The relationship between self-monitoring and cognitive strategy use in midlife and older adults.

Introduction: Self-monitoring abilities, both in the moment (online) and general self-knowledge (offline) of one's errors, are crucial to implementing modification to tasks to support healthy, independent aging. Cognitive strategies (CS) aid in functional, physical, and cognitive abilities, but without recognition of their need, individuals may struggle to complete daily tasks. The current study examined whether higher levels of self-monitoring would predict higher use and quality of real-world cognitive strategies in older adults.

Methods: Participants included 80 community-dwelling midlife and older adults. Participants completed a remote battery of neuropsychological tasks, including a computerized go-no-go task that evaluated online self-monitoring, and a self-reported questionnaire to measure offline self-monitoring (Cognitive Self-Efficacy Questionnaire). To assess CS, a count score (CS Quantity) and utility score (CS Quality) were computed based on strategies utilized in completion of real-world prospective memory tasks.

Results: Online self-monitoring was not significantly related to offline self-monitoring (r(77) = -.07, p = .52). A hierarchical regression revealed that while offline self-monitoring significantly predicted 7% of the variance in CS Quality, above and beyond age, global cognition, and premorbid functioning (ΔR² = .07, ΔF = 6.23, p = .02), the addition of online self-monitoring did not contribute significant incremental validity (ΔR² = .001, ΔF = 0.12, p = .73). The second hierarchical regression revealed that neither online nor offline self-monitoring significantly predicted CS Quantity, after controlling for sex (ΔR² = .004, ΔF = 0.29, p = .60).

Conclusion: The results support the distinction between online and offline self-monitoring concepts and their assessment. For community-dwelling midlife and older adults without dementia, clinicians may consider an individual's perceptions of their ability to self-monitor when working to facilitate the use of cognitive strategies.