Experience Capital, Peakspan & Workspan
External empirical finding · Supporting · 2015
Processing speed peaks at 18–19; short-term memory plateaus around 25; emotion recognition peaks in the 40s–50s; and vocabulary as late as the 60s–70s
The study combines standardized test norms with online data from 48,537 participants. Raw information-processing speed peaks around ages 18–19. Short-term memory improves until about 25, levels off, and begins declining around 35. Recognition of other people’s emotional states peaks in the 40s or 50s. Vocabulary peaks in the late 40s in older standardized-test data, but in the late 60s or early 70s in the newer online sample.
Research basis
Large cross-sectional studies with separate replication datasets. Online participants across broad age ranges, with separate samples of 12,073 and 8,300 used to replicate selected tasks.
What it supports
Asynchronous cognitive trajectories and rejection of one universal age of cognitive peak.
Boundary
These are task-specific and predominantly cross-sectional age patterns. They compare people of different ages rather than following the same individuals over time, and the tasks do not measure executive judgment, leadership, or workplace performance.
BOL relevance
Supports domain-specific Peakspan thinking and the distinction between cognitive abilities and accumulated experience.
Source class
Peer-reviewed research
Role in BOL
Supporting
Population context
General adult population
Evidence basis
Objectively measured or experimentally assessed
Full source review pending. Status last assessed 26 July 2026.