Remembering the person: relations of individual difference variables to memory.

Individual differences in personality and temperament variables were examined in relation to measures of simple mental performance in an attempt to determine the effects of personality on cognitive functioning in the elderly. Shorter latencies in binary decision and choice reaction times, and in recognition memory and object naming tasks were found to be associated with greater trait anxiety and experiential openness. The need to include clinical assessments of memory impairment and measures of more global cognitive abilities and styles in future research on personality and mental performance was discussed, and ways in which information on personality variables might be incorporated into programs of intervention for memory impairment in the elderly were suggested.