Abstract
The present aim was to determine, across the adult lifespan, the extent to which different dimensions of trait anxiety might affect subjective cognitive difficulties in everyday life. Following Attentional Control Theory (ACT; Eysenck et al., 2007), we predicted that trait anxiety would have a greater effect on attention and verbal abilities than on visual abilities. We also expected trait cognitive anxiety to exhibit more robust relationships with cognition than trait somatic anxiety. Importantly, we predicted that effects of anxiety would be greater in older adults, in line with the Strength and Vulnerability Integration model (SAVI; Charles, 2010). The sample comprised 286 United Kingdom-based adults aged 18–93 years. Participants completed self-report measures of trait cognitive and somatic anxiety (the State-Trait Inventory for Cognitive and Somatic Anxiety; STICSA, Ree et al., 2008) and everyday cognitive difficulties (the Multiple Abilities Self-Report Questionnaire; MASQ, Seidenberg et al., 1994). Moderated regression models were constructed, including trait cognitive or somatic anxiety as a predictor of cognitive difficulties, and age as the moderator variable. Covariates included depression, stress (the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales—short form; DASS-21, Lovibond and Lovibond, 1995), gender, current mental health treatment status, and physical health status. When cognitive anxiety was the predictor variable, somatic anxiety was also included as a covariate, and vice-versa. Trait cognitive anxiety and age interacted to predict all MASQ subscales other than visual-perceptual ability. Difficulties with attention, verbal memory, and language abilities were significantly greater at higher levels of anxiety for all age groups, with the effect greatest in older adults. Difficulties with visual-spatial memory were significantly greater at higher levels of anxiety in middle-aged and older adults only. Higher trait somatic anxiety predicted difficulties with verbal memory and language ability independently of age, and interacted with age to predict language difficulties. Interestingly, age also significantly predicted less subjective difficulty with attention, independently of anxiety level. The results show that trait cognitive and somatic anxiety are both related to subjective, everyday cognitive difficulties. However, effects of trait cognitive anxiety are more robust across cognitive domains and tend to increase, or first appear, over the course of the adult lifespan.
Highlights
The current research was aimed at investigating the potential for adult aging to moderate the effects of trait anxiety on subjective cognitive difficulties in everyday life
Despite anxiety and aging both having adverse effects on aspects of cognition, evidence surrounding the effects of anxiety on cognition in older adults remains mixed, and there is a clear need to assess the effects of anxiety on cognition across the adult lifespan
Trait cognitive anxiety, and trait somatic anxiety were all significantly associated with subjective difficulty across all cognitive domains measured by the Multiple Ability Self-Report Questionnaire (MASQ) (Seidenberg et al, 1994)
Summary
The current research was aimed at investigating the potential for adult aging to moderate the effects of trait anxiety on subjective cognitive difficulties in everyday life. According to Attentional Control Theory (ACT; Eysenck et al, 2007) anxiety affects attentional processing, potentially impairing cognitive performance. Anxiety is thought to cause an imbalance between the two systems via increased bottom-up processing of irrelevant stimuli within the environment, reducing an individual’s top-down attentional control (Eysenck et al, 2007; Coombes et al, 2009). Anxiety affects the ability to suppress irrelevant information whilst attending to relevant information (i.e., stimulus inhibition; e.g., Ansari and Derakshan, 2010; Moser et al, 2012), to inhibit prepotent responses (e.g., Pacheco-Unguetti et al, 2012; Berggren and Derakshan, 2014), and to alternate attentional focus (i.e., shifting; e.g., Caselli et al, 2004; Ansari et al, 2008; Johnson, 2009)
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