Satchel Paige (n.d.) once said, “Age is a case of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it don’t matter”. While this adage can have several meanings, one can imagine it deals with the aging mind. Individuals coming upon middle age will be effected by brain changes creating difficulties for their crystalized and fluid intellegences.
As one ages, their intelligence morphs and can either increase or decline. On one hand, Feldman (2014) defines crystalized intelligence as “the accumulation of information, skills, and strategies that people have learned through experience and that they can apply in problem-solving situations”. This type of intelligence grows as one gets older because humans are constantly experiencing life. Kendra Cherry (2017) stated,…show more content… In middle adulthood brain function begins to change. The American Psychological Association (2006) stated, “The brain's volume peaks in the early 20s and gradually declines for the rest of life. In the 40s, when many people start to notice subtle changes in their ability to remember new names or do more than one thing at a time, the cortex starts to shrink”. They also suggested that neurons also shrink causing a lack of connection to other neurons. This results in less blood flow and creates difficulty for daily activities. The American Psychological Association (2006) stated, “…given that blood flow drops the most in the frontal cortex, people most commonly experience declines in verbal fluency, or the ability to find the words they want. They also have to work harder at "executive function," planning and organizing their activities. The areas most affected after that include the parietal cortex, which affects construction and visuomotor performance and the medial temporal area, which affects the ability to make new long-term memories and think flexibly”. Crystalized and fluid intelligence would be effected by these processes due to lack of blood flow stimulating the medial temporal area of the
