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The authors examined life-span differences in the maintenance of skilled episodic memory performance by assessing 100 individuals (10-11, 12-13, 2 1-26, and 66-79 years old) 11 months after termination of an intensive multisession mnemonic training program (Y. Brehmer, S-C. Li, V. Müller, T. von Oertzen, & U. Lindenberger, 2007). Skill maintenance was tested in 2 follow-up sessions, the first without and the second with mnemonic reinstruction. Younger and older adults' average performance levels were stable across time. In contrast, both younger and older children's memory performance improved beyond originally attained levels. Older adults' performance improved from the first to the second follow-up session, presumably profiting from instruction-induced skill reactivation. Results suggest that (a) skill maintenance is largely intact in healthy older adults, (b) older adults need environmental support to fully reactivate their former skill levels (cf. F. I. M. Craik, 1983), and (c) children adapt a skill learned 11 months ago to their increasing cognitive capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Memory plasticity, or the ability to improve one's memory performance through instruction and training, is known to decline during adulthood. However, direct comparisons among middle childhood, adulthood, and old age are lacking. The authors examined memory plasticity in an age-comparative multisession training study. One hundred and eight participants ages 9-10, 11-12, 20-25, and 65-78 years learned and practiced an imagery-based mnemonic technique to encode and retrieve words by location cues. Individuals of all ages were able to acquire and optimize use of the technique. Older adults and children showed similar baseline performance and improvement through mnemonic instruction. However, in line with tenets from life-span psychology (P. B. Baltes, 1987), children profited more from mnemonic practice and reached higher levels of final performance than did older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign language learning in older age has been proposed as a promising avenue for combatting age-related cognitive decline. We tested this hypothesis in a randomized controlled study in a sample of 160 healthy older participants (aged 65-75 years) who were randomized to 11 weeks of either language learning or relaxation training. Participants in the language learning condition obtained some basic knowledge in the new language (Italian), but between-groups differences in improvements on latent factors of verbal intelligence, spatial intelligence, working memory, item memory, or associative memory were negligible. We argue that this is not due to either poor measurement, low course intensity, or low statistical power, but that basic studies in foreign languages in older age are likely to have no or trivially small effects on cognitive abilities. We place this in the context of the cognitive training and engagement literature and conclude that while foreign language learning may expand the behavioral repertoire, it does little to improve cognitive processing abilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The engagement in cognitively stimulating activities has been found to be associated with slower rates of cognitive decline in old age. In which type of activities people engage in may depend on their personality traits, which thus might have an impact on later cognitive fitness. To study these potential links, we examined the associations between Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness; different types of leisure activities (e.g., social, mental, physical); and cognitive ability levels and decline in older adults. Analyses were based on a sample of young–old (60–72 years old; n = 1,609) and old–old (78 years or older; n = 1,085) adults from the Swedish National Study on Aging and Care in Kungsholmen, who participated in up to five repeated measurements of cognitive abilities spanning 12 years. We used latent growth curve models to estimate cognitive levels and decline, as well as the correlations with initial personality trait levels and leisure activity engagement. In both groups, lower Neuroticism, higher Extraversion, and higher Openness levels were moderately associated with stronger engagement in all types of activities. Lower Neuroticism, higher Extraversion, and a more activity lifestyle were weakly to moderately associated with slower cognitive decline in the old–old age group. There, personality traits and activities explained 9.3% of the variance in cognitive decline after controlling for age, sex, education, and chronic diseases (which explained 9.0%). Taken together, this study provides further evidence for the connection between personality traits, activity engagement, and later cognitive decline in old age. Public Significance Statement: This study suggests that older adults (78+ years old) who are more extraverted, open, and emotionally stable have a more active lifestyle and show a slower cognitive decline in the following years. Independent of the personality traits, an active social, mental, or physical lifestyle was also associated with a slower cognitive decline for this age group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been suggested that volunteering leads to increases in well-being, particularly in older and retiring adults, and that volunteering could be used as a public health intervention to increase well-being. However, the causal relationship has been questioned. We investigated the association between voluntary work and life satisfaction in a bivariate dual-change score model, using 4 years of longitudinal data from 1,123 participants from the Health, Aging and Retirement Transitions in Sweden (HEARTS) study. Both the frequency of volunteering and the level of life satisfaction increased across the retirement transition. However, baseline life satisfaction and volunteering were only marginally associated. Further, the coupling parameters suggest that higher levels of volunteering were followed by decreases in life satisfaction and that higher levels of life satisfaction were followed by increases in volunteering. These findings suggest that increasing levels of volunteering might not be a fruitful strategy for improving life satisfaction for all older adults-if people engage too much in voluntary work, it might even be detrimental for their life satisfaction. More research is needed to better understand when and for whom increased levels of volunteering might have positive effects on life satisfaction. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]