Appreciating cognitive and emotional growth in older adults

[...]a large literature has developed suggesting that subjective cognitive complaints are only weakly related to objective cognitive performance (˜1% variance shared) and that subjective cognition overlaps to a much greater degree with psychiatric symptoms and personality characteristics than with cognitive test scores (Burmester et al., 2016; Crumley et al., 2014). [...]in addition to AARC losses, Sabatini and colleagues (2021) reported that AARC gains predicted cognitive test scores better than the person’s subjective cognitive change, attitude toward their own aging, or subjective age, although these effect sizes were small. [...]the conceptualization and measurement of cognitive functioning is often targeted to the specific domains of attention, processing speed, language, visuospatial abilities, learning/memory, and aspects of executive functioning. [...]it is also possible that declining cognition in some older adults is associated with poor insight into and awareness of their overall functioning (anosognosia), leading them to incorrectly report higher levels of social cognitive abilities.