adult intelligence
- noun
- /əˈdʌlt ɪnˈtɛlɪdʒəns/
- Specialized
:
inteligencia adulta
- Research indicates that the average level of adult intelligence can vary significantly between different regions and communities.
Examples
-
Studies on adult intelligence show that factors like education and environment play crucial roles in cognitive development.
-
The results of the IQ test revealed the typical adult intelligence in our study group was above average.
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Our experience at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired suggests that by the age of 12 years, most students with visual impairments and no other handicapping conditions will have begun to develop the skills and concepts necessary to deal with the complex issues of problem solving, applying old information to new situations, and acquiring abstract skills, all skills emphasized on most measures of adult intelligence.
Academic text (1997)
How Intelligent
601
4.3
418
3.0
- Specialized
- Archaic
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning ('the intelligence of adults' or average adult IQ) is directly and transparently derived from combining 'adult' (fully grown person) with 'intelligence' (capacity to learn and reason). This noun-noun compositional pattern is common across languages and follows standard English compounding, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The noun adult intelligence comes from the simple idea of measuring how adult minds work. Think of a room of adults taking the same thinking test and finding the average of their scores; that average is the group's adult intelligence, so it means the 'average thinking ability' of adults in a group.