In 1932 and 1947, every 11 year old child in Scotland was given an intelligence test*.\u00a0 This fact is referred to throughout the blog. Its the reason Thomson was famous (he designed the test), it was unique (no equivalent exists anywhere else in the world), and it was done on a huge scale (87, 498 children were tested in the first Scottish Mental Survey, and 70,805 in the second).<\/p>\n
For over a decade, Professor Ian Deary and his team have used the results of the tests in Lothian Birth Cohorts 1921 and 1936 <\/a>to explore\u00a0why some individuals’ cognitive abilities decline more than others – vital and far reaching research in an increasingly ageing population.\u00a0 Hundreds of people given the intelligence test as a child have participated in the follow on studies, which have explored their cognitive skills, their physical well being, and their lives.<\/p>\n At the very heart of all this data are the people themselves, and what the numbers given in the beautifully neat test ledgers don’t tell us.\u00a0\u00a0 Deary and his colleagues have previously secured funding for author Ann Lingard to tell the Lothian Birth Cohort’s stories through words<\/a>, artist Fionna Carlisle through paint<\/a>, and photographer Linda Kosciewicz-Fleming through the lens.<\/p>\n