Older Adults' Abstract Reasoning Ability Predicts Depressive Symptoms Over Time

A study published in Psychological Science determined age-related declines in abstract reasoning ability predict increasing depressive symptoms in later years, reports ScienceDaily . "Our findings suggest that monitoring for cognitive decrements in later adulthood may expedite efforts to reduce associated increases in depression risk," says the University of Geneva's Stephen Aichele. The investigators analyzed data from a longitudinal study of adults in Scotland, including 1,091 subjects who were assessed at age 70 and up to three additional times in roughly three-year intervals until age 79. Participants completed several measures of abstract reasoning, conducting tasks such as identifying missing elements from geometric patterns and reproducing visuospatial models using component parts. Overall, participants' abstract reasoning ability and depressive symptoms got worse, and relatively lower cognitive function at each evaluation was associated with subsequent escalations in depressive symptoms, which became stronger as time passed. The researchers found lower abstract reasoning scores at one assessment were linked to increased depressive symptoms at later assessments, while increased depressive symptoms at a given assessment were not associated with subsequent changes in abstract reasoning. Sociodemographic and other health-related factors were not observed as influencing the link between abstract reasoning and depressive symptoms.