided the impetus for much of the multivariate research in the area of adult intelligence. Similarly, the major finding which has emerged f rom the adul thood cognitive rigidity research is that flexibility in thinking is a multidimensional construct (Botwinick, 1978; Chown, 1959, 1961; Riegel & Riegel, 1962; Schaie, 1958, 1970; Schaie & Parham, 1975). Spontaneous flexibility, defined as the capacity to generate a variety of different and appropria te responses in a given situation, is the rigidity dimension of interest in the present study. Chown (1961) and others (e.g., Guilford, Frick, Christenson, & Merrifield,