An examination of younger and older adults' age preferences.

Research suggests that how people feel about aging can contribute to their later physical, cognitive, and mental health. In two studies, we examined younger (ages 18-30) and older adults' (ages 61-70) views about aging by asking them to rate the extent to which they would find it desirable to be various ages between 0 and 120. Participants also indicated both their ideal age (the age at which they would most like to be) and their subjective age (how old they generally feel). Consistent with the previous studies, younger adults' ideal age was significantly younger than older adults' ideal age. Younger adults' subjective age was slightly older than their chronological age, whereas older adults' subjective age was slightly younger than their chronological age. Of interest was the finding that, for older adults, their desirability ratings of various ages gradually decreased after age 35. In contrast, younger adults' desirability ratings decreased precipitously after age 20 and remained low from age 45 through age 90. Results suggest that older adults view middle to later life in a more nuanced manner than younger adults, who viewed middle and later life as being undesirable and homogenous. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The Relationship Between Older Adults' Subjective Age and Perceived Effort on Cognitive Tasks.

BACKGROUND: Although engagement in cognitively-demanding activities is beneficial for older adults, research suggests that older adults may be less motivated to engage in these types of activities because of the increased age-related costs associated with task engagement and their perceptions of the task demands. METHODS: Across three studies, we investigated if older adults' subjective age predicted their perceptions of effort over the course of a working memory task. Younger and older adults reported their subjective age and then completed an increasingly difficult series of working memory trials, indicating perceived task demands and effort after each trial. RESULTS: Results from all three studies showed that there was no age difference in performance or in perceptions of task difficulty, contrary to previous results. Also, there was no significant association between older adults' subjective age and perceived effort, suggesting that subjective age may not be a reliable predictor of perceptions of task demands in older adults. DISCUSSION: Participant characteristics and the testing environment may play a role in determining the relationship between subjective age and perceived effort.

Metacognitive errors in the classroom: The role of variability of past performance on exam prediction accuracy.

Students often make incorrect predictions about their exam performance, with the lowest-performing students showing the greatest inaccuracies in their predictions. The reasons why low-performing students make inaccurate predictions are not fully understood. In two studies, we tested the hypothesis that low-performing students erroneously predict their exam performance in part because their past performance varies considerably, yielding unreliable data from which to make their predictions. In contrast, high-performing students tend to have consistently high past performance that they can rely on to make relatively accurate predictions of future test performance. Results showed that across different exams (Study 1) and different courses (Study 2), low-performing students had more variable past performance than high-performing students. Further, results from Study 2 showed that variability in past course performance (but not past exam performance) was associated with poor calibration. Results suggest that variability in past performance may be one factor that contributes to low-performing students' erroneous performance predictions.

Statistical Model of Dynamic Markers of the Alzheimer's Pathological Cascade.

Objectives: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive disease reflected in markers across assessment modalities, including neuroimaging, cognitive testing, and evaluation of adaptive function. Identifying a single continuum of decline across assessment modalities in a single sample is statistically challenging because of the multivariate nature of the data. To address this challenge, we implemented advanced statistical analyses designed specifically to model complex data across a single continuum. Method: We analyzed data from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI; N = 1,056), focusing on indicators from the assessments of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) volume, fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) metabolic activity, cognitive performance, and adaptive function. Item response theory was used to identify the continuum of decline. Then, through a process of statistical scaling, indicators across all modalities were linked to that continuum and analyzed. Results: Findings revealed that measures of MRI volume, FDG-PET metabolic activity, and adaptive function added measurement precision beyond that provided by cognitive measures, particularly in the relatively mild range of disease severity. More specifically, MRI volume, and FDG-PET metabolic activity become compromised in the very mild range of severity, followed by cognitive performance and finally adaptive function. Conclusion: Our statistically derived models of the AD pathological cascade are consistent with existing theoretical models.

The effect of cognitive testing and feedback on older adults' subjective age.

Subjective age, or how old a person feels, is an important measure of self-perception that is associated with consequential cognitive and health outcomes. Recent research suggests that subjective age is affected by certain situations, including cognitive testing contexts. The current study examined whether cognitive testing and positive performance feedback affect subjective age and subsequent cognitive performance. Older adults took a series of neuropsychological and cognitive tests and subjective age was measured at various time points. Participants also either received positive or no feedback on an initial cognitive task, an analogies task. Results showed that participants felt older over the course of the testing session, particularly after taking a working memory test, relative to baseline. Positive feedback did not significantly mitigate this subjective aging effect. Results suggest that subjective age is malleable and that it can be affected by standard cognitive and neuropsychological test conditions.

Metacognition in the classroom: The association between students' exam predictions and their desired grades.

Students are overconfident when making grade predictions, and worse, the lowest-performing students are generally the most overconfident. Because metacognitive accuracy is associated with academic performance, multiple studies have attempted to improve metacognitive accuracy with mixed results. However, these studies may be of limited use because we do not understand the types of information university students use to make performance predictions. The current studies examined the possibility that university students' predictions are associated with their desires-the grade they want to receive. Studies 1-4 demonstrated that students' desired grades were strongly associated with their grade predictions across different courses, universities, and measurement strategies. Study 4 also showed that, if warned about the previous results, students could reduce their reliance on their desired grades and improve the accuracy of their predictions relative to control. Together, results demonstrated that students' exam predictions are associated with their desired grades.