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This study aimed to examine metacognitive abilities in individuals diagnosed with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) by using online metacognitive measures during cognitive tasks. A total of 100 participants were enrolled, all aged 50 or older (mean age = 61.98; SD = 6.27), and with a minimum of six years of education (mean = 14.95; SD = 2.94). The sample included 50 individuals with aMCI (34 females) and 50 healthy controls (HC) (33 females). Both groups underwent metacognitive versions of memory tasks (Doors and People) and executive functions tasks (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test). Metacognition was assessed through confidence ratings given after each answer (referred to as metacognitive monitoring) and the accuracy of the participants’ decisions to include or exclude answers from their final scores (known as metacognitive control). The results showed that although individuals with aMCI were aware of their cognitive limitations—evidenced by their lower confidence ratings across all tasks—they still exhibited overconfidence relative to their actual performance. Moreover, they included a greater number of incorrect answers in their final scores compared to the healthy control group. These findings suggest that while individuals with aMCI retain some level of awareness, their self-evaluations appear to lack precision. This observation was consistent across both types of cognitive tasks. The results underscore the need for additional research to better understand metacognition in MCI as well as the interplay between metacognitive monitoring and control.

With the aging of the population, a key concern of both societies and health services is to keep the population cognitively healthy until the maximum age limit. It is a well-known fact that vascular aging has a negative effect on the cognitive skills of adults, putting them at greater risk of developing dementia. The present longitudinal study aimed to evaluate the main dimensions of cognition in two pathological groups with different health profiles: a group of adults with vascular risk factors (VRF) (n = 35) and a group of adults with vascular risk factors and mild cognitive impairment (VRF + MCI) (n = 35). The two groups were matched in age, education, and gender. They were assessed with extensive neuropsychological testing at three different times with a distance of about 8 months between them; the assessment regarded executive functions, memory capacity, and Theory of Mind abilities. The analyses carried out were (a) mixed-measures ANOVA, (b) repeated measures ANOVA, and (c) ANOVA. The findings showed that global cognitive status and short-term memory are the main cognitive abilities that decline in community dwelling people bearing VRF. Hence, this group of adults should be examined at least every 2 years for this decline. As regards people with both VRF and MCI, it seems that the assessment of Theory of Mind abilities can better capture their further impairment. Global cognitive status, task/rule switching function, and long-term memory (delayed verbal recall) were revealed as the abilities that clearly and steadily differentiate VRF people with and without MCI.

Episodic memory is the type of memory that allows the recollection of personal experiences containing information on what has happened and, also, where and when it happened. Because of its sensitivity to neurodegenerative diseases and the aging of the brain, it is considered a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease dementia (ADD). The objective of the present study was to examine episodic memory in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and ADD. Patients with the diagnosis of early aMCI, late aMCI, and mild ADD were evaluated using the Doors and People tool which consists of four subtests examining different aspects of episodic memory. The statistical analysis with receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC) showed the discriminant potential and the cutoffs of every subtest. Overall, the evaluation of episodic memory with the Doors and People tool can discriminate with great sensitivity between the different groups of people with AD and, especially, early aMCI, late aMCI, and mild ADD patients.

Episodic buffer (EB), a key component of working memory, seems to have a rather complicated function as part of binding processes. Recent papers on the field claim that binding processes of working memory (WM) are assisted by attention and executive functions. On the same page, vascular pathology is gaining more ground as the main underlying cause for many brain pathologies. Hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, obesity, diabetes, lack of exercise and smoking are the most common risk factors that people of all ages suffer from and constitute the main vascular risk factors responsible for a possible decline in executive functions and attention. Thus, this research is an attempt to examine the relation between the binding functions of WM and the existence of vascular risk factors via a computerized test focusing on feature binding. The study comprised adults (n = 229) with and without vascular risk factors. The main tools used were a biomarker questionnaire and a feature binding test (FBT). The results showed that participants who report suffering from one or more vascular risk factors had significantly lower performance on specific subtasks of the FBT in comparison to the participants who were healthy. This allows us to assume that there might be a positive association between feature binding and a vascular risk profile in adults, and such a test could be a useful diagnostic tool for early cognitive impairment due to incipient vascular pathology.