Abstract
Numerous studies find a positive relationship between cognitive ability, IQ as measured in childhood or youth, and subsequent survival. Explanations range from the idea that low ability is an indicator of adverse systemic events in early life to the idea that high cognitive functioning is required continuously to maintain health and reduce threats to survival. The Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) has followed a large cohort of Wisconsin high school seniors from ages 18 to 69. As expected, in the WLS survival varies positively with adolescent IQ.
However, rank in high school class -- a cumulative measure of successful work throughout secondary schooling -- accounts completely for the relationship between IQ and survival, and it has a much larger effect on survival than does IQ. These findings suggest that cognitive functioning improves survival by promoting behaviours that boost health status, minimize exposure to known risks and optimize returns to health producing inputs, and that such behaviours are firmly in place by late adolescence. These findings may also have broader implications for the emphasis placed on test scores as key measures of educational outcomes.
About the speaker
Prof Robert Hauser received his PhD in sociology from the University of Michigan, and is Vilas Research Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he directs the Center for Demography of Health and Aging. He has been an investigator on the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) since 1969 and has led the study since 1980. The WLS has followed the lives of more than 10,000 Wisconsin High School graduates of 1957 for more than half a century. His current research interests include trends in educational progression and achievement among American racial and ethnic groups, the uses of educational assessment as a policy tool, and changes in socioeconomic standing, cognition, health, and well-being across the life course.Recent publications include reports of the National Research Council, Measuring Literacy: Performance Levels for Adults, Conducting Biosocial Surveys: Collecting, Storing, Accessing, and Protecting Biospecimens and Biodata, and publications about grade retention, social mobility, obesity, cognitive functioning, and end-of-life planning. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the US National Academy of Education, and the American Philosophical Society.
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