Prospective memory is a cognitive process that comprises the encoding and maintenance of an intention until the appropriate moment of its retrieval. It is of highly relevance for an independent everyday life, especially in older adults; however, there is ample evidence that prospective memory declines with increasing age. Because most studies have used neutral stimuli, it is still an open question how emotional factors influence age-related differences in prospective remembering. The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of emotional material on prospective memory encoding, monitoring, maintaining, and retrieval in younger and older adults using behavioral and electrophysiological measures. We tested 24 younger adults (M = 26.4 years) and 20 older adults (M = 68.1 years) using a picture one-back task as ongoing activity with an embedded prospective memory instruction. The experimental task consisted of three sessions. In each session, participants had to encode series of images that represented the prospective memory cues for the consecutive block. The images were either of pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral valence. The pictures used in the ongoing task were likewise of pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral valence. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded to assess the neural correlates of intention encoding, maintenance and self-initiated retrieval. We did not find age differences between younger and older adults on the behavioral level. However, the ERP results revealed an interesting pattern that suggested for both age groups elevated attentional processing of emotional cues during encoding indicated by an elevated LPP for the emotional cues. Additionally, younger adults showed increased activity for unpleasant cues. During the maintenance phase, both age groups engaged in strategic monitoring especially for pleasant cues, which led to enhanced sustained positivity. During retrieval, older adults showed increased activity of ERP components related to cue detection and retrieval mainly for pleasant cues indicating enhanced relevance for those cues. In conclusion, emotional material may influence prospective remembering in older adults differently than in younger adults by supporting a mixture of top-down and bottom-up controlled processing. The results demonstrated a negativity bias in younger adults and a positivity bias in older adults.

According to status-caste exchange theory, intermarriages involve transactions in which higher educated immigrants trade status for the ethnic advantage of the less-educated native partners. Looking at 2 836 currently married Swiss immigrants, we find that the highly skilled “exchange” their status only when pairing with a medium-educated native. Results also show that younger cohorts of immigrants are more likely to choose hypogamy when marrying a same-origin immigrant than when partnering a native.

In the Swiss education system, approximately 55% of adolescents are required to make their first vocational choice at the end of mandatory school. This can induce transitory or long-lasting career indecision that is recognized as being influenced by personal and contextual factors. The aim of this study is to analyze the relationships between career decision-making difficulties and the five-factor model of personality traits, parental support, and self-esteem in 448 Grade 9 Swiss adolescents. We then proceeded to test if these relationships vary according to the adolescent’s educational choice (i.e., whether they attend high school or if they choose an apprenticeship or vocational training). Results have highlighted the importance of neuroticism, conscientiousness, and parental support to predict career decision-making difficulties. Moreover, parental support mediated the relationships between extraversion and agreeableness (fully) and between conscientiousness (partially) and career decision-making difficulties. Finally, the educational choice had no impact on the overall pattern of relationships. Implications for career counselor practices were further discussed.

Latent Growth Curve Models (LGCM) have become a standard technique to model change over time. Prediction and explanation of inter-individual differences in change are major goals in lifespan research. The major determinants of statistical power to detect individual differences in change are the magnitude of true inter-individual differences in linear change (LGCM slope variance), design precision, alpha level, and sample size. Here, we show that design precision can be expressed as the inverse of effective error. Effective error is determined by instrument reliability and the temporal arrangement of measurement occasions. However, it also depends on another central LGCM component, the variance of the latent intercept and its covariance with the latent slope. We derive a new reliability index for LGCM slope variance—effective curve reliability (ECR)—by scaling slope variance against effective error. ECR is interpretable as a standardized effect size index. We demonstrate how effective error, ECR, and statistical power for a likelihood ratio test of zero slope variance formally relate to each other and how they function as indices of statistical power. We also provide a computational approach to derive ECR for arbitrary intercept-slope covariance. With practical use cases, we argue for the complementary utility of the proposed indices of a study's sensitivity to detect slope variance when making a priori longitudinal design decisions or communicating study designs.

Objectives: We examined bidirectional, time-ordered associations between age-related changes in depressive symptoms and memory. Method: Data came from 107,599 community-dwelling adults, aged 49–90 years, who participated in the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Depressive symptoms were measured with the EURO-D inventory, and memory was evaluated as delayed recall of a 10-word list. Participants were assessed up to five times at 2-year intervals. Dynamic structural equation models were used to estimate longitudinal and time-ordered (lead-lag) relations between depressive symptoms and memory performance. Results: Depressive symptoms increased and memory scores decreased across the observed age range, with worsening mostly evident after age 62 years. These long-term changes were moderately negatively correlated (r = −.53, p < .001). A time-ordered effect emerged such that age-specific memory deficits preceded shorter-term increases in depression symptoms. This effect can be translated such that each 1-point decrement on a 10-point memory scale at a given age predicted a 14.5% increased risk for depression two years later. Statistical adjustment for covariates (sex, education, re-test, smoking, and body mass index) had little influence on these associations. Conclusion: In later adulthood, lower memory performance at a given age predicts subsequent 2-year increases in depressive symptoms.

Objectives: Prospective memory (PM), the ability to execute delayed intentions, has received increasing attention in neuropsychology and gerontology. Most of this research is motivated by the claim that PM is critical for maintaining functional independence; yet, there is a dearth of empirical evidence to back up the claims. Thus, the present study tested whether PM predicts functional independence in older adults using validated behavioral performance measures for both PM and functional independence. Methods: Fifty-eight healthy older adults performed a computerized PM paradigm, the Virtual Week task, as well as a timed version of an instrumental activities of daily living (TIADL) task. Furthermore, we assessed vocabulary, processing speed, and self-reported prospective remembering. Results: TIADL scores correlated significantly with performance in the Virtual Week task, vocabulary, and processing speed. Hierarchical linear regressions revealed that vocabulary and Virtual Week performance were significant predictors for TIADL. However, self-reported PM scores did not predict everyday functioning. Conclusions: The findings indicate that PM is an important cognitive ability for successful and independent everyday life beyond vocabulary. Moreover, the results show a substantial incremental contribution of intact PM performance for the prediction of everyday functioning by using objective PM measures. (JINS, 2018, 24, 640–645)

Background Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important health outcome in older adults. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of the ProBalance rehabilitation programme on HRQoL of community-dwelling older adults with balance impairments and to investigate whether effects differ between age groups and/or HRQoL components. Methods A single-blind, randomised controlled trial included community-dwelling older adults, aged 65–85, with balance impairments. Participants (n=52) were randomly allocated to an intervention group (IG) or a control group (CG). A rehabilitation programme included gait, balance, functional training, strengthening, flexibility, and 3D training. A group-based intervention was administered over a period of 12 weeks (90-min sessions, 2days per week). A wait-list control group was instructed to maintain their usual activities during the same period. Participants’ HRQoL was assessed using the SF-36 questionnaire. The time points for assessment were at zero (pre-test), 12 (post-test), and 24 weeks (follow up). Results A trend for higher HRQoL in the IG compared to the CG and a significant interaction of group with time were found, with significantly higher increases in HRQoL from the pre-test to the post-test (and to follow-up) in the IG, compared to the CG. Results were independent of age group (young-old vs. old-old) and HRQoL component (physical vs. mental). Conclusions Present results suggest that the ProBalance programme had a beneficial effect on HRQoL of community-dwelling older adults, which held across young and old adults and not only comprised physical but also mental HRQoL. Clinical Trial Registration Number: ACTRN12612000301864.