Daylen and Daven had totally different childhoods. Daylen was raised in a supportive environment, and Daven was raised in an abusive, neglectful environment. Daylen always scored about fifty points higher than Daven on cognitive ability tests when they were in school. After graduation, they both were hired by the same company for the same occupation. Now, five years later, what would be the most likely result if they both took a cognitive ability test?
A) Daven would outscore Daylen because adult cognitive ability is inverse to childhood cognitive ability.
B) Daylen would still score about fifty points higher than Daven because ability remains relatively stable over time.
C) Daylen would score less than Daven because cognitive ability test scores are based on improvement over previous scores.
D) Daven would narrow the scoring gap with Daylen because environmental influences on cognitive ability tend to decrease as people age.
E) Daven would score more than fifty points less than Daylen because the test would remind him of the last time he took the test and his abusive childhood.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Differences in cognitive abilities due to the environment become less apparent as people get older, and this may be especially True for the effect of the family environment. As an example, although neglect, abuse, and deprivation may have a negative impact on how children fare on standardized intelligence tests, that negative impact does not tend to carry over into adulthood.

Daylen and Daven Had Totally Different Childhoods