Intelligence at Senescence

Abstract

Twenty inmates, ten men and ten women, of A Home for the Aged were tested by the Stanford revision of the Binet-Simon scale. Average age is 75 years; average mental age is 13-3 and the average I.Q. 82.9. Average age of the men is 80.3 and of women 69.6. Average I.Q. for men is 78.2 as compared with 87.6 of the women. The Homes for the Aged are selective agencies and the old people cared for by even the most selected Home are dull. It is very probable that this dullness is due to a great extent, to a decline in the mental processes at senescence. The reason for the women's I.Q. being higher than the men's is in part due to a slow deterioration of the mental processes of women in old age. It is probably due in part to the fact that women receive less pay for the same quality of work than men, and consequently require greater intelligence than men in order to earn the income necessary for self support. From Psych Bulletin 18:01:00094. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)