Mitigating the Harmful Impact of Ageism among Older Individuals: The Buffering Role of Resilience Factors.

Frequent exposure to ageism has significant repercussions on the quality of life and mental well-being/health of older adults. Resilience may play a crucial role in mitigating these effects. The current study aimed to investigate the potential buffering roles of two types of coping variables-behavioral coping and a positive appraisal style-in older adults (N = 2000, aged 55-93).

Corrigendum: The interplay between quality of life and resilience factors in later life: a network analysis.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.

Improving goal striving and resilience in older adults through a personalized metacognitive self-help intervention: a protocol paper.

Background: Successful aging is often linked to individual's ability to demonstrate resilience: the maintenance or quick recovery of functional ability, well-being, and quality of life despite losses or adversity. A crucial element of resilience is behavioral adaptability, which refers to the adaptive changes in behavior in accordance with internal or external demands. Age-related degradation of executive functions can, however, lead to volition problems that compromise flexible adjustment of behavior.

Why Ebbinghaus' savings method from 1885 is a very 'pure' measure of memory performance.

This paper analyzes the savings measures introduced by Ebbinghaus in his monograph of 1885. He measured memory retention in terms of the learning time saved in subsequent study trials relative to the time spent on the first learning trial. We prove mathematically that Ebbinghaus' savings measure is independent of initial encoding strength, learning time, and relearning times.

Randomly fluctuating neural connections may implement a consolidation mechanism that explains classic memory laws.

How can we reconcile the massive fluctuations in neural connections with a stable long-term memory? Two-photon microscopy studies have revealed that large portions of neural connections (spines, synapses) are unexpectedly active, changing unpredictably over time. This appears to invalidate the main assumption underlying the majority of memory models in cognitive neuroscience, which rely on stable connections that retain information over time. Here, we show that such random fluctuations may in fact implement a type of memory consolidation mechanism with a stable very long-term memory that offers novel explanations for several classic memory 'laws', namely Jost's Law (1897: superiority of spaced learning) and Ribot's Law (1881: loss of recent memories in retrograde amnesia), for which a common neural basis has been postulated but not established, as well as other general 'laws' of learning and forgetting.

The Subjective Experience of Ageism: The Perceived Ageism Questionnaire (PAQ).

Ageism as perceived by older individuals has been recognized as a potential risk factor for physical and mental health. We aimed to develop a comprehensive scale that can quantify perceived ageism among aging individuals (55+), including both positive and negative stereotypes, prejudices, and discriminations. This effort resulted in an 8-item Perceived Ageism Questionnaire (PAQ-8), with good psychometric properties and a two-factor structure distinguishing a positive (3 items) and negative (5 items) subscale (Analysis 1; = 500).

Binary classification threatens the validity of cognitive impairment detection.

Objective: Neuropsychological literature reports varying prevalence of cognitive impairment within patient populations, despite assessment with standardized neuropsychological tests. Within the domain of oncology, the International Cognition and Cancer Task Force (ICCTF) proposed standard cutoff points to harmonize the operationalization of cognitive impairment. We evaluated how this binary classification affects agreement between two highly comparable test batteries.

Can we measure individual differences in cognitive measures reliably via smartphones? A comparison of the flanker effect across device types and samples.

Research deployed via the internet and administered via smartphones could have access to more diverse samples than lab-based research. Diverse samples could have relatively high variation in their traits and so yield relatively reliable measurements of individual differences in these traits. Several cognitive tasks that originated from the experimental research tradition have been reported to yield relatively low reliabilities (Hedge et al.

Psychological Coping and Behavioral Adjustment Among Older Adults in Times of COVID-19: Exploring the Protective Role of Working Memory and Habit Propensity.

Unlabelled: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, well-being, and behavior is likely influenced by individual characteristics that determine one's capacity for resilience. In this exploratory study, we examined whether individual differences in working memory (WM) capacity and habit propensity (HP), measured the outbreak, could predict variation in subsequent psychological coping efficacy (as operationalized by measures of depression, mental well-being, perceived stress, and loneliness) and behavioral adjustment (by evaluating compliance and self-reported automaticity of four COVID-19 guidelines) among Dutch older adults ( = 36) the pandemic (measured April 25 to May 6, 2020). While we found elevated levels of depression and emotional loneliness, overall mental well-being, and perceived stress were not affected by the pandemic.

Assessing the degree of urbanisation using a single-item self-report measure: a validation study.

The differential impact of rural versus urban residence on mental health remains a controversial topic that requires more in-depth investigations. This calls for a valid and easy measure to assess the degree of urbanisation. The purpose of the present study was to determine the utility of a single-item self-report measure (SIDU) as a tool to classify areas along the rural-urban continuum.

The Interplay Between Quality of Life and Resilience Factors in Later Life: A Network Analysis.

Age-related challenges and transitions can have considerable social, psychological, and physical consequences that may lead to significant changes in quality of life (QoL). As such, maintaining high levels of QoL in later life may crucially depend on the ability to demonstrate resilience (i.e.

The Godden and Baddeley (1975) experiment on context-dependent memory on land and underwater: a replication.

A replication of the experiment by Godden and Baddeley (Godden and Baddeley 1975 , 325-331 (doi:10.1111/j.2044-8295.

Methods to split cognitive task data for estimating split-half reliability: A comprehensive review and systematic assessment.

Estimating the reliability of cognitive task datasets is commonly done via split-half methods. We review four methods that differ in how the trials are split into parts: a first-second half split, an odd-even trial split, a permutated split, and a Monte Carlo-based split. Additionally, each splitting method could be combined with stratification by task design.

An Operational Definition of 'Abnormal Cognition' to Optimize the Prediction of Progression to Dementia: What Are Optimal Cut-Off Points for Univariate and Multivariate Normative Comparisons?

Background: In neuropsychology and neurology, there is no consensus on the definition of abnormal cognition.

Objective: To operationally define 'abnormal cognition' for optimally predicting progression to dementia in a memory clinic sample, and to test whether multivariate profile analysis of cognitive test results improves this prediction compared to standard clinical evaluation.

Methods: We used longitudinal data from 835 non-demented patients of the Amsterdam Dementia Cohort.

Psychotic depressive subtype and white mater hyperintensities do not predict cognitive side effects in ECT: A systematic review of pretreatment predictors.

Background: Most studies regarding cognitive side-effects following ECT for treating depression report transient forms of cognitive disturbances. However, a growing number of studies also report considerable differences among individual patients.

Objective: The aim of this systematic review was to identify pretreatment patient characteristics for predicting the risk of developing cognitive side-effects following ECT.

Cognitive functioning, sleep quality, and work performance in non-clinical burnout: The role of working memory.

We investigated the relationship between cognitive functioning, work performance, and sleep in non-clinical burnout. In a working population, an online survey was conducted with additional online neuropsychological tests of varying complexity, measuring attention and different components of working memory, of which the coordinating subcomponent the 'Central Executive' is thought to be the most vulnerable to stress. Results indicate that non-clinical burnout is associated with more-though not severe-sleep problems, more depressive complaints, impaired work performance, and with both subjective and objective cognitive impairments.

The Factor Structure of Cognitive Functioning in Cognitively Healthy Participants: a Meta-Analysis and Meta-Analysis of Individual Participant Data.

Many neuropsychologists are of the opinion that the multitude of cognitive tests may be grouped into a much smaller number of cognitive domains. However, there is little consensus on how many domains exist, what these domains are, nor on which cognitive tests belong to which domain. This incertitude can be solved by factor analysis, provided that the analysis includes a broad range of cognitive tests that have been administered to a very large number of people.

Mental chronometry in the pocket? Timing accuracy of web applications on touchscreen and keyboard devices.

Web applications can implement procedures for studying the speed of mental processes (mental chronometry) and can be administered via web browsers on most commodity desktops, laptops, smartphones, and tablets. This approach to conducting mental chronometry offers various opportunities, such as increased scale, ease of data collection, and access to specific samples. However, validity and reliability may be threatened by less accurate timing than specialized software and hardware can offer.

Does cognitive flexibility training enhance subjective mental functioning in healthy older adults?

Declining cognitive abilities in older adults can contribute to significant changes in socioemotional health and substantially reduce their perception of well-being. Whereas much attention has been dedicated to creating cognitive training programs to improve cognitive health in old age, there is little emphasis on the consequences of such interventions for subjective mental functioning. We created a randomized controlled trial in which we evaluated the effects of an adaptive computerized cognitive flexibility training.

Online Self-Administered Cognitive Testing Using the Amsterdam Cognition Scan: Establishing Psychometric Properties and Normative Data.

Background: Online tests enable efficient self-administered assessments and consequently facilitate large-scale data collection for many fields of research. The Amsterdam Cognition Scan is a new online neuropsychological test battery that measures a broad variety of cognitive functions.

Objective: The aims of this study were to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Amsterdam Cognition Scan and to establish regression-based normative data.

Cognitive Flexibility Training: A Large-Scale Multimodal Adaptive Active-Control Intervention Study in Healthy Older Adults.

As aging is associated with cognitive decline, particularly in the executive functions, it is essential to effectively improve cognition in older adults. Online cognitive training is currently a popular, though controversial method. Although some changes seem possible in older adults through training, far transfer, and longitudinal maintenance are rarely seen.

The influence of computer-based cognitive flexibility training on subjective cognitive well-being after stroke: A multi-center randomized controlled trial.

Background: Stroke can result in cognitive complaints that can have a large impact on quality of life long after its occurrence. A number of computer-based training programs have been developed with the aim to improve cognitive functioning. Most studies investigating their efficacy used only objective outcome measures, whereas a reduction of subjective cognitive complaints may be equally important for improving quality of life.

Reliability and validity of a self-administered tool for online neuropsychological testing: The Amsterdam Cognition Scan.

Introduction: To facilitate large-scale assessment of a variety of cognitive abilities in clinical studies, we developed a self-administered online neuropsychological test battery: the Amsterdam Cognition Scan (ACS). The current studies evaluate in a group of adult cancer patients: test-retest reliability of the ACS and the influence of test setting (home or hospital), and the relationship between our online and a traditional test battery (concurrent validity).

Method: Test-retest reliability was studied in 96 cancer patients (57 female; M = 51.

Multivariate normative comparisons for neuropsychological assessment by a multilevel factor structure or multiple imputation approach.

Neuropsychologists administer neuropsychological tests to decide whether a patient is cognitively impaired. This clinical decision is made by comparing a patient's scores to those of healthy participants in a normative sample. In a multivariate normative comparison, a patient's entire profile of scores is compared to scores in a normative sample.

Multivariate normative comparisons using an aggregated database.

In multivariate normative comparisons, a patient's profile of test scores is compared to those in a normative sample. Recently, it has been shown that these multivariate normative comparisons enhance the sensitivity of neuropsychological assessment. However, multivariate normative comparisons require multivariate normative data, which are often unavailable.