What Did You Do Today? Variability in Daily Activities is Related to Variability in Daily Cognitive Performance

Allison A M Bielak, Jacqueline Mogle and Martin J Sliwinski

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2019, vol. 74, issue 5, 764-771

Abstract: Objectives Are the activities we do each day related to fluctuations in our daily cognitive performance? Positive longitudinal associations between cognitive, physical, and social activities and cognitive ability in adulthood are well established. However little is known about how this relationship may operate at the daily level. MethodsCommunity-dwelling participants 60–90 years of age (M = 69.41; n = 146) reported their activity participation and completed cognitive tests online for 7 consecutive days. Results Multilevel models showed that daily activities covaried with daily cognitive performance, indicating fluctuations in the activities that a person engaged in across the week were associated with corresponding changes in their daily speed, memory, and reasoning. This was strongest for social activities where on days when individuals engaged in more routine activities with social-private characteristics than usual, they had higher memory scores and responded faster. Discussion This information could be particularly relevant to the daily lives of older adults, especially those experiencing cognitive decline.

Keywords: Activity; Cognition; Exercise; Longitudinal change; Social interaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbx145 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:geronb:v:74:y:2019:i:5:p:764-771.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B is currently edited by Psychological Sciences - S. Duke Han, PhD and Social Sciences - Jessica A Kelley, PhD, FGSA

More articles in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B from The Gerontological Society of America Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().