Toward Optimizing Cognitive Competence in Later Life

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Abstract
Recent demands on extending educational opportunities of the adult and older learner highlight a mismatch between social realities and available theories in the area of adult educational psychology. The present paper reviews pertinent evidence showing that the widely held view of pervasive decrement in later life is being challenged. As evidence is accumulated showing that the intellectual performance of the older person responds favorably to a variety of ecological, training, and motivational conditions, it is argued that intellectual development in later life is characterized by plasticity rather than universal decline. A number of experiential mechanisms are proposed that are likely to be contestants to a primarily maturational interpretation in the future, and that may form the base for an educational psychology of adult life.

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