Cognitive Failures: Relationship with Perceived Emotions, Stress, and Resting Vagally-Mediated Heart Rate Variability

Cognitive failures represent everyday task failures that individuals are normally capable of completing. While cognitive failures measured with the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire can be considered a trait, the psychophysiological states associated with cognitive failures are yet to be fully understood. The aim of this paper was to investigate the extent to which the perception of experiencing cognitive failures in daily life is associated with both psychological (i.e., perceived emotional valence, emotional intensity, and stress), as well as physiological (i.e., vagally-mediated heart rate variability, vmHRV) variables. A total of 69 participants were involved in this study (47 male, 22 female; Mage = 22.4 years). Participants underwent a 5-min heart rate variability measurement and filled out the self-report psychological variables, before completing the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire, providing scores for Distractibility, Forgetfulness, and False Triggering. When combining the predictors together into a hierarchical regression analysis, only the model related to the Distractibility subscale was found to be significant (unique significant negative predictor: resting vmHRV). Further research should investigate whether influencing resting vmHRV, with interventions such as slow-paced breathing, may decrease the perception of cognitive failures related to distractibility.

Schizotypy but not Cannabis Use Modestly Predicts Psychotogenic Experiences: A Cross-Sectional Study Using the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences (O-LIFE)

Objective. Cannabis use predicts psychosis in longitudinal studies, but it is difficult to infer causation. Some precursor variables predict both, including childhood trauma and adversity. Additionally, some of the desired effects of cannabis use resemble the symptoms of psychosis. It would be preferable to assess psychotomimetic or “unusual” experiences that include psychotic symptoms but without assuming pathology. Finally, it is possible that similar people are prone to psychosis and drawn to cannabis use, perhaps, because they are sensitive or attracted to unusual experiences. Schizotypy provides a trait measure of proneness to unusual experiences. The study aimed to examine cross-sectionally relationships between cannabis use, schizotypy, and unusual experiences whilst controlling for current trauma symptoms. Method. A volunteer online sample (n = 129, 64% women, predominantly students) who had used cannabis at least once was recruited. People who reported active effects of past trauma were excluded with a brief primary care posttraumatic stress disorder screen. Participants completed the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experience, the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire, and measures of substance use and sociodemographics. Results. The majority of respondents recounted unusual experiences after cannabis use, and many of these might have been considered symptoms of psychosis if they had received medical attention. In regression analysis, the only predictor of the unusual experiences scale of O-LIFE was schizotypy (measured by the remaining subscales; 4% of variance). There were no correlations between cannabis use frequency and schizotypy or unusual experiences. Conclusions. These findings suggest that, after controlling for schizotypy and excluding people who are actively experiencing the effects of past trauma, frequency of cannabis use does not predict unusual experiences. However, individuals with schizotypal personality traits may have more unusual experiences when using cannabis.

36 Cognitive functioning in patients aged 60 and older with chronic non- communicable diseases

ObjectiveIt is well established that chronic non-communicable diseases (CND) are linked to early cognitive impairment (CI) before or at the beginning of the old age, bringing those patients at higher risk for dementia.The aim: to evaluate CI of aged 60 or older cognitively healthy patients visiting doctors due to different CNDMethods107 patients aged 60 or older (mean age 74 years; 44 male, 63 female; 25 were visiting general practitioner (GP), 21 – neurologist (NE), 23 – pulmonologist (PU), 38 – otorhinolaryngologist (OT)) for their CND took part in pilot cross sectional study. They filled The Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ), Subjective Cognitive Complaints (SCCs), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Results were compared using Pearson Chi-Square and one-way ANOVA.ResultsOT patients had higher CFQ results (M=30.7) comparing to all groups (GP M=24.3; NE M=22.6, PU M=18.3, p=0.001). PU patients had less problems with Forgetfulness (M=8.6), comparing to GP (M=11.4) or OT (M=12.4) groups (p=0.022). OT (M=9.3) had more problems with Distractibility comparing to PU (M=5.7) and GP (M=6.7) groups (p=0.011). OT had higher scores in False Triggering (M=7.9) comparing to GP (M=5.92), NE (M=5.8) and PU (4.8) groups (p=0.011).The cut-off point of row score 45 was overstepped in18.9% of OT group, 8% of GP group, but none in NE or PU group (p=0.026). Results of MMSE showed alike tendencies: PU patients (M=27.8) had higher results than GP (M=25.7) or OT (M=25.6) groups (p=0.029). CI was found in 39.1% of GP and 35.1% of OT, comparing to 19.0% in NE and 3.7% in PU groups (p=0.020). But groups did not differ by SCCs scores, even if 3 or more complains were found in 50.0% of GP, 52.2% of PU, 42.9% of NE and 71.1% OT groups. The only SCCs question where found differences between groups – limitation of daily activities: concerning about possible mistakes 62.5% of GP and PU groups would ask somebody’s help, while it would be done by 52.4% of NE and only 15.8% of OT group (p<0.001).ConclusionsCognitive health in elderly people with CND is not monitored well. About 2/3 of them have subjective cognitive complains (3 or more by SCCs), 1/4 would be named as having CI by MMSE, 8.5% have problems due to forgetfulness, distractibility, false triggering. Cognitive functions are predominantly impaired in OT group patients, however, they declare less need for helping them.

Older adults with lower autobiographical memory abilities report less age-related decline in everyday cognitive function

BACKGROUND. Individuals differ in how they remember the past: some recall the gist of events, whereas others re-experience specific details. These trait-level differences reflect life-long autobiographical memory capacities, distinct from laboratory test performance, and there has been little research on how trait mnemonics relate to cognitive aging. Intuitively, one might predict that individuals reporting higher trait-level memory capacity would be resistant to age-related decline in everyday function. On the other hand, those with lower trait-level episodic autobiographical memory capacity may be better equipped with strategies to cope with age-related memory decline. METHODS. We tested these predictions in 959 older adults aged 50–93 using online subjective and objective measures of memory and cognitive function. Our key measures of interest were the Survey of Autobiographical Memory, a measure of autobiographical memory abilities; and the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire, a measure of everyday cognitive function. RESULTS. In keeping with the second, less intuitive prediction, we found that complaints of day-to-day memory slips and errors (normally elevated with age) remained stable or even decreased with age among those reporting lower trait-level episodic autobiographical memory capacity, whereas the expected age-related functional decline in everyday memory was observed among those reporting higher trait-level episodic autobiographical memory capacity. CONCLUSIONS. Congenitally low trait-level episodic autobiographical memory may paradoxically confer a functional advantage in aging due to well-developed non- episodic strategies not present in those with higher abilities. Our findings emphasize the importance of considering individual differences when studying cognitive aging trajectories.

Self-Reported Cognitive Failures in Everyday Life: A Closer Look at Their Relation to Personality and Cognitive Performance

A recent review concluded that the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire is the most widely used instrument to assess cognitive failures. Our aims were to place cognitive failures self-reported with the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire into their nomological network by conceptually replicating known relations to the Big Five and by extending this knowledge through testing their relations with latent cognitive abilities (Study 1, N = 158, age 20-86 years) and theoretically relevant Big Five subfacets (Study 2, N = 176, age 19-39 years). Cognitive failures were unrelated to objective cognitive performance (processing speed, memory, and inhibition), but reliably related to the personality domains conscientiousness, neuroticism, and almost all their subfacets. Thus, self-reported cognitive failures do not qualify as a proxy for objective cognitive performance tasks. They are rather useful as illustration of behavioral manifestations related to personality domains.