Cognitive Reserve Mediates the Relation between Openness to Experience and Smaller Decline in Executive Functioning

Ihle, Andreas; Zuber, Sascha; Gouveia, Élvio Rúbio; Gouveia, Bruna R.; Mella, Nathalie; Desrichard, Olivier; Cullati, Stéphane; Oris, Michel; Maurer, Jürgen; Kliegel, Matthias · 2019 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1159/000501822

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

Get this paper ↗ (DOI — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)

Summary

This study investigates whether leisure activity engagement mediates the longitudinal relationship between the personality trait of openness to experience and the decline in executive functioning among older adults. While previous cross-sectional research suggested that openness is linked to better cognitive performance via increased activity engagement, no longitudinal studies had examined whether this mediation holds for cognitive decline over time. The authors aimed to fill this gap by testing if higher openness leads to greater leisure activity participation, which in turn builds cognitive reserve and mitigates executive function decline. The researchers analyzed longitudinal data from 897 older adults (mean age 74.33 years) participating in two waves of the Vivre-Leben-Vivere survey, separated by six years. Executive functioning was assessed using the Trail Making Test (TMT) parts A and B at both waves. Openness to experience and the frequency of engagement in 18 leisure activities were measured at the first wave. The study employed latent change score modeling to analyze changes in TMT completion times, controlling for age, sex, and years of formal education. This approach allowed for the simultaneous estimation of direct and indirect effects, specifically testing if leisure activity frequency mediated the link between baseline openness and subsequent changes in executive functioning. The results indicated that higher frequency of leisure activities at baseline significantly predicted a smaller increase in TMT completion time over the six-year period, signifying a slower decline in executive functioning. Conversely, older age predicted a steeper decline. Crucially, there was no significant direct relationship between openness to experience and changes in executive functioning. However, higher openness was significantly associated with greater leisure activity engagement. The analysis revealed that 37.2% of the longitudinal relation between openness and reduced executive decline was mediated indirectly through leisure activity engagement. This confirms that individuals with higher openness engage in more activities, which helps preserve cognitive function. The findings extend previous cross-sectional evidence by demonstrating that the protective effect of openness on cognitive aging operates longitudinally through the accumulation of cognitive reserve via leisure activities. The study concludes that openness to experience is a key personality factor that promotes an active lifestyle in old age, thereby buffering against executive function decline. While the correlational design limits causal inference, the use of latent change scores helps control for baseline cognitive levels, strengthening the argument that activity engagement contributes to cognitive preservation rather than merely reflecting pre-existing ability.

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed.

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-26; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• cognitive capacity variation