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. 2011 Mar;47(2):303-10.
doi: 10.1037/a0021816.

Personality-cognition relations across adulthood

Andrea Soubelet  1 , Timothy A Salthouse
Affiliations

Personality-cognition relations across adulthood

Andrea Soubelet et al. Dev Psychol. 2011 Mar.

Abstract

Although an increasing number of studies have investigated relations between dimensions of personality and level of cognitive functioning, the research results have been somewhat inconsistent. Furthermore, relatively little is known about whether the personality-cognition relations vary as a function of age in adulthood. The current project examined these issues with data from a sample of 2,317 adults between 18 and 96 years of age who each completed a personality inventory and performed a broad battery of cognitive tests. The results revealed strong relations of the personality trait of Openness with several distinct cognitive abilities and smaller relations of other personality traits with specific cognitive abilities. Comparisons across different age groups indicated that the personality-cognition relations were both qualitatively and quantitatively similar across the adult years.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic illustration of the possible relations of the Big Five personality traits on four latent constructs representing different cognitive abilities.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Means (and standard errors) of cognitive composite scores (left panel) and personality traits (right panel) in z score units of the entire sample for adults in three age groups.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Standardized regression coefficients for the relations of personality traits on four cognitive abilities in three age groups.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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