The mediational role of hearing acuity in the association between personality and memory: Evidence from the health and retirement study and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

Objectives

Personality traits (i.e., the enduring patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors) are associated with cognition across adulthood. There is interest in identifying potential mechanisms to explain this association, but none has focused on sensory function. Therefore, the present study examined whether an objective measure of hearing acuity mediates the association between personality and memory.

Methods

Participants were from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS, N = 5497, 60 % women, Mean age = 65.66, SD = 9.00) and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA, N = 4706, 57 % women, Mean age = 64.47, SD = 7.59). In the HRS, participants had data on personality and demographic variables in 2012/2014, hearing acuity in 2016/2018, and memory in 2020. In ELSA, participants had data on personality and demographic variables measured in 2010/2011, hearing acuity in 2014/2015, and memory in 2018/2019.

Results

In both HRS and ELSA, higher hearing acuity partially mediated the association between lower neuroticism (4 % and 5 % proportion effect mediated), higher conscientiousness (6 % and 15 %) and higher openness (3 % and 7 %) and better memory performances at follow-up.

Conclusions

The present study provides novel evidence that hearing acuity mediates the association between personality and cognition.