Memory Self-Efficacy and Memory Performance in Older Males

The study reported here was a secondary analysis of data on 157 males from a larger study of predictors of memory performance in community-dwelling elders. The males' average age was 76 years, with 13 years of education and a Mini-Mental State Exam score of 26. Measures included depression, memory performance, metamemory, and memory self-efficacy. An unusual finding was the multimodal distribution of memory self-efficacy strength scores. Using a median split, the sample was divided into low and high memory self-efficacy groups. The high efficacy group were significantly younger, had larger scores on capacity (+ = high capacity) and change (+ = greater stability). These findings provide new evidence that the memory self-efficacy of aging males influences their perceptions of cognitive performance related to memory.