Practical intelligence at work: Relationship between aging and cognitive efficiency among managers in a bank environment

A study was conducted to determine which better predicts performance among bank managers: tacit practical knowledge as assessed by the Tacit Knowledge Inventory for Managers (TKIM) or 2 psychometric measures of reasoning, the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (Raven's) and the Verbal Reasoning subtest of the Differential Aptitude Test (DAT). Two hundred bank managers (43 experts and 157 nonexperts), ages 24-59 years old, participated. Increased age was associated with lower performance in Raven's and the DAT but less so in the TKIM; best performing older managers on average had high levels of tacit knowledge, although they scored lower on psychometric reasoning measures; TKIM predicted managerial skill; DAT and Raven's did not. These results suggest that stabilization of some aspects of intelligence may occur in old age. Implications of the findings for the study of practical intelligence, expertise, and compensatory abilities are discussed.