ABSTRACT
An interest in adult learning invariably leads to a desire to understand cognitive changes during adulthood. In seeking to satisfy this desire, the adult educator is likely to encounter different models of cognitive development after maturity. One model, the ‘stability’ model, assumes that adult cognition remains essentially stable after maturity. The result of cognitive progress during childhood is the attainment of mature forms of reasoning and thinking which are then applied throughout the adult years. By contrast, the ‘decrement’ model postulates that there is a gradual decrease in the ageing individual’s capacity to utilise and organise information, presumably the result of some kind of biological deterioration. Finally, the ‘decrement with compensation’ model, while accepting the notion of biological deterioration, also emphasises the compensatory effects of accumulated experience during adult life (Labouvie-Vief 1977).
