Thinking about memory
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Thinking about memory: How confident are you in your memory, and does it change with age? Investigating memory ability and confidence in those attending memory clinics.?
IRAS ID
316787
Contact name
Charlotte Russell
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 9 months, 0 days
Research summary
Our confidence in our memory ability is important for our wellbeing, especially in older age as many of us begin to fear developing dementia. The ability to judge our own cognitive abilities, such as our memory, is called metacognition. The confidence we have in our memory can be affected by changes in these metacognitive skills. Many older individuals are referred to memory clinics because they believe that their memory ability has decreased. Some individuals with these memory complaints, but without dementia, demonstrate signs of impairment to their thinking processes when tested by clinicians and are given the diagnosis Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Others show no impairment when tested and are given the diagnosis Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD). A sparse amount of research has investigated the metacognitive abilities of these groups of individuals; both those with MCI and those with SCD. Investigation of these abilities is important as some work suggests that good metacognition is associated with better symptom outcomes (Chi et al., 2022; Zhuang et al., 2022). Understanding the mechanisms underlying metacognitive beliefs about memory could be a route to earlier diagnosis and enable us to identify people who are likely to develop dementia. In this study we will recruit individuals with both MCI or SCD and age-matched controls, who do not feel that they have memory impairments, in order to investigate their metacognitive beliefs about their memory abilities.
Chi, S. Y., Rabin, L. A., Aronov, A., Fogel, J., Kapoor, A., & Wang, C. (2014). Differential focal and nonfocal prospective memory accuracy in a demographically diverse group of nondemented community-dwelling older adults. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society: JINS, 20(10), 1015.
Chi, S. Y., Chua, E. F., Kieschnick, D. W., & Rabin, L. A. (2022). Retrospective metamemory monitoring of semantic memory in community-dwelling older adults with subjective cognitive decline and mild cognitive impairment. Neuropsychol Rehabil, 32(3), 429-463. https://doi.org/10.1080/09602011.2020.1831552
Jenkins, A., Tree, J., & Tales, A. (2021). Distinct Profile Differences in Subjective Cognitive Decline in the General Public Are Associated with Metacognition, Negative Affective Symptoms, Neuroticism, Stress, and Poor Quality of Life. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease(Preprint), 1-12.
Zhuang, K., Chen, X., Cassady, K. E., Baker, S. L., & Jagust, W. J. (2021). Metacognition, cortical thickness, and tauopathy in aging. bioRxiv, 2021.2010.2027.466146. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.27.466146REC name
South West - Frenchay Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/SW/0108
Date of REC Opinion
16 Oct 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion