Updating the self-appraisal of one's cognitive performance with 7 days of repeated exposure: From test-naïve to experienced.

Abstract

Objective: Self-appraisal of cognitive performance, a potentially useful marker of brain functioning, is typically assessed at a single time point where tests are naïve to what constitutes "good" or "bad" performance. Here, we determine whether familiarizing individuals with self-appraisal with daily memory testing for 7 days provide a more accurate estimate of cognitive functioning and mood.

Method: Two hundred twenty-five participants (M_age ± SD: 74.1 ± 8.3 years; 66% female; median education 16.0 years) completed the online Boston Remote Assessment for NeuroCognitive Health, which included two associative memory tasks, for seven consecutive days. Each day, participants self-appraised their performance. At baseline, they completed various cognitive and mood measures. We computed Pearson's correlations between task performance and self-appraisal on Days 1 and 7 and used linear models to examine the relationship between self-appraisal scores and clinical measures.

Results: Accuracy (Day 1: 0.44 ± 0.12; Day 7: 0.81 ± 0.16) and self-appraisal (Day 1: 0.36 ± 0.15; Day 7: 0.70 ± 0.21) increased, as did the association between accuracy and self-appraisal, Day 1: correlation coefficient (r) = 0.22, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) [0.09, 0.34], p = .001; Day 7: r = 0.69, 95% CI [0.62, 0.76], p < .001. Self-appraisal scores on Day 7, but not Day 1, showed significant relationships with in-clinic measures.

Conclusions: Repeated remote cognitive assessments may help elucidate individuals' capacities to refine their self-perception of cognitive performance during multiday learning. The weak association between accuracy and test-naïve self-appraisal warrants caution about using this metric cross-sectionally. Experienced self-appraisal could be especially relevant at the early stages of neurodegenerative diseases when subtle learning difficulties emerge and could improve our capacity to detect early meta-cognitive changes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).