Department of Psychology.
Instituto de Estadistica.
Neuropsychology. 2022 Feb;36(2):103-115. doi: 10.1037/neu0000782. Epub 2021 Nov 22.
Dispersion in cognitive test performance within a single testing session is proposed as an early marker of poor brain health. Existing research, however, has not investigated factors that may explain individual differences in cognitive dispersion. We investigate the extent to which the Big Five personality traits are associated with cognitive dispersion in older adulthood.
To promote transparency and reliability, we applied preregistration and conceptual replication via coordinated analysis. Drawing data from seven longitudinal studies of aging ( = 33,581; range = 56.4-71.2), cognitive dispersion scores were derived from cognitive test results. Independent linear regression models were fit in each study to examine personality traits as predictors of dispersion scores, adjusting for mean cognitive performance and sociodemographics (age, sex, education). Results from individual studies were synthesized using random effects meta-analyses.
Synthesized results revealed that openness was positively associated with cognitive dispersion, 0.028, 95% CI [0.003, 0.054]. There was minimal evidence for associations between cognitive dispersion and the other personality traits in independent analyses or meta-analyses. Mean cognitive scores were negatively associated with cognitive dispersion across the majority of studies, while sociodemographic variables were not consistently associated with cognitive dispersion.
Higher levels of openness were associated with greater cognitive dispersion across seven independent samples, indicating that individuals higher in openness had more dispersion across cognitive tests. Further research is needed to investigate mechanisms that may help to explain the link between openness and cognitive dispersion, as well as to identify additional individual factors, beyond personality traits, that may be associated with cognitive dispersion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
在单次测试过程中认知测试表现的分散程度被提出作为大脑健康状况不佳的早期标志物。然而，现有研究尚未调查可能解释认知分散个体差异的因素。我们研究了大五人格特质与老年认知分散的关联程度。
为了提高透明度和可靠性，我们通过协调分析应用了预先注册和概念复制。从七个老龄化纵向研究中提取数据（n=33581；年龄范围为 56.4-71.2），从认知测试结果中得出认知分散评分。在每项研究中都拟合了独立的线性回归模型，以研究人格特质作为分散评分的预测因子，同时调整了平均认知表现和社会人口统计学因素（年龄、性别、教育）。使用随机效应荟萃分析综合了各个研究的结果。
综合结果表明，开放性与认知分散呈正相关，0.028，95%置信区间[0.003，0.054]。在独立分析或荟萃分析中，认知分散与其他人格特质之间几乎没有关联的证据。在大多数研究中，平均认知分数与认知分散呈负相关，而社会人口统计学变量与认知分散没有一致的关联。
在七个独立样本中，开放性水平越高，认知分散程度越大，这表明开放性较高的个体在认知测试中表现出更大的分散程度。需要进一步研究以调查可能有助于解释开放性和认知分散之间联系的机制，以及识别除人格特质之外可能与认知分散相关的其他个体因素。
