Staff RT, et al. - Researchers assessed childhood intelligence, social class, education, life-course social mobility, memory test performance and memory decline in late life in an observational longitudinal study of a sub-sample of the Aberdeen 1936 birth cohort, from age 62 to 77 years. Among 388 local residents who attended school in Aberdeen in 1947, they measured Auditory-Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) at recruitment age, about 64 years, up to five times until about age 77 years. Early socioeconomic status, social mobility, and childhood intelligence forecast better performance at about age 64 on AVLT. Those with less education had a steeper trajectory of AVLT decline, suggesting that education supports resilience to age-related cognitive impairment. This effect was not improved with upward social mobility, suggesting that resilience to age-related decline may be established in early life.