Predispositional Engagement, Activity Engagement, and Cognition among Older Adults

ABSTRACT

We investigated interrelationships between the predisposition toward approaching experiences in a mindful and creative way, participation in specific activities, and cognition among older adults. Participants were administered a battery measuring cognition (i.e., working memory, processing speed, divergent thinking, inductive reasoning, visuo-spatial processing), activity level, and the predisposition towards mental engagement (Need for Cognition, Mindfulness, and Openness to Experience). Results indicated that predispositional engagement and activity engagement are distinct constructs that independently contribute to different aspects of fluid ability, highlighting the importance of considering both the predisposition toward mental engagement as well as the habitual tendency to participate in activities when exploring principles of cognitive optimization.

Keywords:

• Cognition
• Personality
• Activity
• Engagement
• Aging

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are grateful for support from the National Institute on Aging (R03 AG024551 and R01 AG029475) and the Roybal Center for Healthy Minds (P30 AG023101). We also wish to thank Adam Joncich, Axel Larson, Terri Lundbom, Theresa Pace, Summer Porter, and Nathan Stine for all of their help with participant testing, scoring, and data entry. Finally, thanks to Matthew Shake and Shoshana Hindin for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article.

Notes

¹This sequential method corrects for the previous number of tests rather than all the tests in the set (i.e., p_i ≤ alpha/(1+k−i), where k is the number of comparisons and i is the order of comparisons), providing a more powerful alternative to the simple one-step Bonferroni procedure (i.e., alpha/k, where k is the number of comparisons).

²The negatively worded items had a tendency to load onto separate factors rather than contribute uniquely to the construct of interest. Individuals with lower levels of education or lower verbal abilities may not be able to recognize or comprehend the reverse nature of items, causing separate factors to emerge when none exists (e.g., Cordery & Sevastos, 1993). We explored this issue by removing individuals with Mini-mental State Examination (MMSE) scores less than or equal to 23 (M = 28.0, SD = 1.7, range 20–30) and those performing in the lowest quartile on the Extended Range Vocabulary test (maximum score equals 24; M = 14.7, SD = 4.9, range = .08–24). Our analyses were not significantly altered when excluding these individuals, such that the factor structure remained virtually unchanged, with the reverse coded items loading onto separate factors. Therefore, these individuals were retained in the analysis.

³A similar pattern of outcomes emerged when the order of entry for activity and predispositional engagement was reversed.