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Existing evidence suggests that individuals’ subjective experience of cognitive decline may be a risk state for dementia. However, whether self-awareness of positive changes confer cognitive protection is unknown. We examined the extent to which awareness of positive (AARC gains) and negative (AARC losses) age-related changes explains variability in objective cognitive performance in a sample of 6,231 UK residents (Mean age= 66.1 years, 75.9% women) without cognitive impairment. We tested a structural equation model with AARC gains and losses as predictors of cognitive performance and depressive symptoms as a mediator of the association of AARC losses with cognitive performance. The model fit the data well. The correlation between AARC gains and losses was negligible, yet higher levels of both AARC gains and losses predicted poorer cognitive scores. Hence, higher AARC gains did not confer cognitive protection. This unexpected pattern of results underscores the complexity of mapping individuals’ awareness onto objective outcomes.

The distinction between primary aging, representing innate maturational processes, and secondary aging, representing the effects of environment and disease (Busse, 1969), was used to develop a model for the assessment of factors that are associated with age-related individual differences in intelligence. Intelligence was measured by performance on a number of tests that measure cognitive abilities known to decline with age. In a hierarchical multiple regression analysis, primary aging and education but not health explained a significant portion of the variance in fluid intelligence. Chronological age had a residual effect over and above that of primary and secondary aging, indicating that there was remaining age-associated variance unaccounted for in the proposed model. The results suggest that the model of primary and secondary aging is a valid means of operationalizing chronological age.