Cross-sectional association between objective cognitive performance and perceived age-related gains and losses in cognition (original) (raw)
Related papers
Positive, but Not Negative, Self-Perceptions of Aging Predict Cognitive Function Among Older Adults
The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 2020
Self-perceptions of aging (SPA) refer to attitudes about one’s aging process and are linked to physical health and longevity. How SPA correlates with cognitive function in older adulthood is less well known. 136 older adults were administered a multifaceted SPA measure, The Brief Ageing Perceptions Questionnaire (B-APQ), in addition to a demographic form and a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. Positive and negative subscales of the B-APQ were correlated with aspects of cognitive function. Regression analyses revealed that only the positive B-APQ subscales predicted mental status ( β = .19, p < .05), short-delay memory ( β = .16, p < .05), processing speed ( β = −.21, p < .05), and two measures of executive function ( β = −.21, p < .01; β = .18, p < .05). This is the first study to demonstrate that positive dimensions of SPA relate to cognitive function in older adulthood.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2021
The study of cognitive change across a life span, both in pathological and healthy samples, has been heavily influenced by developments in cognitive psychology as a theoretical paradigm, neuropsychology and other bio-medical fields; this alongside the increase in new longitudinal and cohort designs, complemented in the last decades by the evaluation of experimental interventions. Here, a review of aging databases was conducted, looking for the most relevant studies carried out on cognitive functioning in healthy older adults. The aim was to review not only longitudinal, cross-sectional or cohort studies, but also by intervention program evaluations. The most important studies, searching for long-term patterns of stability and change of cognitive measures across a life span and in old age, have shown a great range of inter-individual variability in cognitive functioning changes attributed to age. Furthermore, intellectual functioning in healthy individuals seems to decline rather lat...
Age-related changes in subjective cognitive functioning
2000
The main focus of this study was to examine age-related changes in self-evaluation of cognitive functioning in the domains of memory, attention, mental speed, planning, and decision making. A lmost 2,000 persons in the age range 24 to 86 years rated their present cognitive functioning relative to three di erent reference points : compared to their age-mates, to their level 5 to 10 years ago, and to their level when they were 25 years. A n age-strati ed group of 420 participants also completed a series of cognitive tests. A ge-related decline in subjective cognitive functioning started at the age of 50 and steadily increased afterward. This decline was not restricted to memory, but also involved changes in attention, mental speed, planning and decision making. When participants compared their present cognitive functioning with that of their own age-group, no age e ects were found. Subjective health and depression were both related to subjective decline in cognitive functioning. No relation was found between subjective and objective cognitive functioning.
International relevance of Two Measures of Awareness of Age-Related Change (AARC)
2020
Background A questionnaire assessing awareness of positive and negative age-related changes (AARC gains and losses) was developed in the US and Germany. We validated the short form of the measure (AARC-10 SF) and the cognitive functioning subscale from the 50-item version of the AARC (AARC-50) questionnaire in the UK population aged 50 and over. Methods Data from 14,797 participants in the PROTECT cohort were used to explore and confirm the psychometric properties of the AARC measures including: validity of the factor structure; reliability; measurement invariance across males and females and across individuals with and without a university degree; and convergent validity with measures of self-perception of aging and mental, physical, and cognitive health. We also explored the relationship between demographic variables and AARC. Results We confirmed the two-factor structure (gains and losses) of the AARC-10 SF and the AARC-50 cognitive functioning subscale. Both scales showed good r...
Cognitive performance before and after the onset of subjective cognitive decline in old age
Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring, 2015
Background: Our objectives were (1) to test the association between the report of subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and prospective objective cognitive performance in high age individuals and (2) to study the course of longitudinal cognitive performance before and after the first report of SCD. Methods: Cognitively normal elderly participants of the German Study on Ageing, Cognition, and Dementia study (N 5 2330) with SCD (subjective decline in memory with and without associated concerns) and without SCD at baseline were assessed over 8 years with regard to immediate and delayed verbal recall, verbal fluency, working memory, and global cognition. Baseline performance and cognitive trajectories were compared between groups. In addition, cognitive trajectories before and after the initial report of SCD (incident SCD) were modelled in those without SCD at baseline. Results: Baseline performance in the SCD group was lower and declined more steeply in immediate and delayed verbal recall than in the control group (no SCD at baseline). This effect was more pronounced in the SCD group with concerns. Incident SCD was preceded by decline in immediate and delayed memory and word fluency.
Age and Ageing, 2011
Background: preservation of cognitive abilities is required to have a good quality of life. The predictive value of cognitive functioning at 65 years old on successful ageing 6 years later is not established. Methods: nine hundred and seventy-six questionnaires were sent by mail to a sample of healthy and voluntary French pensioners. Successful ageing was defined through health status and well-being. Cognitive abilities had been assessed 6 years earlier according to an objective method (Free and Cued Selective Recall Reminding Test (FCSRT), the Benton visual retention test and the similarities subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised) and a subjective one (Goldberg's anxiety scale, Mac Nair's scale and a Visual Analogue Scale to evaluate memory abilities change in the last 5 years). Results: six hundred and eighty-six questionnaires could be analysed. The mean age was 72.9 ± 1.2 years old with 59% of women and 99% lived at home. Well-being was negatively corr...
Cognitive Enrichment in Old Age
GeroPsych: The Journal of Gerontopsychology and Geriatric Psychiatry, 2010
Lifestyles with high levels of cognitive activity have been linked to weaker declines in cognitive abilities with aging. Hence, computer-based cognitive training programs that facilitate intense, daily, cognitive practice may help older adults to maintain and improve their cognitive functioning. We present the rationale for and implementation of an internet-based training environment that includes tasks of perceptual speed, episodic memory, and working memory. It was implemented as platform-independent internet-based testing software and used in the COGITO study to investigate intraindividual variability and plasticity in 101 younger (age 20-31) and 103 older (age 65-80) adults across an average of 100 daily practice sessions. Observations from this study and retrospective self-report evaluations demonstrate the program's feasibility and acceptance among participants.
Successful aging: The role of cognitive gerontology
Experimental aging research, 2017
This commentary explores the relationships between the construct of successful aging and the experimental psychology of human aging-cognitive gerontology. What can or should cognitive gerontology contribute to understanding, defining, and assessing successful aging? Standards for successful aging reflect value judgments that are culturally and historically situated. Fundamentally, they address social policy; they are prescriptive. If individuals or groups are deemed to be aging successfully, then their characteristics or situations can be emulated. If an individual or a group is deemed to be aging unsuccessfully, then intervention should be considered. Although science is never culture-free or ahistorical, cognitive gerontology is primarily descriptive of age-related change. It is not prescriptive. It is argue that cognitive gerontology has little to contribute to setting standards for successful aging. If, however, better cognitive function is taken as a marker of more successful a...
The Relationship Between Cognitive and Physical Performance: MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging
The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 2002
Background. The relationship between change in cognitive and physical performance has yet to be fully understood. Because aging decreases the ability to learn new information while preserving more established knowledge, this article examines whether the association between change in cognitive and physical performance depends on the nature of the physical task. Methods. Data from the MacArthur Research Network on Successful Aging Community Study-a longitudinal three-site, cohort study of high-functioning, disability-free Americans aged 70 to 79 in 1988 (reinterviewed in 1991 and 1995)-are used for this investigation. We examine the association between change in cognitive performance and two categories of physical performance: novel/attentional demanding physical tasks (e.g., standing on a single leg) or routine physical tasks (e.g., walking at a normal pace). Change in physical performance (over 7 years) is regressed on change in cognitive performance (over the same period) controlling for baseline cognitive ability, demographic factors, health status, and behavioral characteristics. Results. The findings suggest that declines in cognitive performance are associated with declines in both novel/attentional demanding and routine physical tasks. In addition to decline in cognition, gender, prevalent health conditions (e.g., cancer, high blood pressure, and the fracture of a hip), and smoking behavior are associated with decline in performance on some physical tasks. Conclusions. The findings suggest that the successful execution of physical tasks demands cognitive processes regardless of the nature of the task. Researchers using performance-based measures of physical functioning should pay particular attention to the cognitive capacities of their subjects and how these might influence their assessment.