Cognitive control beliefs and cognitive functioning in mid- to late-life

Abstract

Objectives: Older adults experience age-related cognitive declines and often feel as if the severity of these declines is out of their control. Recent research suggests, though, that control beliefs may be related to less age-related declines. The aim of the current study was to investigate cognitive domain-specific control beliefs and the link between those cognitive control beliefs and cognitive functioning among a nationwide sample of adults (N = 3,670), as well as to explore whether cognitive control beliefs moderated the relationship between age and cognitive functioning.

Method: The aims were addressed using data from the national Midlife in the United States study (MIDUS II). Cognitive functioning was assessed using the Brief Test of Adult Cognition by Telephone (BTACT), and cognitive control beliefs were assessed with the Personality in Intellectual Aging Contexts (PIC) Inventory Control Scales.

Results: Regression analyses revealed that adults with higher control beliefs demonstrated better cognitive functioning. Moderation analyses indicated cognitive control beliefs moderated the relationship between age and executive functioning, but not the association between age and episodic memory.

Conclusion: Results suggested that the relationship between age and executive functioning was weaker at high levels of cognitive control beliefs. Future research should establish the directionality of the effect between cognitive control beliefs and cognition and investigate the association between control beliefs and cognition in samples at higher risk for substantial cognitive decline, including the oldest-old.

Keywords: attitudes; beliefs; cognition; executive functioning.

Figure 1.

Graph of significant interaction between age and cognitive control beliefs on executive functioning. Note: Control beliefs scores at depicted at one standard deviation below the mean, the mean, and one standard deviation above the mean.