The purposes of this study are twofold. The primary purpose is to summarize the major research findings on the age changes in adult intelligence focusing on the life-span perspective, and to introduce them to Korean educational society so that prevailing pessimistic preoccupation for the adult capabilities on both side of the adult learners and adult education practitioners should undergo changes. The secondary purpose is to activate the investigations on the "cohort differences" among the Korean adults and the relative strength of the "cohort-specific influences" on the aging pattern of the Korean adult intelligence, and to quicken the movements for the development and diffusion of the relevant intervention programs. For the fulfillment of the above purposes , major literatures related to the general aging pattern of intellectual functioning, differential decline, and modifiers of the aging pattern of adult intelligence were reviewed and summarized. And finally , as a synthesis, "A theoretial pattern of developmental influences on adult intelligence" proposed by Baltes, Reese, & Lipsitt (1980) which shows changes in relative strength of "age-ordered events ," "cohort-specific events," and "nonnormative events" as a function of chronological age was introduced and interpreted in connection with the Korean setting. Summary highlights presented in this study are as follows: 1. For many intellectual functions, age decline in adult intelligence does not begin until 50, 60 or later; and these decline tends to be small. For other intellectual functions, however, particularly those involving speed of response of nonverbal, perceptual-manipulative skills, age decline may be seen before then. 2. Age decline occurs relatively little, if any, in verbal abilities which are related largely to the functioning of the brain; but age decline occurs appreciably in psychomotor abilities which are closely related to the perceptual and motor speed. 3. Major modifiers of the aging pattern of adult intelligence are "cohort differences," educational level, life history and occupation, level of anxiety, intellectual plasticity, and health and terminal drop. 4. Taking account of the diversity and rapidity of the changes in the political, economical, social, cultural, and educational environment during the 20th century, the author is convinced that relative strength of "cohort-specific influences" in relation to "age-ordered influences" and "nonnormative influences" in the Korean setting is significantly stronger than that in the American setting.