Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, Vol 52, Issue 3 P139-P146, Copyright © 1997 by The Gerontological Society of America
Self-reports on memory functioning in a longitudinal study of the oldest old: relation to current, prospective, and retrospective performance
B Johansson, R Allen-Burge and SH Zarit
Institute of Gerontology, University College of Health Sciences, Jonkoping, Sweden.
Self-evaluation of memory performance, one aspect of metamemory, may be an
important indicator of concurrent, retrospective, or future decline in
memory functioning. The relationships among self-evaluations, cognition,
and outcome were investigated in the OCTO study, a longitudinal,
population-based panel of the oldest old. Using concurrent data, results
indicated that overall cognitive ability, depression, gender, and education
were associated with self-reports of memory for the entire sample. The
relation of perception of decline to actual decline was also examined.
Self-reported decline over a 2-year period was associated with actual
decline in performance on three tests of memory. Finally, self-reported
memory function was investigated as an indicator of future cognitive
decline and diagnosis of dementia. These self-evaluations predicted decline
on specific tests of memory over 2 years and subsequent diagnosis of
dementia after 2 and 4 years. The amount of variance accounted for by
self-evaluations, however, was relatively small, suggesting that complaints
reflect different processes, only one of which is the pathological decline
involved in dementia.
