Cross-sectional association between Subjective Cognitive Decline and Pragmatic Ability, but not Theory of Mind, in healthy aging

Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) refers to perceived cognitive deterioration despite unimpaired performance on objective cognitive tests. This study investigated its cross-sectional relationship with pragmatic ability and Theory of Mind (ToM) in 44 healthy older adults aged 65–89 years. Participants completed the Assessment Battery for Communication (ABaCo), the Multidimensional Assessment of Subjective Cognitive Decline (MASCoD), and measures of cognition and ToM. Higher SCD scores were associated with poorer linguistic pragmatic performance (r = −.48, p < .001), but not with other pragmatic domains, traditional cognitive measures, or ToM. Linguistic pragmatics and psychological manifestations independently accounted for SCD scores, jointly explaining 36.5% of the variance. These findings suggest that linguistic pragmatic assessment may capture subtle communicative difficulties associated with subjective cognitive complaints beyond psychological distress. Longitudinal research is needed to establish whether these difficulties predict subsequent cognitive decline.