Wallace, Denise and Cooper, Nicholas R and Sel, Alejandra and Russo, Riccardo (2023) Do non-traumatic stressful life events and ageing negatively impact working memory performance and do they interact to further impair working memory performance? PLoS One, 18 (11). e0290635-e0290635. DOI https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0290635
Wallace, Denise and Cooper, Nicholas R and Sel, Alejandra and Russo, Riccardo (2023) Do non-traumatic stressful life events and ageing negatively impact working memory performance and do they interact to further impair working memory performance? PLoS One, 18 (11). e0290635-e0290635. DOI https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0290635
Wallace, Denise and Cooper, Nicholas R and Sel, Alejandra and Russo, Riccardo (2023) Do non-traumatic stressful life events and ageing negatively impact working memory performance and do they interact to further impair working memory performance? PLoS One, 18 (11). e0290635-e0290635. DOI https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0290635
Abstract
Stress and normal ageing produce allostatic load, which may lead to difficulties with cognition thereby degrading quality of life. The current study’s objective was to assess whether ageing and cumulative stress interact to accelerate cognitive decline. With 60 participants, Marshall et al. found that ageing and cumulative stress interact significantly to impair working memory performance in older adults, suggesting vulnerability to the cumulative effects of life events beyond 60 years old. To replicate and extend this finding, we increased the sample size by conducting 3 independent studies with 156 participants and improved the statistical methods by conducting an iterative Bayesian meta-analysis with Bayes factors. Bayes factors deliver a more comprehensive result because they provide evidence for either the null hypothesis (H0), the alternative hypothesis (H1) or for neither hypothesis due to evidence not being sufficiently sensitive. Young (18-35 yrs) and older (60-85 yrs) healthy adults were categorised as high or low stress based on their life events score derived from the Life Events Scale for Students or Social Readjustment Rating Scale, respectively. We measured accuracy and reaction time on a 2-back working memory task to provide: a) Bayes factors and b) Bayesian meta-analysis, which iteratively added each study’s effect sizes to evaluate the overall strength of evidence that ageing, cumulative stress and/or the combination of the two detrimentally affect working memory performance. Using a larger sample (N=156 vs. N=60) and a more powerful statistical approach, we did not replicate the robust age by cumulative stress interaction effect found by Marshall et al.. The effects of ageing and cumulative stress also fell within the anecdotal range (⅓<BF<3). We therefore conclude that there was inconclusive statistical evidence, as measured with a life events scale, that ageing and cumulative life stress interact to accelerate cognitive decline.
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Uncontrolled Keywords: | Humans; Bayes Theorem; Cognition; Memory, Short-Term; Aging; Quality of Life; Aged; Middle Aged |
Divisions: | Faculty of Science and Health Faculty of Science and Health > Psychology, Department of |
SWORD Depositor: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Depositing User: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Date Deposited: | 15 Jan 2024 16:42 |
Last Modified: | 22 May 2024 14:26 |
URI: | http://repository.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/36749 |
Available files
Filename: journal.pone.0290635.pdf
Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0
Filename: PlosOne_BFmetaAnalysis_Paper_AllSupplInfo.pdf