PHYSIOLOGICAL INDICATORS OF STRESS AND INTELLECTUAL-PERFORMANCE AMONGANXIOUS OLDER ADULTS

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the re lationship between anxiety and cognitive performance in older adults. We asked 27 older adults, self-selected on the basis of their concerns about decrements in intellectual functioning, to perform a series of cognitive tasks to assess crystallized (Gc) and fluid (Gf) intellectua l abilities. Volunteers also completed questionnaires concerning their beliefs about their task performance specific to each ability, as wel l as measures of both generalized and intellectual self-efficacy, ever yday cognitive failures, and concerns about illness and aging. Cortiso l was measured as an indicator of anxiety and Epstein-Barr virus level s were assessed to determine nonspecific physiological changes. Result s indicated that in the self-selected ''anxious'' sample, there was a significant negative correlation between cortisol and self-efficacy re lated to the most difficult measure of Gf The only other significant ( negative) correlation was between cortisol and generalized self-effica cy. As expected, EBV levels were not correlated with any of the perfor mance or self-efficacy measures taken. Possible explanations of these findings are discussed as they relate to varying levels of performance and concerns about the loss of skills among older adults.