Background and Objective: Within-person variability in cognitive performance has emerged as a promising indicator of cognitive health with potential to distinguish normative and pathological cognitive aging. We use a smartphone-based digital health approach with ecological momentary assessments (EMA) to examine differences in variability in performance among older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and those who were cognitively unimpaired (CU).Method: A sample of 311 systematically recruited, community-dwelling older adults from the Einstein Aging Study (Mean age = 77.46 years, SD = 4.86, Range = 70–90; 67% Female; 45% Non-Hispanic White, 40% Non-Hispanic Black) completed neuropsychological testing, neurological assessments, and self-reported questionnaires. One hundred individuals met Jak/Bondi criteria for MCI. All participants performed mobile cognitive tests of processing speed, visual short-term memory binding, and spatial working memory on a smartphone device up to six times daily for 16 days, yielding up to 96 assessments per person. We employed heterogeneous variance multilevel models using log-linear prediction of residual variance to simultaneously assess cognitive status differences in mean performance, within-day variability, and day-to-day variability. We further tested whether these differences were robust to the influence of environmental contexts under which assessments were performed.Results: Individuals with MCI exhibited greater within-day variability than those who were CU on ambulatory assessments that measure processing speed (p < 0.001) and visual short-term memory binding (p < 0.001) performance but not spatial working memory. Cognitive status differences in day-to-day variability were present only for the measure of processing speed. Associations between cognitive status and within-day variability in performance were robust to adjustment for sociodemographic and contextual variables.Conclusion: Our smartphone-based digital health approach facilitates the ambulatory assessment of cognitive performance in older adults and the capacity to differentiate individuals with MCI from those who were CU. Results suggest variability in mobile cognitive performance is sensitive to MCI and exhibits dissociative patterns by timescale and cognitive domain. Variability in processing speed and visual short-term memory binding performance may provide specific detection of MCI. The 16-day smartphone-based EMA measurement burst offers novel opportunity to leverage digital technology to measure performance variability across frequent assessments for studying cognitive health and identifying early clinical manifestations of cognitive impairment.

Perceived control is an important psychosocial resource for health and well-being across the lifespan. Global control (i.e., overall perceived control) decreases over time in studies following people every few years to upwards of 10 years. Changes across wider intervals of the lifespan, however, have yet to be examined. Further, how perceived control changes for specific aspects of daily life, such as stressors, remains comparatively less clear. Using data from the Midlife in the United States National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE, N = 1,940, M = 56.25 years, SD = 12.20, 57% female), we examined longitudinal changes in global control across 20 years and daily stressor control across 10 years. Global control was assessed in the first wave of the NSDE (∼1996). In follow-up waves, conducted in ∼2008 and ∼2017, participants again not only reported their global control but also reported their perceived control over stressors they experience across 8 consecutive days. Longitudinal analyses revealed differential change trajectories for global control across 20 years and stressor control across 10 years (ps < .001). Global control declined for younger and older adults but stayed relatively stable for individuals in midlife. The rate of decline in daily stressor control was steeper than the decline in global control and did not vary by age at baseline. In addition, declines were amplified among individuals with higher global control at baseline. Results suggest that daily stressor control is a specific aspect of control beliefs that follows a different rate of change than global control. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Background: Stress plays a pivotal role in physical health. Although many studies have linked stress reactivity (daily within-person associations between stress exposure and negative affect) to physical health outcomes, we know surprisingly little about how changes in stress reactivity are related to changes in physical health. Purpose: The current study examines how change in stress reactivity over 18 years is related to changes in functional health and chronic health conditions. Methods: Three measurement bursts from the National Study of Daily Experiences (N = 2880; 55% female) each included daily measures of stressor exposure and negative affect across 8 consecutive days, yielding 33 944 days of data across 18 years of adulthood. At each wave, participants reported their functional health limitations (ie, basic activities of daily living [ADL] and instrumental activities of daily living [IADL]) and chronic health conditions. Multilevel structural equation models simultaneously modeled stress reactivity at Level 1, longitudinal changes in stress reactivity at Level 2, and the association between changes in stress reactivity and changes in functional limitations and chronic conditions at Level 3. Results: Higher levels of stress reactivity at baseline were associated with more functional health limitations 18 years later (ADLs: Est. = 0.90, P = .001; IADLs: Est. = 1.78, P < .001). Furthermore, individuals who increased more in their stress reactivity across the 18-year period also showed greater increases in their functional health limitations (ADLs: Est. = 4.02, P = .017; IADLs: Est. = 5.74, P < .001) and chronic conditions (Est. = 11.17, P = .008). Conclusions: These findings highlight the strong connection between health and stress in daily life, and how they travel together across adulthood.

Theoretical perspectives on aging suggest that when people experience declines in later life, they often selectively focus on maintaining aspects of their lives that are most meaningful and important to them. The social domain is one of these selected areas. The current study examines people’s reports of control over their daily stressors over ten years, predicting that the declines in control that are often observed in later life will not be observed for stressors involving interpersonal conflict and tensions with social partners. Adults ranging from 35- to 86-years-old at baseline (N=1,940), from the National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE), reported control over interpersonal and non-interpersonal daily stressors across eight consecutive days at two time points, about ten years apart. Findings from multilevel models indicate that for non-interpersonal stressors, perceived control decreased over time. In contrast, perceived control over interpersonal conflicts and tensions remained robust over time. No cross-sectional baseline age differences were found for levels of interpersonal and non-interpersonal stressor control. Results are consistent with socioemotional selectivity and underscore the importance of interpersonal relationships in later adulthood. Understanding how people select and preserve certain aspects of control in their daily life can help guide efforts toward maximizing gains and minimizing losses in domains that matter most to people as they grow older.

Background: The development of mobile technology with substantial computing power (ie, smartphones) has enabled the adaptation of performance-based cognitive assessments to remote administration and novel intensive longitudinal study designs (eg, measurement burst designs). Although an “ambulatory” cognitive assessment paradigm may provide new research opportunities, the adaptation of conventional measures to a mobile format conducive to intensive repeated measurement involves balancing measurement precision, administration time, and procedural consistency. Objective: Across 3 studies, we adapted “complex span” tests of working memory capacity (WMC) for ultra-brief, smartphone-based administration and examined their reliability, sufficiency, and associations with full-length, laboratory-based computerized administrations. Methods: In a laboratory-based setting, study 1 examined associations between ultra-brief smartphone adaptations of the operation span, symmetry span, and rotation span tasks and full-length computerized versions. In study 2, we conducted a 4-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study (4 assessments per day), where we examined the reliability of ultra-brief, ambulatory administrations of each task. In study 3, we conducted a 7-day EMA study (5 assessments per day) involving the ultra-brief rotation span task, where we examined reliability in the absence of extensive onboarding and training. Results: Measurement models in study 1 suggest that comparable estimates of latent WMC can be recovered from ultra-brief complex span task performance on smartphones. Significant correlations between the ultra-brief tasks and respective full-length versions were observed in study 1 and 2, ranging from r=0.4 to r=0.57. Results of study 2 and study 3 suggest that reliable between-person estimates of operation span, symmetry span, rotation span, and latent WMC can be obtained in 2-3 ultra-brief administrations (equivalent to <1 day of testing in an EMA study design). The results of study 3 replicated our findings, showing that reliable between-person estimates of rotation span may be obtained in as few as 2 ultra-brief administrations in the absence of extensive onboarding and training. In addition, the modification of task parameterization for study 3 improved the estimates of reliability of within-person change. Conclusions: Ultra-brief administration of complex span tasks on smartphones in a measurement burst design can generate highly reliable cross-sectional estimates of WMC. Considerations for future mobile cognitive assessment designs and parameterizations are discussed.

Most studies examining age differences in coping across adulthood come from cross-sectional studies and focus on the broader categories of problem- and emotion-focused coping. We aimed to establish a factor structure for coping items used in a national, longitudinal study of aging (MIDUS) and examine age patterns in coping strategies over 10 years. We performed exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and factorial invariance testing. Next we conducted a series of multilevel models for each coping factor with participants from waves II and III of the MIDUS study (N = 2,661, M_age = 55, 58% women, 84% White). We found a four-factor solution: instrumental action; denial/disengagement; positive reappraisal; focus and venting of emotions. Invariance was established across time and age. At baseline, age was positively associated with the use of three strategies, though younger adults used more focus and venting of emotions. There was an overall decrease over 10 years in use of all strategies, which was moderated by age. Positive reappraisal declined more steeply among midlife participants, whereas the remaining strategies declined more for older participants. Results highlight the multi-dimensionality of MIDUS coping items and underscores the import of age in understanding changes in coping across midlife and older adulthood.