The role of metamemory and personality in episodic memory performance in older adults.

This study newly investigated the joint contribution of metamemory and personality (traits and facets) in explaining episodic memory (EM) performance in typically aging older adults. Forty-eight participants (age range: 64-75 years) completed a self-paced word list (SPWL) recall task, a metamemory questionnaire assessing perceived control and potential improvement (PCPI) and self-efficacy and satisfaction (SESA) regarding one's mental abilities (e.g., memory), and the Big-Five Questionnaire. Based on the SPWL encoding strategies reported, participants were then classified as effective (N = 20) or ineffective (N = 28) memory strategy users. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that a better SPWL performance was predicted by higher levels of PCPI, Scrupulousness and Dominance personality facets. Effective memory strategy users, then, showed higher SPWL performance and Dominance (Energy facet) than ineffective ones. These findings suggest that both specific metamemory processes and personality facets predict better EM performance in older adults. Moreover, personality dispositions relating to Dominance seem to characterize individuals adopting effective memory strategies to support EM performance. These results represent first evidence of the role of both metamemory and personality-facets-in explaining older adults' EM performance, which should thus be considered when assessing or training EM in old age.

Non-pharmacological interventions targeting sleep quality in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVES: This review aimed to examine the available evidence about non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs) aimed at improving sleep quality in older adults without insomnia or dementia.Methods: Studies on NPIs targeting older adults' sleep were searched in the PsycInfo, PubMed and Scopus databases, with no restriction on publication year up to September 2021. Studies on NPIs for older adults with no diagnosed sleep disorders were included, while those on pharmacological therapies and/or concerning pathological samples were excluded. The risk of bias was assessed using tools based on Joanna Briggs' criteria. The data extracted were meta-analyzed using random effects models for subgroups of NPIs.Results: Of the 1,893 records identified, 31 studies on NPIs (N = 2,224; range of mean ages: 60-78 years) were analyzed. All NPIs improved self-reported sleep quality, albeit to a different extent (physical activity: d=.97 - 95% CI=.62, 1.32-; psychological/psychoeducational, or NPIs that combined more than one sleep-targeting activity: d range: .21 to .97). Only the NPIs based on physical activity improved objectively-measured sleep, d=.31 (.04, .57). The methodological quality of most studies was limited.Conclusion: The most often used NPIs targeting sleep rely on physical activity and sensory stimulation with promising results on sleep quality for the former. More data are needed on psychological/psychoeducational NPIs and combined interventions in order to test their effectiveness. The methodological weaknesses of the available studies suggest they their findings should be interpreted with caution.Supplemental data for this article is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2022.2056879.

Efficacy of memory training interventions targeting metacognition for older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVES: This review examined the evidence about training interventions targeting metacognition in improving memory and cognitive performance, metacognitive functioning, and well-being in healthy older adults. METHODS: Studies were identified in the PsycInfo, PubMed, and Scopus databases. The risk of bias was assessed using tools based on the Joanna Briggs criteria. The data were meta-analyzed using random effects models for those training targeting metacognition alone (metacognitive training) or combined with memory strategy training (strategic metacognitive training). RESULTS: Out of the 3,487 articles first identified, 25 studies were eligible for our review (N = 1,768 older adults; mean age range: 64-85 years). Metacognitive training and strategic metacognitive training elicited improvements in memory (d = 0.52 [95% CI: 0.19; 0.84], and d = 0.44 [95% CI: 0.29; 0.58], respectively), metacognitive beliefs (d = 0.58 [95% CI: 0.23; 0.93], and d = 48 [95% CI: 0.28; 0.69], respectively), strategy use (d = 0.98 [95% CI: 0.46; 1.49] and 0.87 [95% CI: 0.14; 1.61], respectively), and memory self-efficacy (d = 0.08 [95% CI: -0.39; 0.56] and 0.55 [95% CI: 0.36; 0.75], respectively). Strategic metacognitive training also improved well-being (d = 0.21 [95% CI: 0.07; 0.35]). CONCLUSION: Interventions targeting metacognition (alone or combined with memory strategy training) have the potential to support older adults' memory and metacognitive functioning. The methodological quality of most studies on the topic was often limited, however. Furthermore, well-designed studies needed to confirm the benefits of such interventions in older age.

How emotions induced by reading influence sleep quality in young and older adults.

OBJECTIVES: This study examined whether emotions induced by reading before sleep influence sleep quality in young and older adults. METHOD: Sixty older adults (64-75 years) and 60 young adults (18-35 years) were randomly assigned to three conditions: positive reading, neutral reading, and control. The reading groups read a short story at bedtime, whereas the control group kept its routine. Participants completed measures of affective states, subjective sleep parameters, and self-reported sleep quality related to emotions over 7 consecutive days. RESULTS: Older adults reported much longer sleep latency and lower sleep efficiency than young adults. In both reading conditions, older adults reported reduced sleep latencies compared to the control group. In the positive reading condition, older adults reported an increased sleep duration compared to younger adults and the other conditions. Young and older adults in the positive condition showed better self-reported sleep quality than those in the neutral conditions, regardless of age. CONCLUSIONS: Reading at bedtime appears to reduce older adults' time to fall asleep and increase their sleep duration. Positive emotions induced by reading short stories at bedtime seem to be a sleep-promoting factor that improves bedtime and wake time in young and older adults.

How Elderly People's Quality of Life Relates to Their Sleep Quality and Sleep-Related Beliefs.

OBJECTIVE/BACKGROUND: Quality of life (QoL) is a broad multidimensional construct, which can be influenced by several factors across the lifespan, including sleep quality. The aim of this study was to examine the association between QoL (and its specific domains), objective and self-reported sleep quality, and subjective sleep-related factors (i.e., dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep, and metacognitive beliefs about sleeping difficulties) in healthy elderly people. PARTICIPANTS: Fifty healthy older adults (mean age = 70.40 years, SD = 7.43) participated in the study. METHODS: QoL was assessed using the World Health Organization's Quality of Life Assessment, BREF version (WHOQOL-BREF). Self-reported sleep quality and efficiency were measured with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and sleep diary. Dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep (DBAS), and metacognitive beliefs about sleeping difficulties (MCQ-I) (subjective sleep-related factors) were assessed with self-report questionnaires. Objective sleep quality and efficiency were measured using actigraphy over 7 days. RESULTS: Regression analyses showed that self-reported sleep efficiency and dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep explained 24% of the variance in global QoL. Dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep were the only significant predictor of QoL in the environmental domain. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, these findings underscore the influence of sleep-related factors, and particularly dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep, along with sleep efficiency, on the perception of QoL in healthy older adults. These factors need to be considered in efforts to sustain QoL, in late adulthood at least.

Emotion regulation, hope, and optimism during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of age and personality.

AIMS: This study examined age-related differences between young and older adults' emotion regulation, hope, and optimism 1 year after the COVID-19 outbreak. Whether personality explained such outcomes was also examined. METHOD: A sample of 228 young adults and 161 older adults was interviewed in April-May 2021 to complete questionnaires assessing cognitive reappraisal (CR) and expressive suppression (ES) emotion regulation strategies use, optimism, hope (agency and pathways components), and personality traits. RESULTS: Older adults reported greater CR and ES use, optimism, and hope-agency levels than young adults, whereas no age differences emerged for hope-pathway scores. Personality traits (more consistently emotional stability) contributed to explaining CR and ES use, and greater hopeful and optimistic dispositions. CONCLUSIONS: These findings confirm older adults' advantage in facing the emotional and psychological fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic in its third wave. They also underscore the importance of considering personality to depict individual profiles prone to experiencing long-term negative emotional/psychological consequences of emergencies as COVID-19.

Do Sleep-Related Metacognitive Strategies Shape My Sleep? The Relationships between Strategies for Controlling Sleep-Related Intrusive Thoughts and Subjective and Objective Sleep Quality in Young Adulthood and Older Age.

This study examined the associations between thought control strategies and subjective and objective sleep quality, across the adult lifespan. One hundred forty-nine individuals without insomnia (age range 18-86 years; M = 45.35, SD = 20.53) completed the Thought Control Questionnaire Insomnia-Revised for assessing sleep-related thought control strategies. Self-reported sleep quality was measured with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Then, subjective and objective sleep parameters (i.e., total sleep time, sleep onset latency, sleep efficiency) were recorded through a sleep diary and an actigraph across 7 days. Results from linear mixed-effects models showed that a worry strategy was associated with longer subjective sleep latency and shorter subjective total sleeping time. An aggressive suppression strategy was associated with longer subjective total sleeping time. No such involvement of thought control strategies was detected for subjective sleep efficiency and all of the objective sleep parameters. Other individual differences (i.e., age, sex, circadian preference, self-reported sleep quality) also explained both subjective and objective sleep parameters, though to a different extent depending on the sleep parameter considered. The assessment of sleep-related thought control strategies, along with other individual characteristics, should be considered to account for individual differences in sleep quality and implement practices/interventions to support it in adulthood and older age.

Adapt, Explore, or Keep Going? The Role of Adaptability, Curiosity, and Perseverance in a Network of Study-Related Factors and Scholastic Success.

Soft skills are the key characteristics for students' success and wellbeing in the 21st century, but they were only rarely studied contemporarily or integrated into comprehensive models of self-regulated learning. This makes it difficult to understand the role that specific skills have above and beyond the others and how they work together to favor students' achievement and life satisfaction. For this reason, in a sample of 585 students (10-18 years old), we applied an exploratory network analysis and studied three crucial soft skills (i.e., adaptability, curiosity, and perseverance) and their contemporary network of inter-relationships with a host of functional study-related factors, including self-regulated learning strategies, motivation, emotions, cognitive abilities, academic achievement, and life and school satisfaction. Results show that the three soft skills play a positive role within the school context through their association with the majority of the study-related factors that mediate their relationships with academic achievement. Importantly, the results differentiated adaptability (which mainly relates with wellbeing and emotional variables), perseverance (which relates with the cognitive and behavioral aspect of learning), and curiosity (which bridges the connection between the other skills and relates with emotional and behavioral variables) in the school context. Overall, these findings contribute to the deepening of the theoretical framework on soft skills and their role as part of a successful learning profile, and inform us about the possible effectiveness of intervention on soft skills for students' achievement and wellbeing.

The relationship between sleep quality and quality of life in aging: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

This study examined the available literature concerning the association between sleep quality and quality of life (QoL) in autonomous older people with no sleep disorders. A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted on studies identified in the PsycInfo, PubMed and Scopus databases that examined the associations between QoL and sleep quality in older adults. Our systematic literature search identified 23 studies concerning a total of 21,092 participants (range of mean ages: 58-79 years). The results showed that self-reported sleep quality, but not objective sleep quality, correlated positively with QoL with a moderate effect size (for self-reported sleep quality, the overall estimate of the average effect size was a Pearson's r = .28 [95% CI: .34, .23]; for objective sleep quality, it was r = .01 [.12, -.09]). This also applied to the main domains of QoL concerning physical and psychological health, social relationships and environmental aspects (the estimated average effect sizes ranged from Pearson's r = .13 to r = .35). These findings highlight the influence of sleep quality, and particularly of self-reported sleep quality, on QoL (as a whole and in its specific domains) in older adults with normal aging and no insomnia. This influence should therefore be investigated systematically when examining QoL.

The influence of individual characteristics on perceived restorativeness and benefits associated with exposure to nature in a garden.

This study newly explored the relationship between individual characteristics (i.e., connectedness to nature, a preference for natural rather than built environments, personality, visuospatial preferences) with perceived restorativeness, as well as affective and memory-related benefits of exposure to the nature. Eighty adults were individually exposed to nature by walking in a landscape garden. Measures of connectedness to nature, preference for natural environments, personality traits, and visuospatial preferences were administered. Before and after walking in the garden, participants completed measures of affect (positive and negative emotions) and memory (short-term and working memory, and spatial memory). After walking they completed a Perceived Restorativeness scale. Perceived Restorativeness was found to be significantly explained by Extraversion (personality trait) and Connectedness to Nature. There was no significant influence of individual characteristics on benefits to affect and memory measures. Overall, the results showed that perception of the restorative effect of a natural environment is related to connectedness to nature and personality (extraversion trait). Taken together, our findings highlight the importance of considering individual characteristics to better capture restorative/recovery effects of a natural environment in an individual, and to tailor/implement nature-based solutions to ensure a sustainable urban green environment and to promote quality of life for their citizens.

Effects of Strategy-Based Memory Training for Older Adults: Do Booster Sessions Prompt Long-Term Benefits?

This study examined the efficacy of a strategy-based memory training for older adults at short- and long-term with two (5- and 11 months) follow-ups. We also explored whether booster sessions (additional training before the first follow-up) facilitated the maintenance of benefits. Thirty-three older adults received a training based on the teaching of different effective memory strategies. One group completed three booster sessions before the 5 months follow-up. Training gains were examined using a word-list and a face-surname association recall tasks, and transfer effects with a grocery-word list (GL) recall task, a working memory (WM) measure, and a perceived memory functioning questionnaire. Training gains and transfer effects to the WM measure emerged and were maintained up to the second follow-up. No benefits for the GL and perceived memory functioning were found. The "boosted" group had only a slight advantage-in one of the transfer tasks-as shown by effect sizes. This pilot study confirms the efficacy of strategy-based memory training in supporting older adults' memory performance up to 11 months since training completion. However, booster sessions seem not to make a clear difference in prompting long-lasting benefits. Training features capable of fostering generalized, prolonged effects are worth investigating.

Music Listening, Emotion, and Cognition in Older Adults.

Using the arousal and mood hypothesis as a theoretical framework, we examined whether community-dwelling older adults (N = 132) exhibited cognitive benefits after listening to music. Participants listened to shorter (≈2.5 min) or longer (≈8 min) excerpts from recordings of happy- or sad-sounding music or from a spoken-word recording. Before and after listening, they completed tasks measuring visuospatial working memory (WM), cognitive flexibility and speed, verbal fluency, and mathematical ability, as well as measures of arousal and mood. In general, older adults improved from pre- to post-test on the cognitive tasks. For the test of WM, the increase was greater for participants who heard happy-sounding music compared to those in the other two groups. The happy-sounding group also exhibited larger increases in arousal and mood, although improvements in mood were evident only for the long-duration condition. At the individual level, however, improvements in WM were unrelated to changes in arousal or mood. In short, the results were partially consistent with the arousal and mood hypothesis. For older adults, listening to happy-sounding music may optimize arousal levels and mood, and improve performance on some cognitive tasks (i.e., WM), even though there is no direct link between changes in arousal/mood and changes in WM.

Self-reported sleep quality and dysfunctional sleep-related beliefs in young and older adults: changes in times of COVID-19 lockdown.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined changes due to COVID-19 lockdown in young and older adults' self-reported sleep quality and dysfunctional sleep-related beliefs. METHODS: Adults involved in studies prior to the pandemic were contacted during the COVID-19 lockdown. Seventeen young adults (age range: 18-35 years) and 21 older adults (age range: 65-90 years) agreed to participate. Participants were interviewed by phone (between 27th April and 4th May, 2020) to complete the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Dysfunctional Beliefs About Sleep (DBAS) questionnaire they had been administered before the pandemic. RESULTS: In terms of mean changes, the results showed null effect sizes for changes in self-reported sleep quality for both age groups. In young adults, a medium effect size emerged for changes in sleep latency, which increased during lockdown. No changes in any of the self-reported sleep quality dimensions emerged in older adults. In both age groups, the effect sizes for changes in dysfunctional sleep-related beliefs were negligible. In older adults, however, changes in self-reported sleep quality were largely associated with changes in dysfunctional sleep-related beliefs. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that self-reported sleep quality and dysfunctional sleep-related beliefs were not affected by the COVID-19 lockdown in young or older adults. They also suggest that it might be useful to consider changes in dysfunctional sleep-related beliefs to better capture the impact of stressful events (such as a period of quarantine) on sleep quality, especially where older adults are concerned.

Emotional, Psychological, and Cognitive Changes Throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy: Is There an Advantage of Being an Older Adult?

Introduction: The study examined age-related differences between young and older adults' emotional and psychological experience as well as cognitive functioning throughout different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. Materials and Methods: Participants were interviewed by phone when confined at home during the national lockdown (T1-May 2020; N = 138 young adults; N = 119 older adults) and after the first wave of contagions, when restrictions were discarded (T2-September 2020; N = 52 young adults; N = 59 older adults). A sub-sample also participated in a third assessment (T3-December 2020). Participants completed questionnaires assessing their emotional and psychological functioning (i.e., positive and negative affect, perceived social and emotional loneliness, resilience) along with memory tasks (Backward Digit Span task and words list recall). Results: Although individuals reported less positive and more negative emotions during the lockdown than at T2, results showed that older adults displayed overall fewer negative emotions and greater resilience than young adults. The latter were those who reported feeling more emotionally lonely when compared to their older counterpart during the lockdown than afterward. Older adults' advantage in emotional and psychological functioning was also confirmed 7 months after the national lockdown. Only age-related differences in favor of young adults for the memory tasks were found. The measures of interest were also susceptible to mood and/or concerns of COVID-19 effects. Discussion: These findings further highlight the age-related advantage of older adults managing the emotional and psychological experience even when facing an unexpected, prolonged, and unpredictable, stressful life event such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Influence of Metacognitive Beliefs on Sleeping Difficulties in Older Adults.

BACKGROUND: Sleep has a crucial role in physical and mental health across the lifespan. In addition to an excessive intrusive sleep-related cognitive activity, another factor that may influence sleep quality in old age is sleep-related metacognitive activity, such as metacognitive beliefs about sleeping difficulties, and night-time thought control strategies. Here, we aimed to assess the relationship between sleep-related metacognitive beliefs, thought control strategies, excessive intrusive cognitive activities, such as dysfunctional beliefs about sleep, or objective and/or perceived sleep disruptions in elderly people. METHOD: Sleep-related metacognitive beliefs, thought control strategies, and dysfunctional beliefs related to sleep and perceived sleeping difficulties were assessed with several questionnaires in 50 older adults with no symptoms of dementia, depression, or insomnia. Objective measures of sleep were also collected over 7 days of actigraphic recordings. RESULTS: Regression analyses showed that subjective sleeping difficulties were explained by sleep-related metacognitive activity, and particularly by metacognitive beliefs about sleeping difficulties. Interestingly, objective sleep measures were not associated with metacognitive activity. In addition, self-reported poor sleepers had stronger metacognitive beliefs about sleeping difficulties and a longer sleep onset latency than self-reported good sleepers. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings underscore the influence of metacognitive activity, and sleep-related metacognitive beliefs in particular, on the perception of sleeping difficulties in older adults.