Characterizing Cognitive Dispersion and Its Correlates Across the Adult Lifespan in MIDUS

Laura M Klepacz, Eric S Cerino and Jeremy M Hamm

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2025, vol. 80, issue 6, 390-401

Abstract: ObjectivesAlthough research has shown that higher levels of within-person variability across cognitive tasks (dispersion) are associated with cognitive decline in clinical samples, little is known about dispersion in comparatively younger, nonclinical, and national samples. A better understanding of dispersion is needed to elucidate for whom and under what circumstances dispersion can be used as a reliable indicator of cognitive health.MethodWe used data from the Midlife in the United States Study (MIDUS; n = 2,229; Mage = 56 years, range = 33–83; 56% female) to: (a) characterize dispersion and its cross-sectional correlates in a nonclinical, adult lifespan sample and (b) examine changes in dispersion over time to determine for whom changes in dispersion may reflect better or worse cognitive aging.ResultsCorrelations showed higher levels of dispersion were associated with higher levels of mean performance at both waves (rs = 0.28–0.29). Autoregressive main effect models showed that increases in dispersion were associated with less decline in mean performance over the 2-wave, 9-year follow-up period (β = 0.17, p

Keywords: Cognitive aging; Intraindividual variability; Longitudinal change; Lifespan development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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