Introduction: The study examined age-related differences between young and older adults’ emotional and psychological experience as well as cognitive functioning throughout different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy.Materials and Methods: Participants were interviewed by phone when confined at home during the national lockdown (T1-May 2020; N = 138 young adults; N = 119 older adults) and after the first wave of contagions, when restrictions were discarded (T2-September 2020; N = 52 young adults; N = 59 older adults). A sub-sample also participated in a third assessment (T3-December 2020). Participants completed questionnaires assessing their emotional and psychological functioning (i.e., positive and negative affect, perceived social and emotional loneliness, resilience) along with memory tasks (Backward Digit Span task and words list recall).Results: Although individuals reported less positive and more negative emotions during the lockdown than at T2, results showed that older adults displayed overall fewer negative emotions and greater resilience than young adults. The latter were those who reported feeling more emotionally lonely when compared to their older counterpart during the lockdown than afterward. Older adults’ advantage in emotional and psychological functioning was also confirmed 7 months after the national lockdown. Only age-related differences in favor of young adults for the memory tasks were found. The measures of interest were also susceptible to mood and/or concerns of COVID-19 effects.Discussion: These findings further highlight the age-related advantage of older adults managing the emotional and psychological experience even when facing an unexpected, prolonged, and unpredictable, stressful life event such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study newly investigated the joint contribution of metamemory and personality (traits and facets) in explaining episodic memory (EM) performance in typically aging older adults. Forty-eight participants (age range: 64–75 years) completed a self-paced word list (SPWL) recall task, a metamemory questionnaire assessing perceived control and potential improvement (PCPI) and self-efficacy and satisfaction (SESA) regarding one’s mental abilities (e.g., memory), and the Big-Five Questionnaire. Based on the SPWL encoding strategies reported, participants were then classified as effective (N = 20) or ineffective (N = 28) memory strategy users. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that a better SPWL performance was predicted by higher levels of PCPI, Scrupulousness and Dominance personality facets. Effective memory strategy users, then, showed higher SPWL performance and Dominance (Energy facet) than ineffective ones. These findings suggest that both specific metamemory processes and personality facets predict better EM performance in older adults. Moreover, personality dispositions relating to Dominance seem to characterize individuals adopting effective memory strategies to support EM performance. These results represent first evidence of the role of both metamemory and personality—facets—in explaining older adults’ EM performance, which should thus be considered when assessing or training EM in old age.