Early investigations of the neuroticism by conscientiousness interaction with regards to health h... more Early investigations of the neuroticism by conscientiousness interaction with regards to health have been promising, but to date, there have been no systematic investigations of this interaction that account for the various personality measurement instruments, varying populations, or aspects of health. The current study – the second of three – uses a coordinated analysis approach to test the impact of the neuroticism by conscientiousness interaction on the prevalence and incidence of chronic conditions. Using 15 pre-existing longitudinal studies (N > 49,375), we found that conscientiousness did not moderate the relationship between neuroticism and having hypertension (OR = 1.00,95%CI[0.98,1.02]), diabetes (OR = 1.02[0.99,1.04]), or heart disease (OR = 0.99[0.97,1.01]). Similarly, we found that conscientiousness did not moderate the prospective relationship between neuroticism and onset of hypertension (OR = 0.98[0.95,1.01]), diabetes (OR = 0.99[0.94,1.05]), or heart disease (OR =...
The present study used a coordinated analyses approach to examine the association of physical act... more The present study used a coordinated analyses approach to examine the association of physical activity and cognitive change in four longitudinal studies. A series of multilevel growth models with physical activity included both as a fixed (between-person) and time-varying (within-person) predictor of four domains of cognitive function (reasoning, memory, fluency, and semantic knowledge) was used. Baseline physical activity predicted fluency, reasoning and memory in two studies. However, there was a consistent pattern of positive relationships between time-specific changes in physical activity and time-specific changes in cognition, controlling for expected linear trajectories over time, across all four studies. This pattern was most evident for the domains of reasoning and fluency.
Individual differences in the Big Five personality traits have emerged as predictors of health an... more Individual differences in the Big Five personality traits have emerged as predictors of health and longevity. Although there are robust protective effects for higher levels of conscientiousness, results are mixed for other personality traits. In particular, higher levels of neuroticism have significantly predicted an increased risk of mortality, no-risk at all, and even a reduced risk of dying. The current study hypothesizes that one potential reason for the discrepancy in these findings for neuroticism is that interactions among neuroticism and other key personality traits have largely been ignored. Thus, in the current study we focus on testing whether the personality traits neuroticism and conscientiousness interact to predict mortality. Specifically, we borrow from recent evidence of “healthy neuroticism” to explore whether higher levels of neuroticism are only a risk factor for increased mortality risk when conscientiousness levels are low. We conducted a pre-registered integra...
Social activity is typically viewed as part of an engaged lifestyle that may help mitigate the de... more Social activity is typically viewed as part of an engaged lifestyle that may help mitigate the deleterious effects of advanced age on cognitive function. As such, social activity has been examined in relation to cognitive abilities later in life. However, longitudinal evidence for this hypothesis thus far remains inconclusive. The current study sought to clarify the relationship between social activity and cognitive function over time using a coordinated data analysis approach across four longitudinal studies. A series of multilevel growth models with social activity included as a covariate is presented. Four domains of cognitive function were assessed: reasoning, memory, fluency, and semantic knowledge. Results suggest that baseline social activity is related to some, but not all, cognitive functions. Baseline social activity levels failed to predict rate of decline in most cognitive abilities. Changes in social activity were not consistently associated with cognitive functioning. Our findings do not provide consistent evidence that changes in social activity correspond to immediate benefits in cognitive functioning, except perhaps for verbal fluency.
Objectives: To evaluate the hypotheses that subjective memory ratings are more accurate in the ol... more Objectives: To evaluate the hypotheses that subjective memory ratings are more accurate in the oldest old than in the young old and more accurate in a representative sample than in a convenience sample. Methods:Outcomes of hierarchical regressions of subjective ratings and participant characteristics on recall were compared between a nationally representative sample of 6,446 adults ages 70 to 103 and a convenience sample of 326 adults ages 70 to 97. Results:Education interacted with memory ratings in the prediction of performance in the representative sample, with better prediction for more highly educated participants than for participants with lower levels of education. Discussion:The general pattern of findings was consistent across both samples and neither hypothesis was supported. Possible explanations for the similarity of results across samples are considered.
... Elizabeth M. Zelinski and Leah L. Light Pitzer College ... In fact, such findings have been r... more ... Elizabeth M. Zelinski and Leah L. Light Pitzer College ... In fact, such findings have been reported using a variety of materials and prose grammars in studies with young adults (Kintsch & Keenan, 1973; Mandler & Johnson, 1977; Meyer, 1975; Thorndyke, 1977), as well as with ...
... Elizabeth M. Zelinski and Leah L. Light Pitzer College ... In fact, such findings have been r... more ... Elizabeth M. Zelinski and Leah L. Light Pitzer College ... In fact, such findings have been reported using a variety of materials and prose grammars in studies with young adults (Kintsch & Keenan, 1973; Mandler & Johnson, 1977; Meyer, 1975; Thorndyke, 1977), as well as with ...
Despite growing older populations in many developing countries, most research on cognitive aging ... more Despite growing older populations in many developing countries, most research on cognitive aging focuses on high income settings. Little is known about the predictors and consequences of poor cognitive health in low income environments around the world and the interventions that can ameliorate adverse impacts of decline. This symposium presents four papers from Mexico, a country experiencing rapid population aging, to address these shortcomings in the field. Mexico, like many countries in Latin America and elsewhere, has undergone drastic economic and demographic transitions and has responded with unique policies targeting vulnerable, aging populations of low socioeconomic status. Two papers highlight critical predictors and consequences of cognitive health, such as income, education, and spousal characteristics and the association between physical impairment and mortality. One paper found that, in addition to one's own education, spouses may draw cognitive benefits from their spouse's education. In another paper, the authors found that those who had physical impairment that preceded cognitive impairment had higher risk of mortality than those who had cognitive impairment that preceded physical impairment. The two other papers analyze two cash-based welfare policies in Mexico and their impact on cognitive health. Each exploits a variation of the national non-contributory pension policy, yet find the income transfers affect different determinants of cognitive health, which explain the papers' divergent conclusions. All four papers showcase the rich data available from Mexico, including the Mexican Health and Aging Study, the Encuesta Nacional de Salud y Nutricion, as well as primary data collected from Yucatan.
Subjective cognitive decline (SCD), a measure of selfrated health, compares subjective and object... more Subjective cognitive decline (SCD), a measure of selfrated health, compares subjective and objective cognitive decline (CD). Since health care professionals are under time constraints during consultations, SCD may serve as a brief screening tool for cognitive impairment. The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System surveys Americans at the state level annually and includes fifteen core and twenty-five optional modules, including self-reported CD, and in 2015, 122,487 participants age 45 or older completed the core and CD modules. Approximately 11% endorsed CD, and of those, 54% had not discussed CD with a health care professional. Logistic regression analysis assessed effects of age, sex, race, ethnicity, education, household income, and health care access with SCD. Participants' SCD odds increased with age (OR=1.08; 95%CI:1.07-1.09). Men had higher SCD odds compared to women (OR=1.44; 95%CI:1.38-1.49). Nonwhites had higher SCD odds compared to non-Hispanic whites (OR=1.22; 95%CI:1.16-1.29). Non-Hispanics/Non-Latinos had higher SCD odds compared to Hispanics/Latinos (OR=1.56; 95%CI:1.42-1.70). Respondents with 12 years of education or less had higher SCD odds compared to participants with one or more years of college or technical school (OR=1.16; 95%CI:1.11-1.21). Participants with household incomes <$25,000/year had higher SCD odds compared to other participants (OR=1.88; 95%CI:1.80-1.96). Respondents without health care coverage had higher SCD odds compared to respondents with health care coverage (OR=1.09; 95%CI:1.00-1.19). Health care professionals can utilize SCD to initiate conversations about CD with at-risk populations, especially men, Nonwhites, Hispanics/Latinos, less educated, or impoverished individuals. Fostering physician-patient conversations about SCD could support earlier interventions for symptom reduction.
Context-dependent motor performance is a phenomenon in which people perform better in the environ... more Context-dependent motor performance is a phenomenon in which people perform better in the environmental context where they originally practiced a task. Some animal and computer simulation studies suggested that context-dependent performance may be associated with neural activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). This study aimed to determine the role of the DLPFC in context-dependent motor performance by perturbing the neural processing of the DLPFC with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in healthy adults. Thirty healthy adults were recruited into the Control, rTMS DLPFC, and rTMS Vertex groups. The participants practiced three finger sequences associated with a specific incidental context (a colored circle and a location on the computer screen). One day following practice, the rTMS groups received 1 Hz rTMS prior to the testing conditions in which the sequence-context associations remained the same as practice (SAME) or changed (SWITCH). All three groups improved significantly over practice on day one. The second day testing results showed that the DLPFC group demonstrated significantly less decrement in motor performance under the SWITCH condition than the Control and Vertex groups. This finding suggests a specific role of the DLPFC in context-dependent motor performance. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Self-rep rt research has inconclusively linked complaints of poor memory functioning, memory perf... more Self-rep rt research has inconclusively linked complaints of poor memory functioning, memory performance, and intellectual ability with depression in older adults. In order to investigate more conclusively the correlation between these variables as well as' to investigate the effdct of age differences, 159 older adults (49 young-old, aged 55-70; 60 old-old, aged 71-84) were administered _a battery of memory, intelligence, and depression scales. Memory was assessed through immediate and delayed recall tests as well as-with subscales of the Metamdmory Questionnaire. Intellectual ability in terms of recognition vocabulary, figure rotation, and letter/word series (adapted from the Primary Mental Abilities Tests on verbal meaning, space and reasoning) was assessed by corresponding subtests of the Adult Mental Abilities test. Depression was measured by the Zung Depression Scale. An analysis of the results showed that older people who complained of memory problems had high.levels of depression. Further, the bidirectional relationship that ensued between affect and cognition points to the oircularpattern that develops between memory'and Idepression once the first causal step is taken. Finally, the heterogeneous lifestyle of young-old adults (55-70) appeared to be related to the differences in psychological functioning in this age group./ By contrast, old-old adults (71-84) appeared to be more homogeneous because of the commonalities of old age. (Figures illustrating variable linkages are appended). (BL)
Context-dependent learning is a phenomenon in which people demonstrate superior performance in th... more Context-dependent learning is a phenomenon in which people demonstrate superior performance in the context in which they originally learned a skill but perform less well in a novel context. This study investigated context-dependent learning in people with Parkinson's disease (PD) and age-matched nondisabled adults. All participants practiced 3 finger sequences, each embedded within a unique context (colors and locations on a computer screen). One day after practice, the participants were tested either under the sequence-context associations remained the same as during practice, or the sequence-context associations were changed (SWITCH). Compared with nondisabled adults, people with PD demonstrated significantly greater decrement in performance (especially movement time) under the SWITCH condition, suggesting that individuals with PD are more context dependent than nondisabled adults.
To evaluate the hypotheses that subjective memory ratings are more accurate in the oldest old tha... more To evaluate the hypotheses that subjective memory ratings are more accurate in the oldest old than in the young old and more accurate in a representative sample than in a convenience sample. Outcomes of hierarchical regressions of subjective ratings and participant characteristics on recall were compared between a nationally representative sample of 6,446 adults ages 70 to 103 and a convenience sample of 326 adults ages 70 to 97. Education interacted with memory ratings in the prediction of performance in the representative sample, with better prediction for more highly educated participants than for participants with lower levels of education. The general pattern of findings was consistent across both samples and neither hypothesis was supported. Possible explanations for the similarity of results across samples are considered.
The present investigation was designed to examine the effects of orienting task-controlled proces... more The present investigation was designed to examine the effects of orienting task-controlled processing on electrodermal response and free recall at two delay intervals for 94 young, 49 young-old (age 55 to 70), and 61 old-old (age 71 to 85) individuals. Subjects were presented with a list of 25 words and performed one of the following tasks: semantic, nonsemantic, or passive listening, presented in an incidental memory paradigm, or intentional memorization. Recall was obtained 2 min or 48 hours after list presentation. At the 2-min delay, the pattern of recall across tasks for the young-old and old-old subjects was similar to that of college students. Overall, the old-old recalled fewer words than the young and young-old, while the young-old recalled as many words as the young. After 48 hours, the task-related recall pattern was observed only in the young group. The skin conductance data indicated that task effects were similar across the three age groups and that response magnitude ...
Early investigations of the neuroticism by conscientiousness interaction with regards to health h... more Early investigations of the neuroticism by conscientiousness interaction with regards to health have been promising, but to date, there have been no systematic investigations of this interaction that account for the various personality measurement instruments, varying populations, or aspects of health. The current study – the second of three – uses a coordinated analysis approach to test the impact of the neuroticism by conscientiousness interaction on the prevalence and incidence of chronic conditions. Using 15 pre-existing longitudinal studies (N > 49,375), we found that conscientiousness did not moderate the relationship between neuroticism and having hypertension (OR = 1.00,95%CI[0.98,1.02]), diabetes (OR = 1.02[0.99,1.04]), or heart disease (OR = 0.99[0.97,1.01]). Similarly, we found that conscientiousness did not moderate the prospective relationship between neuroticism and onset of hypertension (OR = 0.98[0.95,1.01]), diabetes (OR = 0.99[0.94,1.05]), or heart disease (OR =...
The present study used a coordinated analyses approach to examine the association of physical act... more The present study used a coordinated analyses approach to examine the association of physical activity and cognitive change in four longitudinal studies. A series of multilevel growth models with physical activity included both as a fixed (between-person) and time-varying (within-person) predictor of four domains of cognitive function (reasoning, memory, fluency, and semantic knowledge) was used. Baseline physical activity predicted fluency, reasoning and memory in two studies. However, there was a consistent pattern of positive relationships between time-specific changes in physical activity and time-specific changes in cognition, controlling for expected linear trajectories over time, across all four studies. This pattern was most evident for the domains of reasoning and fluency.
Individual differences in the Big Five personality traits have emerged as predictors of health an... more Individual differences in the Big Five personality traits have emerged as predictors of health and longevity. Although there are robust protective effects for higher levels of conscientiousness, results are mixed for other personality traits. In particular, higher levels of neuroticism have significantly predicted an increased risk of mortality, no-risk at all, and even a reduced risk of dying. The current study hypothesizes that one potential reason for the discrepancy in these findings for neuroticism is that interactions among neuroticism and other key personality traits have largely been ignored. Thus, in the current study we focus on testing whether the personality traits neuroticism and conscientiousness interact to predict mortality. Specifically, we borrow from recent evidence of “healthy neuroticism” to explore whether higher levels of neuroticism are only a risk factor for increased mortality risk when conscientiousness levels are low. We conducted a pre-registered integra...
Social activity is typically viewed as part of an engaged lifestyle that may help mitigate the de... more Social activity is typically viewed as part of an engaged lifestyle that may help mitigate the deleterious effects of advanced age on cognitive function. As such, social activity has been examined in relation to cognitive abilities later in life. However, longitudinal evidence for this hypothesis thus far remains inconclusive. The current study sought to clarify the relationship between social activity and cognitive function over time using a coordinated data analysis approach across four longitudinal studies. A series of multilevel growth models with social activity included as a covariate is presented. Four domains of cognitive function were assessed: reasoning, memory, fluency, and semantic knowledge. Results suggest that baseline social activity is related to some, but not all, cognitive functions. Baseline social activity levels failed to predict rate of decline in most cognitive abilities. Changes in social activity were not consistently associated with cognitive functioning. Our findings do not provide consistent evidence that changes in social activity correspond to immediate benefits in cognitive functioning, except perhaps for verbal fluency.
Objectives: To evaluate the hypotheses that subjective memory ratings are more accurate in the ol... more Objectives: To evaluate the hypotheses that subjective memory ratings are more accurate in the oldest old than in the young old and more accurate in a representative sample than in a convenience sample. Methods:Outcomes of hierarchical regressions of subjective ratings and participant characteristics on recall were compared between a nationally representative sample of 6,446 adults ages 70 to 103 and a convenience sample of 326 adults ages 70 to 97. Results:Education interacted with memory ratings in the prediction of performance in the representative sample, with better prediction for more highly educated participants than for participants with lower levels of education. Discussion:The general pattern of findings was consistent across both samples and neither hypothesis was supported. Possible explanations for the similarity of results across samples are considered.
... Elizabeth M. Zelinski and Leah L. Light Pitzer College ... In fact, such findings have been r... more ... Elizabeth M. Zelinski and Leah L. Light Pitzer College ... In fact, such findings have been reported using a variety of materials and prose grammars in studies with young adults (Kintsch &amp;amp; Keenan, 1973; Mandler &amp;amp; Johnson, 1977; Meyer, 1975; Thorndyke, 1977), as well as with ...
... Elizabeth M. Zelinski and Leah L. Light Pitzer College ... In fact, such findings have been r... more ... Elizabeth M. Zelinski and Leah L. Light Pitzer College ... In fact, such findings have been reported using a variety of materials and prose grammars in studies with young adults (Kintsch &amp;amp; Keenan, 1973; Mandler &amp;amp; Johnson, 1977; Meyer, 1975; Thorndyke, 1977), as well as with ...
Despite growing older populations in many developing countries, most research on cognitive aging ... more Despite growing older populations in many developing countries, most research on cognitive aging focuses on high income settings. Little is known about the predictors and consequences of poor cognitive health in low income environments around the world and the interventions that can ameliorate adverse impacts of decline. This symposium presents four papers from Mexico, a country experiencing rapid population aging, to address these shortcomings in the field. Mexico, like many countries in Latin America and elsewhere, has undergone drastic economic and demographic transitions and has responded with unique policies targeting vulnerable, aging populations of low socioeconomic status. Two papers highlight critical predictors and consequences of cognitive health, such as income, education, and spousal characteristics and the association between physical impairment and mortality. One paper found that, in addition to one's own education, spouses may draw cognitive benefits from their spouse's education. In another paper, the authors found that those who had physical impairment that preceded cognitive impairment had higher risk of mortality than those who had cognitive impairment that preceded physical impairment. The two other papers analyze two cash-based welfare policies in Mexico and their impact on cognitive health. Each exploits a variation of the national non-contributory pension policy, yet find the income transfers affect different determinants of cognitive health, which explain the papers' divergent conclusions. All four papers showcase the rich data available from Mexico, including the Mexican Health and Aging Study, the Encuesta Nacional de Salud y Nutricion, as well as primary data collected from Yucatan.
Subjective cognitive decline (SCD), a measure of selfrated health, compares subjective and object... more Subjective cognitive decline (SCD), a measure of selfrated health, compares subjective and objective cognitive decline (CD). Since health care professionals are under time constraints during consultations, SCD may serve as a brief screening tool for cognitive impairment. The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System surveys Americans at the state level annually and includes fifteen core and twenty-five optional modules, including self-reported CD, and in 2015, 122,487 participants age 45 or older completed the core and CD modules. Approximately 11% endorsed CD, and of those, 54% had not discussed CD with a health care professional. Logistic regression analysis assessed effects of age, sex, race, ethnicity, education, household income, and health care access with SCD. Participants' SCD odds increased with age (OR=1.08; 95%CI:1.07-1.09). Men had higher SCD odds compared to women (OR=1.44; 95%CI:1.38-1.49). Nonwhites had higher SCD odds compared to non-Hispanic whites (OR=1.22; 95%CI:1.16-1.29). Non-Hispanics/Non-Latinos had higher SCD odds compared to Hispanics/Latinos (OR=1.56; 95%CI:1.42-1.70). Respondents with 12 years of education or less had higher SCD odds compared to participants with one or more years of college or technical school (OR=1.16; 95%CI:1.11-1.21). Participants with household incomes <$25,000/year had higher SCD odds compared to other participants (OR=1.88; 95%CI:1.80-1.96). Respondents without health care coverage had higher SCD odds compared to respondents with health care coverage (OR=1.09; 95%CI:1.00-1.19). Health care professionals can utilize SCD to initiate conversations about CD with at-risk populations, especially men, Nonwhites, Hispanics/Latinos, less educated, or impoverished individuals. Fostering physician-patient conversations about SCD could support earlier interventions for symptom reduction.
Context-dependent motor performance is a phenomenon in which people perform better in the environ... more Context-dependent motor performance is a phenomenon in which people perform better in the environmental context where they originally practiced a task. Some animal and computer simulation studies suggested that context-dependent performance may be associated with neural activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). This study aimed to determine the role of the DLPFC in context-dependent motor performance by perturbing the neural processing of the DLPFC with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in healthy adults. Thirty healthy adults were recruited into the Control, rTMS DLPFC, and rTMS Vertex groups. The participants practiced three finger sequences associated with a specific incidental context (a colored circle and a location on the computer screen). One day following practice, the rTMS groups received 1 Hz rTMS prior to the testing conditions in which the sequence-context associations remained the same as practice (SAME) or changed (SWITCH). All three groups improved significantly over practice on day one. The second day testing results showed that the DLPFC group demonstrated significantly less decrement in motor performance under the SWITCH condition than the Control and Vertex groups. This finding suggests a specific role of the DLPFC in context-dependent motor performance. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Self-rep rt research has inconclusively linked complaints of poor memory functioning, memory perf... more Self-rep rt research has inconclusively linked complaints of poor memory functioning, memory performance, and intellectual ability with depression in older adults. In order to investigate more conclusively the correlation between these variables as well as' to investigate the effdct of age differences, 159 older adults (49 young-old, aged 55-70; 60 old-old, aged 71-84) were administered _a battery of memory, intelligence, and depression scales. Memory was assessed through immediate and delayed recall tests as well as-with subscales of the Metamdmory Questionnaire. Intellectual ability in terms of recognition vocabulary, figure rotation, and letter/word series (adapted from the Primary Mental Abilities Tests on verbal meaning, space and reasoning) was assessed by corresponding subtests of the Adult Mental Abilities test. Depression was measured by the Zung Depression Scale. An analysis of the results showed that older people who complained of memory problems had high.levels of depression. Further, the bidirectional relationship that ensued between affect and cognition points to the oircularpattern that develops between memory'and Idepression once the first causal step is taken. Finally, the heterogeneous lifestyle of young-old adults (55-70) appeared to be related to the differences in psychological functioning in this age group./ By contrast, old-old adults (71-84) appeared to be more homogeneous because of the commonalities of old age. (Figures illustrating variable linkages are appended). (BL)
Context-dependent learning is a phenomenon in which people demonstrate superior performance in th... more Context-dependent learning is a phenomenon in which people demonstrate superior performance in the context in which they originally learned a skill but perform less well in a novel context. This study investigated context-dependent learning in people with Parkinson's disease (PD) and age-matched nondisabled adults. All participants practiced 3 finger sequences, each embedded within a unique context (colors and locations on a computer screen). One day after practice, the participants were tested either under the sequence-context associations remained the same as during practice, or the sequence-context associations were changed (SWITCH). Compared with nondisabled adults, people with PD demonstrated significantly greater decrement in performance (especially movement time) under the SWITCH condition, suggesting that individuals with PD are more context dependent than nondisabled adults.
To evaluate the hypotheses that subjective memory ratings are more accurate in the oldest old tha... more To evaluate the hypotheses that subjective memory ratings are more accurate in the oldest old than in the young old and more accurate in a representative sample than in a convenience sample. Outcomes of hierarchical regressions of subjective ratings and participant characteristics on recall were compared between a nationally representative sample of 6,446 adults ages 70 to 103 and a convenience sample of 326 adults ages 70 to 97. Education interacted with memory ratings in the prediction of performance in the representative sample, with better prediction for more highly educated participants than for participants with lower levels of education. The general pattern of findings was consistent across both samples and neither hypothesis was supported. Possible explanations for the similarity of results across samples are considered.
The present investigation was designed to examine the effects of orienting task-controlled proces... more The present investigation was designed to examine the effects of orienting task-controlled processing on electrodermal response and free recall at two delay intervals for 94 young, 49 young-old (age 55 to 70), and 61 old-old (age 71 to 85) individuals. Subjects were presented with a list of 25 words and performed one of the following tasks: semantic, nonsemantic, or passive listening, presented in an incidental memory paradigm, or intentional memorization. Recall was obtained 2 min or 48 hours after list presentation. At the 2-min delay, the pattern of recall across tasks for the young-old and old-old subjects was similar to that of college students. Overall, the old-old recalled fewer words than the young and young-old, while the young-old recalled as many words as the young. After 48 hours, the task-related recall pattern was observed only in the young group. The skin conductance data indicated that task effects were similar across the three age groups and that response magnitude ...
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Papers by E. Zelinski