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Dynamic awareness of age‐related losses predict concurrent and subsequent changes in daily inductive reasoning performance
Author(s) -
Zhu Xianghe,
Neupert Shevaun D.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
british journal of developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.062
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 2044-835X
pISSN - 0261-510X
DOI - 10.1111/bjdp.12344
Subject(s) - recall , psychology , cognition , stressor , perception , activities of daily living , effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance , multilevel model , developmental psychology , gerontology , clinical psychology , medicine , cognitive psychology , psychiatry , neuroscience , machine learning , computer science
To address gaps in previous research, we examined daily within‐person associations between awareness of age‐related change (AARC) and cognitive performance in older adults. One hundred twelve adults aged 60–90 participated in an online daily diary study for nine consecutive days. On Day 1, they reported demographic information. On Days 2–9, they reported daily AARC, subjective age, and stressors and completed three tasks that gauged memory (word recall), perceptual speed (number comparison), and reasoning (letter series), respectively, once per day. Unconditional multilevel models revealed significant within‐person fluctuations in daily cognitive performance and daily AARC. Controlling for age, education, health, and daily stressors, daily awareness of age‐related losses was negatively associated with letter series scores of the same day and changes from one day to the next. The effects held over and above AARC gains and subjective age. Dynamic, naturally occurring perceptions of ageing may influence within‐person concurrent and subsequent changes in reasoning performance on a daily basis and point to a promising avenue of intervention.