Fastame Maria Chiara, Melis Silvia
Department of Pedagogy, Psychology, Philosophy, University of Cagliari, Via Is Mirrionis 1, 09123 Cagliari, Italy.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2020 Nov 22;10(11):176. doi: 10.3390/bs10110176.
The capacity of understanding and manipulating numerical stimuli (i.e., numeracy) can impact decision making. This investigation was conducted to examine whether number comprehension and mental calculation predict hedonic (i.e., Scale of Positive and Negative Experience, SPANE) and eudaimonic (i.e., Flourishing Scale) well-being in late adulthood, and whether cognitive reserve (i.e., education, time spent for gardening, and time spent for leisure activities) and non-verbal reasoning predict numeracy skills of old adults. Additionally, the effect of age on numeracy was examined, controlling for the effect of education and cognitive efficiency.
One hundred and fifty-eight (i.e., 65-94 years old) community-dwellers completed a battery of tools assessing numeracy, cognitive and metacognitive efficiency, and psychological well-being.
Number comprehension, metacognition, time spent for leisure, and perceived physical health accounted for 23% of the variance in the SPANE condition, whereas metacognition, perceived physical health, time for leisure, and education explained 15% of the variance in the Flourishing condition. Moreover, cognitive reserve assessed in terms of vocabulary and education predicted mental calculation. Finally, aging significantly impacted the mental calculation performance of older participants.
These findings suggest that numeracy skills can selectively impact the mental health and daily life of older adults.
理解和处理数字刺激的能力（即数字运算能力）会影响决策。本研究旨在探讨数字理解和心算是否能预测老年人的享乐幸福感（即正负体验量表，SPANE）和心理幸福感（即蓬勃发展量表），以及认知储备（即教育程度、园艺时间和休闲活动时间）和非言语推理是否能预测老年人的数字运算技能。此外，在控制教育程度和认知效率影响的情况下，研究了年龄对数字运算能力的影响。
158名（年龄在65 - 94岁之间）社区居民完成了一系列评估数字运算能力、认知和元认知效率以及心理健康的测试。
数字理解、元认知、休闲时间和感知身体健康解释了SPANE量表得分变异的23%，而元认知、感知身体健康、休闲时间和教育程度解释了蓬勃发展量表得分变异的15%。此外，以词汇量和教育程度评估的认知储备可预测心算能力。最后，年龄对老年参与者的心算表现有显著影响。
这些发现表明，数字运算技能可以选择性地影响老年人的心理健康和日常生活。
