Correlated change in memory complaints and memory performance across 12 years

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Gerontology
• Longitudinal Research

Background:

• Memory complaints are common in aging populations.
• The relationship between subjective memory complaints and objective memory performance is complex.
• Previous research often focuses on cross-sectional associations, potentially missing dynamic changes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the longitudinal relationship between memory complaints and memory performance.
• To determine whether analyzing the mutual development or concurrent levels provides a better assessment.
• To understand how changes in memory complaints relate to changes in memory performance over time.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal study with 500 participants (mean age 62.9 years at baseline).
• Data collected at three time points over 12 years.
• Second-order latent growth curve modeling used to analyze levels and slopes of memory performance and complaints after establishing factorial invariance.

Main Results:

• A significant positive correlation was found between memory performance and memory complaints.
• The correlation between the slopes (rate of change) of memory performance and memory complaints was three times larger than the correlation between their levels (at a given time point).
• This indicates that the commonality in change over time is a stronger indicator of the relationship.

Conclusions:

• Assessing the dynamic interplay and mutual development of memory complaints and performance is more informative than cross-sectional assessments.
• Longitudinal analysis reveals that changes in subjective memory experiences are strongly linked to changes in objective memory capabilities.
• Findings underscore the value of longitudinal designs in cognitive aging research to capture developmental trajectories.