In fact, the ability to evaluate other people's emotional states, the peak occurred much later, in the 40s or 50s.
The ability to evaluate other people's emotional states does not peak until we are in our 40s or 50s, researchers said.
'At any given age, you're getting better at some things, you're getting worse at some other things, and you're at a plateau at some other things,' said Joshua Hartshorne of MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and one of the paper's authors.
The study, which appears in the journal Psychological Science, found that different components of fluid intelligence peak at different ages, some as late as age 40.
'There's probably not one age at which you're peak on most things, much less all of them,' said Laura Germine, a postdoc in psychiatric and neurodevelopmental genetics at MGH and the paper's other author.
'It paints a different picture of the way we change over the lifespan than psychology and neuroscience have traditionally painted.'
