On 4th June 1947, as part of the Scottish Mental Survey, every Scottish schoolchild born in 1936 sat the same test of mental ability: the Moray House Test. In 1997, Professor Lawrence Whalley discovered the Scottish Mental Survey test records at the Scottish Council for Research in Education in Edinburgh and began to trace people who had sat the test in Aberdeen. The Aberdeen Birth Cohort study was established to follow-up this cohort of individuals. Scotland is the only country in the world to have tested an entire age group in its mental abilities, thus providing a unique opportunity to track the effects of ageing, allowing researchers to compare intelligence in childhood and later life, looking at how the brain ages and the factors affecting this.
If you are a participant in this study and want further details on the latest stage of the study please see PARTICIPANTS.
We have also been studying an older cohort of individuals born in 1921 who all sat the test of mental ability on 1st June 1932. To find out more about this cohort please see ABC 1921.
For an outline of what we have found so far please see our newest NEWSLETTER and PUBLICATIONS.
If you are a researcher interested in finding out more about this study please see RESEARCHERS.
