The Link Between Neuroticism and Everyday Cognitive Failures is Mediated by Self-Reported Mindfulness Among College Students

Neuroticism has been linked to an increased likelihood of cognitive failures, including episodes of inattentiveness, forgetfulness, or accidents causing difficulties in successfully executing everyday tasks and impacting health and quality of life. Cognitive failures associated with trait neuroticism can prompt some negative psychological outcomes and risky behaviors. Accumulating evidence shows that augmenting mindfulness can benefit cognitive health and general well-being. However, little is known regarding potential cognitive-behavioral pathways through which individual differences in trait neuroticism could influence the propensity to cognitive failures. Using a sample of 1003 undergraduate college students (females: n = 779) consisting of self-reported questionnaire data, we conducted correlational and mediational analyses to investigate the interrelationship between neuroticism, mindfulness, and cognitive failures. Higher neuroticism scores (females: r = −0.388, males: r = −0.390) and higher cognitive failures scores (females: r = −0.339, males: r = −0.407, p < .001) were significantly correlated with lower self-reported mindfulness scores. Mindfulness significantly mediated the relationship between neuroticism and cognitive failures (β = 0.50, 95%, CI: 0.37, 0.65). These findings indicate that higher mindfulness may help ameliorate negative effects of neuroticism on everyday cognitive failures. Future research will determine how college students may benefit from positive impact of mindfulness to improve their psychological and physical health.

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LONELINESS AS PREDICTORS OF COGNITION IN LATER LIFE

To explore the viability of a model illustrating the potential relationship between both social and emotional loneliness and both psychometric and everyday cognition in later life, 575 older adults (M = 73.49) completed measures of crystallized (Gc) and fluid (Gf) ability as well as indicators of self-rated participation in 84 everyday cognitive activities, self-rated stimulatory value of each activity, attitudinal predisposition toward an engaged lifestyle and everyday cognitive failures. Measures of social support, caregiving stress, needs for cognition and cognitive self-efficacy were treated as mediators of the loneliness-psychometric/everyday cognition relationship, controlling for age, gender, health, and education. Hierarchical regression analyses suggested that social loneliness predicted (p &lt; .04) Gc as mediated by social support, cognitive self-efficacy and need for cognition, whereas emotional loneliness similarly predicted (p &lt; .04) Gf. Parallel analyses indicated that social loneliness predicted (p &lt; .04) everyday cognitive failures and that both social and emotional loneliness predicted (p &lt; .03) engaged lifestyle attitudes. In each case, the overall model was statistically significant (p &lt; .01). For everyday cognitive activities and the stimulation values of such, neither type of loneliness was predictive, though lifestyle attitudes and lifestyle activity were moderately interrelated. These findings support a model incorporating distinct dimensions of loneliness as a predictor of diverse aspects of both psychometric and everyday cognition. This suggests that not only are the antecedents of cognition in late adulthood social/emotional in nature, but also that interventions targeting the prevention of loneliness may enhance cognitive functioning in later life.

Functional Ability in Everyday Life: Are Associations With an Engaged Lifestyle Mediated by Working Memory?

Objectives An engaged lifestyle has been linked to measures of functional ability in everyday life. However, the underlying mechanism of this link is still understudied. We propose working memory as a potential mediator of this relation. Methods Modeling data of 158 older adults with a latent-variables approach, we examined whether working memory mediated the relation between an engaged lifestyle, that is, intellectual, social, and physical activities, and functional ability, that is, self-reported everyday failures and test-based everyday performance. Results Working memory was found to fully mediate the relation between gaming activities and test-based everyday performance. Furthermore, we found a negative association between sports activities and self-reported everyday failures not mediated through working memory, indicating that individuals who reported high levels of sports activities reported fewer everyday cognitive failures. All other lifestyle activities were, however, neither directly nor indirectly associated with functional ability. Discussion Working memory is one pathway by which gaming activities are related to test-based measures of functional ability in everyday life. Given the overlapping cognitive demands of working memory, gaming activities, and the test-based measure of functional ability, the findings suggest that while an engaged lifestyle can benefit functional ability, those benefits may be limited to highly similar domains.

Attentional networks in euthymic patients with unipolar depression

BackgroundThe capacity to focus and concentrate or to direct attention supports many aspects of cognitive functioning including short-term memory and higher-level cognitive functions. The purpose was to assess attentional networks in euthymic patients with unipolar depression using the Attentional Network Test (ANT).Materials and methodsWe investigated performance of attention by virtue of ANT during remission from unipolar depressive disorder and tested a hypothesis that there are no differences between outpatient group (euthymic patients, N = 32) and matched controls in attentional variables, the relationship of attentional networks and everyday cognitive failures.ResultsNo differences between the groups in attentional networks were found and no relationship between attentional networks and cognitive failures was found.LimitationsOne assessment during remission could be insufficient to recognize long-term pattern of cognitive functions.ConclusionsThese data show non-impaired attentional networks possibly explained by sufficient level of remission and ameliorated influence of high education on cognition.