Associations Between Average Activity Variety and Average Cognitive Performance Across 14 Days

TL;DR

This study found limited links between daily activity variety and cognitive performance over 14 days in adults aged 41-94.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel method for assessing activity variety using tablet-based reports of multiple activities.

Findings

Greater between-person activity variety was linked to faster working memory on day 1.

Higher activity variety was associated with less improvement in working memory over time.

In 40-year-olds, more activity variety correlated with lower initial processing speed and spatial memory.

Abstract

There is some evidence that greater diversity of activity across the day is positively associated with that day’s working memory performance. However, past work only permitted choosing a single, currently engaged in activity at each assessment, providing a limited index of activity variety. Using tablet-based assessments, 81 community-dwelling participants 41-94 years of age (M = 61.26, SD = 12.12) reported up to 20 activities they participated in the past 3-4 hours, and concurrently completed 3 cognitive tasks (2-back working memory, spatial working memory, processing speed) 4 times per day for 14 days. Multilevel models covarying age, gender, education, and retirement status showed that within-person fluctuations in average activity variety per session did not covary with average cognitive performance per session. Greater between-person average activity variety was associated with faster 2-back working memory on day 1, but those with higher average activity variety also showed less improvement over days for both working memory tasks. A detrimental association was also found for those in their 40s where greater average activity variety was associated with lower day 1 processing speed and spatial working memory. The limited associations with average activity variety and average cognitive performance were unexpected, along with variation in findings by cognitive outcome and age group. Associations with average activity variety appear to be more relevant than daily fluctuations in activity variety. Other work has showed short-term covariation between activity and cognition over the day when a frequency-based activity measure was used. Further inquiry into the type of activities engaged in may yield clearer results.