Intellectual functioning in the aged

Interest in the psychology of ageing had grown considerably by the early 1970s, and this study, first issued in 1973, focuses on how older people think and reason. Its authors examine how intellectual ability is measured in later life, a question with wide consequences for both theory and practice.

The book also connects this work to medical illness in older adults, especially the psychiatric and neurological diagnoses that depend on accurate assessment. Psychiatric illness can impair intellectual function, yet the thinking difficulties linked to functional disorders in old age may differ markedly from those seen in younger patients. Psychiatric and psychological research on ageing had developed largely in parallel at the time, and the authors aimed to bring the two approaches closer together.

It was written for psychologists studying cognitive assessment and the developmental side of intellectual change, as well as for clinical psychologists and social welfare workers responsible for older people. Read today, it also offers a view of how the field approached these questions at the time.