Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Abstract: Action and cognition often interact in everyday life and are both sensitive to the effects of aging. The present study tested the effects of a simple physical action, effortful handgrip exertion, on working memory (WM) and inhibitory control in younger and older adults. Using a novel dual-task paradigm, participants engaged in a WM task with 0 or 5-distractors under concurrent physical exertion (5% vs. 30% individual maximum voluntary contraction). Effortful physical exertion, although failing to effect WM accuracy in the distractor absent condition for both age groups, reduced WM accuracy for the older, but not young adults, in the distractor-present condition. Similarly, older adults experienced greater distractor interference in the distractor-present condition under high physical exertion, indexed by slower reaction time (RT), confirmed by hierarchical Bayesian modeling of RT distributions. Our finding that a simple but effortful physical task results in impaired cognitive control may be empirically important for understanding everyday functions of older adults. For example, the ability to ignore task-irrelevant items declines with age and this decline is greater when simultaneously performing a physical task, which is a frequent occurrence in daily life. The negative interactions between cognitive and motor tasks may further impair daily functions, beyond the negative consequences of reduced inhibitory control and physical abilities in older adults. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) PubDate: Thu, 27 Apr 2023 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1037/pag0000746
Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Abstract: The Dual Mechanisms of Control framework predicts that age-related declines should be most prominent for tasks that require proactive control, while tasks requiring reactive control should show minimal age differences in performance. However, results from traditional paradigms are inconclusive as to whether these two processes are independent, making it difficult to understand how these processes change with age. The present study manipulated the proportion congruency in a list-wide (Experiments 1 and 2) or item-specific (Experiment 1) fashion to independently assess proactive and reactive control, respectively. In the list-wide task, older adults were unable to proactively bias attention away from word processing based on list-level expectancies. Proactive control deficits replicated across multiple task paradigms, with different Stroop stimuli (picture-word, integrated color-word, separated color-word), and different behavioral indices (Stroop interference, secondary prospective memory). In contrast, older adults were successfully able to reactively filter the word dimension based on item-specific expectancies. These findings provide unambiguous support that aging is associated with declines in proactive, but not reactive, control. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) PubDate: Thu, 27 Apr 2023 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1037/pag0000748
Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Abstract: Growing evidence suggests that participation in enriching activities (physical, social, and mental) across the life course is beneficial for cognitive functioning in older age. However, few studies have examined the effects of enrichment across the entire life course within the same participants. Using 2,931 participants in the Health and Retirement Study, we linked self-report data from later life and retrospective self-report data from early life and midlife to cognitive performance after Age 65. We categorized participants as having either high (top ∼25%) or average to low (bottom ∼75%) level of enrichment during each life period. Thus, eight groups were identified that reflected unique patterns of enrichment during early, mid, and later life (e.g., high–high–high). Using growth curve modeling, we found that life course enrichment patterns predicted both cognitive functioning and the rate of cognitive decline across five time points spanning 8 years (Aim 1). Groups with high enrichment during at least one life period had higher performance and slower decline in older age, compared to those who had average to low levels of enrichment throughout all three life periods. We also found that high enrichment during each life period independently predicted better cognitive performance and that high enrichment during early and later life also predicted slower cognitive decline (Aim 2). These findings support the idea that high enrichment is beneficial for cognition in later life and that the effects are long-lasting, even when individuals are inconsistent in enrichment engagement throughout the entire life course. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) PubDate: Mon, 17 Apr 2023 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1037/pag0000744
Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Abstract: The engagement in cognitively stimulating activities has been found to be associated with slower rates of cognitive decline in old age. In which type of activities people engage in may depend on their personality traits, which thus might have an impact on later cognitive fitness. To study these potential links, we examined the associations between Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness; different types of leisure activities (e.g., social, mental, physical); and cognitive ability levels and decline in older adults. Analyses were based on a sample of young–old (60–72 years old; n = 1,609) and old–old (78 years or older; n = 1,085) adults from the Swedish National Study on Aging and Care in Kungsholmen, who participated in up to five repeated measurements of cognitive abilities spanning 12 years. We used latent growth curve models to estimate cognitive levels and decline, as well as the correlations with initial personality trait levels and leisure activity engagement. In both groups, lower Neuroticism, higher Extraversion, and higher Openness levels were moderately associated with stronger engagement in all types of activities. Lower Neuroticism, higher Extraversion, and a more activity lifestyle were weakly to moderately associated with slower cognitive decline in the old–old age group. There, personality traits and activities explained 9.3% of the variance in cognitive decline after controlling for age, sex, education, and chronic diseases (which explained 9.0%). Taken together, this study provides further evidence for the connection between personality traits, activity engagement, and later cognitive decline in old age. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) PubDate: Mon, 10 Apr 2023 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1037/pag0000743
Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Abstract: Past research has suggested that the path to purpose involves connections with people along the way. In support, sense of purpose appears higher amongst those adults with more positive social relationships and interactions. However, research has yet to consider whether associations between sense of purpose and social relationship variables differ across adulthood. The present study examined this claim using a sample of Swiss adults, who completed measures for sense of purpose, loneliness, received support, and provided support. A large, nationally representative sample of 2,312 Swiss adults (52.34 years old; SD = 17.35) completed these measures, as part of a larger survey. Local structural equation modeling was employed to estimate the means and associations of these constructs across adulthood. Sense of purpose was negatively associated with loneliness, but positively associated overall with both support variables. No evidence was found for age moderation for the association between sense of purpose and loneliness. However, moderation was evidenced insofar that sense of purpose was less associated with both support variables with age. Sense of purpose again appears related to more positive social well-being and relationships, and consistently linked to lower loneliness. The age moderation effects for purpose-support associations are discussed with respect to theories of adult development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) PubDate: Thu, 23 Mar 2023 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1037/pag0000733
Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Abstract: Physiological arousal affects attention and memory, sometimes enhancing and other times impairing what we attend to and remember. In the present study, we investigated how changes in physiological arousal—induced through short bursts of isometric handgrip exercise—affected subsequent working memory performance. A sample of 57 younger (ages 18–29) and 56 older (ages 65–85) participants performed blocks of isometric handgrip exercise in which they periodically squeezed a therapy ball, alternating with blocks of an auditory working memory task. We found that, compared with those in a control group, participants who performed isometric handgrip had faster reaction times on the working memory task. Handgrip-speeded responses were observed for both younger and older participants, across working memory loads. Analysis of multimodal physiological responses indicated that physiological arousal increased during handgrip. Our findings suggest that performing short bouts of isometric handgrip exercise can improve processing speed, and they offer testable possibilities for the mechanism underlying handgrip’s effects on performance. The potential for acute isometric exercise to temporarily improve processing speed may be of particular relevance for older adults who show declines in processing speed and working memory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) PubDate: Thu, 16 Mar 2023 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1037/pag0000728
Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Abstract: The present study applies the life-span theoretical concept of life longing (Sehnsucht) to grandparenthood as an important normative transition of middle and late adulthood that can be hoped for but not acted upon. A cross-sectional online study was conducted with N = 477 parents (73.5% women; age range: 40–81 years) whose adult children have not (yet) had offspring. Longing for grandparenthood was measured with a grandparenthood-specific adaptation of an established self-report questionnaire (Life Longing Questionnaire) and by employing a bifactor exploratory structural equation model (ESEM). As expected, strong expressions of longing for grandparenthood were associated with lower life satisfaction. Emotional support by the partner (here, perceiving the partner as understanding this Sehnsucht) offset this negative relationship (as did dispositional optimism, which an ancillary analysis revealed). By contrast, control over the longing fantasies did not help to attenuate the association between longing for grandparenthood and life satisfaction. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) PubDate: Mon, 13 Feb 2023 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1037/pag0000723
Subscription journal
