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Awareness of Memory Ability and Change: (In)Accuracy of Memory Self-Assessments in Relation to Performance

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Abstract

Little is known about subjective assessments of memory abilities and decline among middle-aged adults or their association with objective memory performance in the general population. In this study we examined self-ratings of memory ability and change in relation to episodic memory performance in two national samples of middle-aged and older adults from the Midlife in the United States study (MIDUS II in 2005–06) and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS; every 2 years from 2002 to 2012). MIDUS (Study 1) participants (N =3581) rated their memory compared to others their age and to themselves 5 years ago; HRS (Study 2) participants (N = 14,821) rated their current memory and their memory compared to 2 years ago, with up to six occasions of longitudinal data over 10 years. In both studies, episodic memory performance was the total number of words recalled in immediate and delayed conditions. When controlling for demographic and health correlates, self-ratings of memory abilities, but not subjective change, were related to performance. We examined accuracy by comparing subjective and objective memory ability and change. More than one third of the participants across the studies had self-assessments that were inaccurate relative to their actual level of performance and change, and accuracy differed as a function of demographic and health factors. Further understanding of self-awareness of memory abilities and change beginning in midlife may be useful for identifying early warning signs of decline, with implications regarding policies and practice for early detection and treatment of cognitive impairment.

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Notes

  1. Because our total sample also included siblings of the main RDD respondents and a subpopulation of twins, all models were also estimated using the cluster option in STATA (StataCorp 2009). This option takes dependencies into account using robust standard errors by clustering at the family level. The results of these analyses revealed similar patterns. As sample weights were available for only the random-digit dial RDD sample of MIDUS participants, we did not apply them in the analyses.

  2. Participants 90 and older at baseline were excluded in order to examine longitudinal change in cognitive data and because of the lack of follow-up data available from those aged 90 and older following the 2002 interview.

  3. Analyses were conducted using sample weights to account for oversampling of Black and Hispanic individuals and Florida residents, and to reflect the United States census population in 2002 at baseline for the current study (Heeringa and Connor 1995). Results were similar, with a few exceptions. In Model 1, with memory performance as an outcome, the interaction between SRH and time was no longer significant. In Model 3, with perceived memory change as an outcome, the effect of race was no longer significant and the effect of memory performance became significant. Also, due to the nature of the study design, some participants from the same households are included in the HRS. Thus, multilevel models were used to examine three-levels (level 1: within-person, level 2: within-household, and level 3: between-households) to account for the clustering of data and sample dependencies. These findings revealed no differences from the two level model examining within-person and between-person change over time and therefore are not reported.

  4. Memory change was examined in all other years, 2004 to 2006, 2006 to 2008, 2008 to 2010 and 2010 to 2012 in relation to self-ratings of perceived change. There were similar rates of decline (2004–6: 13.3 %, 2006–8: 14.3 %; 2008–10: 17.5 %; 2010–12, 15.1 %) and there were similar rates of accuracy and inaccuracy; thus for parsimony only results from the baseline year are reported in Fig. 6.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by funding from the National Institute on Aging (Grants PO1 AG20166 and RO1 AG17920).

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Saint Anselm College, Manchester, NH, USA

    Elizabeth Hahn Rickenbach

  2. Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Stefan Agrigoroaei

  3. Department of Psychology, Brandeis University, 415 South Street MS 062, Waltham, MA, 02453, USA

    Margie E. Lachman

Authors
  1. Elizabeth Hahn Rickenbach
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  2. Stefan Agrigoroaei
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  3. Margie E. Lachman
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Correspondence to Margie E. Lachman.

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Rickenbach, E.H., Agrigoroaei, S. & Lachman, M.E. Awareness of Memory Ability and Change: (In)Accuracy of Memory Self-Assessments in Relation to Performance. Population Ageing 8, 71–99 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12062-014-9108-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12062-014-9108-5

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