THE DAILY CONTEXT OF MENTAL AND COGNITIVE HEALTH: USING AN ECOLOGICAL MOMENTARY ASSESSMENT (EMA) APPROACH - Symposium

Sep 29, 2026

Mental health and cognitive performance shift with everyday experiences, but much prior research depends on retrospective reports that miss real-time variability. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) supports analyses of how contextual experiences unfold in daily life. This symposium presents EMA studies examining how psychological and cognitive processes in aging influence cognitive experiences, identify intervention entry points, and clarify bidirectional links among loneliness, purpose, memory lapses, processing speed, and objective cognitive performance.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages2

Reading Time5 min

AccessFree to download

Symposium Overview

Ecological Momentary Assessment in Daily Life

Loneliness and Cognitive Performance

Purpose in Life and Cognitive Outcomes

138 Innovation in Aging, 2025, Vol. 9, No. S2 SESSION 1445 (SYMPOSIUM) Abstract citation ID: igaf122.460 THE DAILY CONTEXT OF MENTAL AND COGNITIVE HEALTH: USING AN ECOLOGICAL MOMENTARY ASSESSMENT (EMA) APPROACH Chair: Jee eun Kang Mental health and cognitive performance fluctuate with daily experiences, yet most research relies on retrospective reports that do not capture real-time variations. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) enables examination of how contextual experiences unfold in everyday life. This symposium showcases studies using EMA to investigate how psychological and cognitive processes in daily life influence cognitive experiences in aging populations and how they represent potential entry points for intervention. First, Dr. Compernolle will describe social and physical contexts that contribute to fluctuations in loneliness—an important indicator of social and mental well-being—using findings from the Chicago Health and Activity Space in Real Time study. Next, Drs. Kang and Felt will highlight the dynamic relationship between loneliness and cognitive performance in daily life in an Einstein Aging Study cohort. Kang will discuss the reciprocal association between loneliness and daily memory lapses, demonstrating how loneliness both predicts and results from memory lapses. Felt will explore bidirectional links between Innovation in Aging, 2025, Vol. 9, No. S2 139 loneliness and objective cognitive performance, showing that higher cognitive performance predicts lower subsequent loneliness, whereas loneliness is associated with slower processing speed. Finally, Dr. Sutin will describe how fluctuations in momentary purpose in life link with cognitive performance, revealing that while greater purpose is linked to better cognitive performance, it may also temporarily tax attentional resources, leading to increased memory lapses. Together, these presentations will highlight how momentary psychological experiences—including loneliness and purpose in life—shape cognitive performance and vice versa, emphasizing the importance of real-time assessmentsin understanding and promoting cognitive and emotional well-being in later life.

FAQs

Why is ecological momentary assessment (EMA) important for studying mental and cognitive health?

EMA captures real-time fluctuations in mental health and cognitive performance from day-to-day contexts, avoiding the limitations of retrospective reporting.

How do the presentations connect loneliness with cognitive performance in aging?

They examine both directions of association between loneliness and cognition, including links to objective cognitive performance and processing speed, as well as reciprocity with daily memory lapses.

What role does purpose in life play according to the symposium?

Momentary purpose in life is related to better cognitive performance, while also potentially taxing attentional resources and increasing memory lapses.

Sep 29, 2026

Uploaded by Lucas Martin