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13 - Benefits of graphic design expertise in old age: compensatory effects of a graphical lexicon?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

By
Ulman Lindenberger ,
Yvonne Brehmer ,
Reinhold Kliegl  and
Paul B. Baltes
Edited by
Chris Lange-Küttner  and
Annie Vinter
Ulman Lindenberger
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin
Yvonne Brehmer
Affiliation:
Karolinska Institute, Stockholm
Reinhold Kliegl
Affiliation:
Universitä Potsdam
Paul B. Baltes
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, and University of Virginia
Chris Lange-Küttner
Affiliation:
London Metropolitan University
Annie Vinter
Affiliation:
Université de Bourgogne, France
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Summary

The research of Lindenberger, Brehmer, Kliegl and Baltes into the cognitive decline-compensating effects of expertise is based on the difference between fluid and crystallized intelligence. While fluid intelligence measures such as speed and capacity are more biologically determined and thus decline with age, crystallized intelligence measures encompass culture-based skills and factual knowledge, and are more resilient to ageing-induced decline. Would the graphic expertise of professional older designers protect them against cognitive decline compared to young designers and two age- and intelligence-matched control groups? This was tested in a training study using the Method of Loci where visualization and imagery is essential, as recall of words is cued by previously associated landmarks. As expected, graphic designers showed better performance on spatial tests than controls, but this was even more pronounced in the older group, where the designers had consistently higher scores than their age peers. While older graphic designers could not match the performance of the young groups, they did fare better than their age-matched controls in the post-training Method of Loci memory assessment. It is concluded that although graphic expertise could not entirely compensate for the biologically determined reduction in fluid intelligence, there was a positive effect on episodic memory.

cognitive functioning in later periods of the adult lifespan is characterized by a dynamic interdependence between knowledge-related increments and senescent declines. To capture this interdependence, two-component models of cognition separate a biology-based component from a culture-based component of intellectual functioning (e.g. Baltes, 1987; Cattell, 1971).

Type
Chapter
Information
Drawing and the Non-Verbal Mind
A Life-Span Perspective
 , pp. 261 - 280
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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