Previous research documented positive associations between cognitively stimulating work and levels of cognitive performance, while longitudinal associations are less clear. We used 20-year longitudinal data from the Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Study of Adult Development and Aging (ILSE) to examine the role of perceived work environment (autonomy, innovation, social integration, and stress) and work activities derived from an occupational database (related to information, to people, and manual activities) for trajectories of cognitive abilities (processing speed, fluid and crystallized intelligence). We used data from 374 participants in the ILSE midlife cohort (born 1950-52) who were working at baseline and had valid observations on work characteristics and control variables including education, gender, region (former East vs. West Germany), and personal income (mean age at baseline = 44 years, SD = 1, 44% women). Cognitively stimulating perceived work environments (higher levels of autonomy and innovation), higher levels of work activities related to information and people, and lower levels of manual activity at baseline were related to higher initial levels of cognitive ability. Higher work stress was related to higher baseline fluid ability. These associations were largely not independent of control variables. Higher social integration at work was related to less steep increase in crystallized intelligence and higher work stress was related to less decline in processing speed. In sum, our findings were more in line with selection rather than with enrichment effects, with the caveat that our findings rely on work variables taken at baseline. We discuss potential mechanisms underlying these findings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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感知工作环境和工作活动在中年认知变化中的作用。

先前的研究记录了认知刺激工作与认知表现水平之间的正相关，而纵向关联则不太清楚。我们使用了来自成人发展和老龄化跨学科纵向研究 (ILSE) 的 20 年纵向数据来检查感知的工作环境（自主、创新、社会融合和压力）和来自职业数据库的工作活动（与信息、人员和手动活动）的认知能力轨迹（处理速度、流动和结晶智力）。我们使用了来自 ILSE 中年队列（出生于 1950-52 年）的 374 名参与者的数据，他们在基线工作并且对工作特征和控制变量（包括教育、性别、地区（前东德与西德）、和个人收入（基线平均年龄 = 44 岁，SD = 1，44% 为女性）。认知刺激感知的工作环境（更高水平的自主和创新）、与信息和人员相关的更高水平的工作活动以及基线时较低水平的手动活动与较高的初始认知能力水平相关。较高的工作压力与较高的基线流体能力有关。这些关联在很大程度上不是独立于控制变量的。工作中较高的社会融合度与结晶智力的急剧增加较少有关，而较高的工作压力与处理速度下降较少有关。总而言之，我们的发现更符合选择而不是富集效应，但需要注意的是，我们的发现依赖于基线时的工作变量。我们讨论了这些发现背后的潜在机制。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）。