Evolutionary Psychology and Preferences Over Time

Understanding how and when cognitive change occurs over the life span is a prerequisite for understanding normal and abnormal development and aging. 


7 things you peak at in life after age 50, according to Science

Arithmetic skill peaks around age 50  Psychsci2015.pdf
 Scores for fluid intelligence (e.g., short-term memory) peak early in adulthood, whereas scores for crystalized intelligence (e.g., vocabulary) peak in middle age (...) although  the fluid-/crystalized-intelligence distinction implies, that suggests that the fluid-/ crystalized-intelligence construct needs revision

You can best understand people's emotions in your 50s

The same study, looking to understand people's intuition of others, asked 10,000 people to view pictures cropped tightly around a person's eyes. 

Wisdom peaks after age 60

People do seem to get wiser as they get older. 

According to a 2010 study, the people who performed best at analysing a given conflict, seeing different points of view, gauging uncertainties, and envisioning solutions, were people who were at least 60 years old.

(...) Social reasoning improves with age despite a decline in fluid intelligence. The results suggest that it might be advisable to assign older individuals to key social roles involving legal decisions, counseling, and intergroup negotiations. Furthermore, given the abundance of research on negative effects of aging, this study may help to encourage clinicians to emphasize the inherent strengths associated with aging.

Life satisfaction peaks at 69

Life satisfaction actually has two peaks: one around age 23 and another in old age. 

A survey of 23,000 Germans between the ages of 17 and 85 found that 23-year-olds and 69-year-olds were most satisfied with their lives, "all things considered." 

Vocabulary peaks in your late 60s and early 70s

The 2015 that asked nearly 49,000 people to perform a set of tests also found that a person's vocabulary is largest toward the late 60s and early 70s.

Even if younger people were quicker to notice relationships between abstract concepts, people in the older age group did the best at multiple-choice definition tests.

Body image peaks after 70

In a Gallup survey, two-thirds of Americans over 65 said they always like the way they look.

Men's self-perception appeared to peak in their early 80s; about 75 percent agreed with the statement, "You always feel good about your physical appearance." Women's rates of agreeing with that statement was a little below 70 percent when they hit about 74 years old.

Psychological well being peaks around age 82

In a 2010 study, scientists asked people to picture a 10-step ladder, with the best possible life on the top rung and the worst possible life on the bottom rung.

The oldest group they studied (82- to 85-year-olds) gave the highest average rung number, about 7. (People around age 50 gave the lowest number, around 6.3.)