To what extent is subjective well-being in late adulthood related to subjective and objective memory functioning? Five-year cross-lagged panel analyses

Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance

Metacognition refers to a capacity to reflect on and control other cognitive processes, commonly quantified as the extent to which confidence tracks objective performance. There is conflicting evidence about how "local" metacognition (monitoring of individual judgments) and "global" metacognition (estimates of self-performance) change across the lifespan. Additionally, the degree to which metacognition generalises across cognitive domains may itself change with age due to increased experience with one's own abilities. Using a gamified suite of performance-controlled memory and visual perception tasks, we measured local and global metacognition in an age-stratified sample of 304 healthy volunteers (18-83 years; N = 50 in each of 6 age groups). We calculated both local and global metrics of metacognition and quantified how and whether domain-generality changes with age. First-order task performance was stable across the age range. People's global self-performance estimates and local metacognitive bias decreased with age, indicating overall lower confidence in performance. In contrast, local metacognitive efficiency was spared in older age and remained correlated across the two cognitive domains. A stability of local metacognition indicates distinct mechanisms contributing to local and global metacognition. Our study reveals how local and global metacognition change across the lifespan and provide a benchmark against which disease-related changes in metacognition can be compared.

Well-Being as a Protective Factor Against Cognitive Decline and Dementia: A Review of the Literature and Directions for Future Research

OBJECTIVES

Treatments that target the biological causes of dementia remain limited, making prevention critically important. Well-being-defined broadly as living in accordance with one's potential and experiencing one's life as enjoyable and satisfying-is a promising avenue for prevention. It can be targeted by large-scale, noninvasive interventions and has been linked with better cognitive health and lower dementia risk. In the current review, we begin by summarizing empirical evidence linking well-being to cognitive functioning, cognitive decline, dementia diagnosis, and dementia-related neuropathology. Then, we highlight 3 key areas for future research.

METHODS

We searched the literature on wellbeing, cognitive decline, and dementia, focusing on prospective and longitidinal evidence.

RESULTS

The research reviewed here provides consistent evidence for associations of well-being with cognitive decline, dementia risk, and cognitive resilience to neuropathology. However, several open questions remain regarding (1) causality and mechanism(s), (2) specificity versus generalizability of associations, and (3) timing.

DISCUSSION

To inform potential intervention efforts, the field must address complex open questions about whether, how, when, and for whom well-being influences dementia risk. The majority of existing research on well-being and cognitive health is correlational, and few studies have tested potential mechanisms that may explain those associations. Further, relatively little is known about the generalizability of associations across different aspects of well-being and for different sociocultural groups. Finally, we do not yet understand when in the life span and on what timescale well-being might influence cognitive health. We discuss challenges and opportunities for addressing each of these open questions, including concrete recommendations for research designs and use of open science practices.

Positive psychological constructs and cognitive function: A systematic review and meta-analysis

AIM

To synthesise evidence regarding the association between positive psychological constructs (PPCs) and cognitive function in adults aged 50 +.

METHODS

Literature searches: Medline, PsycINFO, and Scopus (inception to February 2022). Studies were included if they reported on the association between at least one PPC and one objective measure of cognitive function in people aged 50 + without cognitive impairment at baseline. Where at least two studies reported on the same PPC and cognitive outcome, estimates were pooled through meta-analysis.

FINDINGS

In total, 37 studies were included. There was evidence of cross-sectional associations for 'meaning in life' (verbal fluency: b = 0.09, 95 %CI [0.07, 0.11], p < .001; memory: b = 0.10, 95 %CI [0.08, 0.12], p < .001), 'purpose in life' (verbal fluency: b = 0.07, 95 %CI [0.05, 0.08], p < .001; memory: r = 0.13, 95 %CI [0.08, 0.18], p < .001), and positive affect (cognitive state: r = 0.25, 95 %CI [0.14, 0.36], p < .001; memory: r = 0.05, 95 %CI [0.02, 0.08], p < .001) with various domains of cognitive function. However, no significant results were found for life satisfaction (p = .13) or longitudinal studies investigating positive affect and memory (p = .48). Other PPCs were included in narrative syntheses only.

IMPLICATIONS

Purpose and meaning in life may be sensible primary targets for interventions to promote healthy cognitive aging. More longitudinal and causal inference research is needed to better understand this association and its implications for clinical practice.

Cross-lagged relationships between sense of purpose in life, memory performance, and subjective memory beliefs in adulthood over a 9-year interval

OBJECTIVES

Previous studies have found a positive association between having a sense of purpose in life and memory functioning in old age. We extend these findings by examining the relationships between sense of purpose, memory performance, and subjective memory beliefs over time in a large sample of adults in mid to later adulthood.

METHOD

We used data from 3633 participants of the second and third wave of the MIDUS study. Cross-lagged panel analysis investigated the relationships between the variables at the two points, which were approximately 9 years apart, while controlling for gender, age, education, positive and negative affect, and self-rated health.

RESULTS

Sense of purpose in life, memory performance, and subjective memory beliefs were all cross-sectionally related to each other at both times. Longitudinally, sense of purpose was a positive predictor of subjective memory beliefs. Memory performance and subjective memory beliefs positively predicted each other over time. Furthermore, all three variables showed correlated changes over time. Exploratory analyses suggest that the covariates of affect and self-rated health are possible mediators or confounders in respectively the relationship between subjective memory beliefs and later sense of purpose, and sense of purpose and later objective memory performance.

CONCLUSION

Our findings underscore once more the relevance of sense of purpose in life as a predictor of positive late life functioning, as it is related to both performance-based and subjective cognitive outcomes. More work is needed to understand mechanisms underlying the purpose-memory association in order to develop and implement purpose interventions.

The effects of different proxies of cognitive reserve on episodic memory performance: aging study in Iran

OBJECTIVE

The main aim of the present study is to investigate the association between different measures of cognitive reserve including bilingualism, mental activities, type of education (continuous versus distributed), age, educational level, and episodic memory in a healthy aging sample.

METHODS

Four hundred and fifteen participants aged between 50 and 83 years participated in this cross-sectional study and were assessed with the Psychology Experimental Building Language Test battery tapping episodic memory. Demographic variables were collected from a questionnaire designed by the research team.

RESULTS

Compared to participants with continuous type of education, those with distributed type performed better in tests of episodic memory, while no differences were found between bilingual and monolingual participants. We additionally found that age negatively predicts episodic memory, whereas playing mind teasers and educational level have positive relationships with episodic memory.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results indicate that higher cognitive reserve, as measured by distributed educational training, higher level of education, and doing regular mental activities, is associated with better performance on episodic memory tasks in older adults. These results were discussed in connection with successful aging and protection against memory decline with aging.

The Fatalistic Decision Maker: Time Perspective, Working Memory, and Older Adults' Decision-Making Competence

Prior research indicates that time perspective (TP; views of past, present, and future) is related to decision-making style. By contrast, no prior study considered relations between TP and decision-making competence. We therefore investigated associations between dimensions of the Swedish Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (S-ZTPI) and performance on the Adult Decision-Making Competence (A-DMC) battery in a sample of older adults (60–90 years, N = 346). A structural equation model involving four A-DMC components as indicators of a general DMC factor and the six TP dimensions as the predictors revealed a significant negative association between the Present Fatalistic dimension and DMC. Given that age-related differences were apparent in DMC and that Present Fatalistic orientation increased with age, we tested a model by which the age-related differences in DMC were mediated by age-related differences in Present Fatalistic attitudes and in working memory. The results were consistent with full mediation of the age effects, with Present Fatalistic and working memory jointly accounting for a substantial amount of the variance in DMC (51%). The finding that DMC among older adults, in particular more cognitively demanding aspects such as applying decision rules, can be undermined by increased present fatalistic attitudes and declines in working memory is discussed in terms of theoretical frameworks highlighting the contribution of both motivational and cognitive factors to effective decision making.

Talk or Walk? Gait Speed over Self-Report in Association with Cognitive Speed in Healthy Older Adults

Abstract. This study explores the relative value of both subjectively reported cognitive speed and gait speed in association with objectively derived cognitive speed. It also explores how these factors are affected by psychological and physical well-being. A group of 90 cognitively healthy older adults ( M = 73.38, SD = 8.06 years, range = 60–89 years) were tested in a three-task cognitive battery to determine objective cognitive speed as well as measures of gait speed, well-being, and subjective cognitive speed. Analyses indicated that gait speed was associated with objective cognitive speed to a greater degree than was subjective report, the latter being more closely related to well-being than to objective cognitive speed. These results were largely invariant across the 30-year age range of our older adult sample.