Age, Socioeconomic Status and Human Abilities

Abstract

The effects of age and socioeconomic status (SES) on the twelve ability tests of the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) were examined with a population of 1146 healthy men between 25 and 83 years of age. The main effects of Age and SES were highly significant and of about equal size. The interaction effect was not significant, indicating that Age and SES do not interact in this ability domain. All twelve tests had highly significant declines with Age but the magnitudes of the declines differed greatly. Most affected by Age was the psychomotor test, Disassemble, while least affected were Arithmetic Reason and Vocabulary. Nine tests showed highly significant SES differences with Computation most differentiating followed by Mark Making, 3D—Space, Vocabulary and Arithmetic Reason. Unrelated to SES were the manual dexterity tests of Place, Turn, and Disassemble. Only 3D-Space was highly related to both Age and SES.