The relationship between trait curiosity and cognitive reserve in younger and older adults

Abstract

Abstract Understanding individual differences in cognitive reserve is key to predicting, and potentially influencing, factors that promote healthy cognitive aging. It has been suggested that individuals who are more curious engage in more stimulating activities and thereby increase their cognitive reserve. In the present study, we investigated the relationships between dimensions of trait curiosity and different proxies of cognitive reserve - education, occupation, and leisure activities - in groups of younger (N = 190) and middle-to-older aged adults (N = 292). Our results provide evidence for a relationship between trait curiosity and cognitive reserve, which was more pronounced in middle-to-older age. In the middle-to-older age group, all proxies of cognitive reserve were related to curiosity, albeit to different dimensions of the trait: higher interest-based epistemic curiosity and perceptual curiosity predicted higher education and leisure activities. In contrast, deprivation-sensitive curiosity was positively associated with occupation, but negatively associated with leisure. In the young group, only leisure activities were significantly predicted by perceptual curiosity. This study adds to the emerging literature on the role of personality in cognitive reserve and highlights the multifaceted influence of trait curiosity, which is larger in older age.

Keywords

• Personality traits
• Curiosity
• Openness
• Brain reserve
• Cognitive aging
• Individual differences