Because conventional test instruments designed to predict academic performance of the young tend to be inaccurate measures of competence in the elderly, new assessment instruments are being constructed which are more appropriate for current cohorts of the elderly. A comparison of performance on conventional measures to performance on newly constructed analogs of existing intelligence tests comprised of familiar rather than novel, abstract stimuli was conducted with young, middle-aged, and older adults (N=120). The two forms of inductive reasoning tests were then administered to an additional 40 older adults who constituted a more representative older population. Results of the comparison of the two older samples showed differential effects for different theoretically ecologically valid tests, better performance by highly educated older adults, and correlations between performance on cognitive tests and real-world competence. (Author/NRB)