Late Bloomers: The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement

by Rich Karlgaard

The data showed that each cognitive skill peaked at a different age. For example, the speed of information processing appeared to peak early, around eighteen or nineteen. Short-term memory continued to improve until around twenty-five, then leveled off for another decade. The ability to evaluate complex patterns, including other people’s emotional states, on the other hand, peaked much later, when participants were in their forties or fifties. The researchers used a vocabulary test to measure crystallized intelligence—the lifetime accumulation of facts and knowledge. Crystallized intelligence peaks later in life, just as psychologists thought. But the new data indicated that the peak occurred when participants were in their late sixties or early seventies, much later than anyone had speculated.