Momentary Working Memory and Momentary Activities in Healthy Older Adults: The Mediating Role of Affective States

Abstract Research has shown cognitive ability in older age is associated with activity engagement, but little is known about what psychological mechanisms are linking the two constructs. This study investigates an emotional pathway, in which affective states mediate the temporal associations between momentary working memory and momentary activities in older age. We examined data from 153 healthy older adults aged 65 to 91 who completed a smartphone-based ambulatory assessment survey seven times a day over 15 days. In each assessment point, participants reported their momentary activities (e.g., social activities, mentally stimulating activities) and affective states (i.e., positive affect, negative affect) and took a working memory task. Initial results suggest that during an approximate time period of six hours (i.e., across three assessment points), working memory performance influences subsequent likelihood of social activity engagement. Moreover, positive affect mediates this temporal association. Results will be discussed in the context of cognitive aging research.


SWITCHING UP HOW YOU GET IN YOUR STEPS: DAILY ACTIVITY DIVERSITY AND COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING
Colette Brown, 1 Sangha Jeon, 1 Yee To Ng, 2 Soomi Lee, 3  Susan Charles, 1 and Karen Fingerman, 4 1.University of California,Irvine,Irvine,California,United States,2.University of Texas at Austin,Austin,Texas,United States,3. University of South Florida,Tampa,Florida,United States,4. The University of Texas at Austin,Austin,Texas,United States Active lifestyles are related to better cognitive health.More work is needed, however, to examine whether participating in a variety of daily activities (i.e., activity diversity) has unique importance beyond amount of activity.The current study examined associations between daily activity diversity and cognitive functioning among community-dwelling older adults (N = 313, ages 65-90).Participants completed a cognitive battery, then responded to ecological momentary assessments of their participation in 10 common activity types (e.g., exercise, chores, social visits, volunteering) every 3 hours for 5-6 days, and wore accelerometers to track daily step counts and duration of activity.Multiple regression models revealed that greater daily activity diversity related to higher overall cognitive functioning, executive functioning, memory, and crystallized intelligence.These associations remained significant after adjusting for step count and duration of activity.Findings suggest daily activity diversity has unique importance beyond sheer amount of activity for cognitive health in later adulthood.

DAILY SOCIAL INTERACTIONS AND WELL-BEING IN OLDER ADULTS: THE ROLE OF INTERACTION MODALITY
Gizem Hueluer, 1 Birthe Macdonald, 2 and Minxia Luo, 3 1.University of Bonn (Germany), 2. University of Zurich,Zurich,Zurich,Switzerland,3. University of zurich,Zurich,Zurich,Switzerland Older adults increasingly use digital communication technologies to stay connected to others.In the present study, we examine the role of social interactions for older adults' daily well-being focusing on three interaction modalities (face-to-face, telephone, and digital).We use data from 116 participants (age: M = 72 years, SD = 5, range = 65 to 94; 41% women), who reported on their social interactions and well-being over 21 days.Our findings show that frequency of face-to-face interactions is more consistently related to well-being than telephone or digital interactions.On days where participants report more face-to-face social interactions than their own average, they report higher positive affect and lower loneliness than usual.Similar effects are not found for telephone or digital interactions.In summary, our findings suggest that face-to-face social interactions are uniquely relevant to older adults' daily well-being.We discuss implications of these findings for future research.

DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS, LEISURE ACTIVITY ENGAGEMENT, AND GLOBAL COGNITION IN NON-HISPANIC WHITE AND BLACK OLDER ADULTS
Neika Sharifian, A. Zarina Kraal, and Laura Zahodne,

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
Prior research has linked more depressive symptoms to worse global cognition in older adulthood through lower leisure activity engagement.Less is known regarding which types of activities drive these associations.Additionally, depressive symptoms disproportionately affect cognition in Non-Hispanic Blacks (NHB) versus Non-Hispanic Whites (NHW).This cross-sectional study used data from the Michigan Cognitive Aging Project (n=453, 52% NHB, Mage=63.60 years) to examine whether distinct leisure activities (solitary-cognitive, solitary-creative, community-social, physical, intergenerational-social, cognitive-games) mediated the association between depressive symptoms and global cognition and whether race moderated these associations.Lower engagement in solitary-cognitive activities partially mediated the negative association between depressive symptoms and global cognition.In multi-group models, this indirect effect was only evident in NHBs, who showed a stronger negative association between depressive symptoms and activity engagement than NHWs.While cross-sectional, findings indicate that depressive symptoms may negatively impact cognition by reducing engagement in activities that promote cognitive reserve.
COGNITIVE FINDINGS FROM THE LONG LIFE FAMILY STUDY Chair: Mary Wojczynski Co-Chair: Nancy W. Glynn Co-Chair: Evan Hadley The Long Life Family Study (LLFS), funded by the National Institute on Aging, is an international collaborative Innovation in Aging, 2021, Vol. 5, No. S1 579