Memory And Personality Development in Adulthood: Evidence From Four Longitudinal Studies

May 09, 2022

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Personality traits have been related to concurrent memory performance in terms of cistache intake. Most studies, however, have focused on personality as a predictor of memory.cistanche tubulosa memory study show comparatively less is known about whether memory is related to personality development across adulthood. Using 4 samples, the present study tests whether memory level and change are related to personality change in adulthood. Method: Participants were drawn from 2 waves of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study Graduates (WLSG; N = 3,232, mean age = 64.28, SD = 0.65) and Wisconsin Longitudinal Study Siblings (WLSS; N = 1,570, mean age = 63.52, SD = 6.69) samples, the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS; N = 1,901, mean age = 55.43, SD = 10.98), and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS; N = 6,038, mean age = 65.47, SD = 8.28). Immediate and delayed recall and the 5 major personality traits were assessed at baseline and follow-up.


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Results: There was cistanche extract in the associations across samples. A meta-analysis of latent change in the four samples indicated that lower baseline memory performance was related to an increase in neuroticism (B = −0.002; 95% CI = −0.004, −0.0008) and a decrease in agreeableness (B = 0.004; 95% CI = 0.002, 0.007) and conscientiousness (B = 0.005; 95% CI = 0.0008, 0.010). In addition, declines in memory were related to steeper declines in extraversion (B = 0.06; 95% CI = 0.003, 0.11), openness (B = 0.04; 95% CI = 0.007, 0.069), and conscientiousness (B = 0.05; 95% CI = 0.019, 0.09). Discussion: The present study indicates that poor memory and declines in memory over time are related to maladaptive personality change. These associations, however, were small and inconsistent across samples.


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Memory function is a crucial determinant of healthy aging. Poor memory and decline in memory function are related to a range of worse outcomes in old age, including higher functional limitations (Aigbogun et al., 2017; Zahodne et al., 2013), frai (Aggarwal et al., 2005; Josefsson et al., in press) and mortality (Sabia et al., 2010) for the micronized purified flavonoid fraction. Despite these associations, little is known about the extent to which memory may be related to changes in individuals' relatively enduring patterns of thoughts, feeling, and behaviors, that is their personality (Gale et al., 2017; Robertson et al., 2014), and depressive symptoms (Jajodia and Borders, 2011). Furthermore, a decline in memory function predicts a higher risk of incident dementia traits. Existing research has focused mostly on personality as a predictor of memory, which has shown that higher neuroticism is related to lower memory performance, whereas higher conscientiousness and openness have been associated with better memory in adults (Caselli et al., 2016; Chapman et al., 2017; Hock et al., 2014; Klaming et al., 2017; Luchetti et al., 2016; Sutin, Stephan, Luchetti, et al., 2019).


We reported previously that higher neuroticism and lower openness are related to worse memory performance assessed 20 years later in the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study and the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) (Stephan et al., 2020) and that higher neuroticism and lower openness and conscientiousness are related to a steeper decline in memory over time in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS; Luchetti et al., 2016; Stephan et al., 2020). Comparatively less is known about whether memory is related to changes in personality traits. Research on the factors that may contribute to personality development is crucially informative for theories of personality (Denissen et al., 2019; McCrae et al., 2000; Specht et al., 2014). Several biological, behavioral, and health-related factors have recently been associated with personality development across adulthood.


Beyond demographic factors, biological dysfunction, physical inactivity, smoking, alcohol consumption, depressive symptoms, sensory deficits, physical impairments, and frailty have been related to maladaptive personality changes across adulthood, such as increases in neuroticism and steeper declines in extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness (Allen et al., 2017; Hakulinen and Jokela, 2019; Hakulinen et al., 2015; Letzring et al., 2014; Mueller et al., 2018; Stephan et al., 2014, 2016, 2019; Stephan, Sutin, Bosselut, et al., 2017; Stephan, Sutin, Canada, et al. 2017). Although there is some evidence that cognition is related to personality development in older adults, the evidence for taking cistanche tea is beneficial for health and body



In a recent 12-year longitudinal study, lower cognitive abilities (including processing speed, crystallized, and fluid intelligence) were related to decreases in extraversion and openness and increases in neuroticism over time and were not related to changes in agreeableness and conscientiousness (Wettstein et al., 2017). In contrast, Wettstein et al. (in press) found that higher cognitive abilities were related to declines in agreeableness and conscientiousness over 20 years. In addition, health moderated these relationships. Low cognitive abilities were related to increases in agreeableness and stability in conscientiousness among individuals with very good or good health, whereas they were associated with a steeper decline in both traits among individuals with poor health (Wettstein et al., in press).


Furthermore, lower cognitive abilities were associated with an increase in neuroticism among individuals with poor health (Wettstein et al., 2017). There was no relationship between changes in extraversion and openness. Another recent study that assessed only neuroticism found poorer cognitive performance (including picture completion, block design, spatial ability, information, and similarities task) was related to increasing neuroticism over a 12-year period (Aschwanden et al., 2018). Other studies have found that higher IQ at age 79 attenuated the decline of conscientiousness among older individuals from age 81 to 87 and was unrelated to change in neuroticism, extraversion, openness, and agreeableness. (Mõttus et al., 2012).


In contrast, single measures of perceptual speed were found to be unrelated to personality development (Mueller et al., 2016). Theoretical models on personality and health focus mostly on the predictive role of personality for health and cognitive outcomes (Friedman and Kern, 2014). However, reciprocal relationships are also likely to exist. Despite inconsistencies across the previous studies, there are theoretical reasons to hypothesize that memory function could contribute to personality development in older adulthood. First, memory may have a direct role in the basic processes and tendencies that are core aspects of the traits (e.g., memory is crucial for punctuality and persistence on tasks, which are core aspects of conscientiousness), and changes in memory may lead to changes in the traits themselves.


cistanche tubulosa memory improving benefits for human health. Memory problems, for example, may increase anxiety and stress both because it is more difficult to accomplish everyday tasks and because there may be worry that others will notice the difficulty remembering things. Such anxiety and stress may increase overall emotional instability over time. Individuals with lower memory performance may also experience more difficulties in planning and organization and be less persistent in their daily tasks and activities resulting in decreases in conscientiousness over time. Memory problems may further restrict individuals to familiar and routine activity that consolidates into lower openness. In addition to potential direct effects, memory may have an indirect effect on trait changes.


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Indeed, poor memory has implications for a range of factors that have been related to personality development. For example, poor memory is related to functional decline (Zahodne et al., 2013), frailty (Gale et al., 2017), and depressive symptoms (Jajodia and Borders, 2011) that have been implicated in increased neuroticism, decreased conscientiousness, and openness over time (Hakulinen et al., 2015; Mueller et al., 2016, 2018; Stephan, Sutin, Canada, et al., 2017.). Whether through direct or indirect pathways, a link between memory function and personality change can provide a broader understanding of the factors associated with personality development across adulthood. This research is thus exploratory in that our rationale and hypotheses are based on the personality and memory literature and informed by life-span models of personality but not a theoretical framework that articulates specifically how personality and memory are related over time. The present study aims to examine the association between cognition and personality change in adulthood.


Part of the heterogeneity in the results of previous studies could be due to the variety of cognitive tasks used and the differences in statistical approach. To reduce heterogeneity, in this study, we focused on one key cognitive domain: episodic memory. To increase replicability (Graham et al., 2017), a coordinated analysis of four samples was conducted to test Journals of Gerontology: PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCES, 2021, Vol. 76, No. 1 89the study hypotheses. Specifically, in all samples, we used the same Latent Change Score (LCS) model to test whether (a) memory level and (b) change in memory level are associated with change in personality. The estimates from each sample were then combined with a meta-analysis. It was hypothesized that lower memory function and worsening memory would be related to increased neuroticism and decreased conscientiousness and openness over time.

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This article is extracted from Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences cite as: J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci, 2021, Vol. 76, No. 1, 88–97 doi:10.1093/geronb/gbaa086 Advance Access publication September 8, 2020




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