Unconscious Semantic Priming Influences Performance of Visuomotor Tasks Differently but the Effects are Similar in Young and Older Adults

We examined the effects of semantic priming of attention on two sequentially presented visuomotor tasks, traffic judgments and saccadic adaptation. Priming was accomplished with the scrambled sentence task: participants formed meaningful sentences from a list of words where a word denoting wide attention focus was involved. The results showed that semantic priming influenced positively saccade adaptation (its’ benefit increased) while it attenuated visuomotor performance in the traffic task (RT of hand movements increased). We found the effects of priming on both tasks’ performance to be comparable in young and older participants. It was suggested that semantic priming effect on visuomotor tasks depended on the cognitive resources which were needful as for the priming as for the primed task.     

Discriminating Semantic from Episodic Relatedness in Young and Older Adults

ABSTRACT

The ability of young (aged 18–30) and older (aged 60–80) adults to discriminate pre-experimental (semantic) from experimental (episodic) associations was examined. Participants studied a list containing semantically related and unrelated word pairs and then made either associative recognition (Experiments 1a and b) or semantic relatedness (Experiment 2) judgments at various response deadlines. For associative recognition judgments, both young and older adults benefited from semantic relatedness, leading to more hits for related than unrelated pairs, and at the long response deadline, older adults' performance on those pairs matched that of young participants. Also, both young and older adults demonstrated superior discrimination for unrelated lures whose members had originally been studied in related pairs – evidence for recall-to-reject processing in both age groups. In making semantic relatedness judgments, both young and older adults showed an episodic priming effect. When older adults can rely on long-standing associations, their performance resembles that of young adults – both in associative recognition and in episodic priming.     

Different Effects of Dual Task Demands on the Speech of Young and Older Adults

Abstract

Young and older adults provided language samples in response to elicitation questions while concurrently performing 3 different tasks. The language samples were scored on three dimensions: fluency, grammatical complexity, and content. Previous research has shown that older adults use a restricted speech register that is grammatically less complex than young adults’ and has suggested that this restricted speech register is buffered from the costs of dual task demands. This hypothesis was tested by comparing language samples collected during a baseline condition with those produced while the participants were performing the concurrent tasks. The results indicate that young and older adults adopt different strategies when confronted with dual task demands. Young adults shift to a restricted speech register when confronted with dual task demands. Older adults, who were already using a restricted speech register, became less fluent although the grammatical complexity and informational content of their speech was preserved. Hence, some but not all aspects of older adults’ speech are buffered from dual task demands.     

The Persistence of Priming: Exploring Long-lasting Syntactic Priming Effects in Children and Adults

The implicit learning account of syntactic priming proposes that the same mechanism underlies syntactic priming and language development, providing a link between a child and adult language processing. The present experiment tested predictions of this account by comparing the persistence of syntactic priming effects in children and adults. Four-year-olds and adults first described transitive events after hearing transitive primes, constituting an exposure phase that established priming effects for passives. The persistence of this priming effect was measured in a test phase as participants described further transitive events but no longer heard primes. Their production of passives was compared to a baseline group who described the same pictures without any exposure to primes. Neither immediate nor long-term priming effects differed between children and adults but both children and adults showed significant immediate and persistent effects of the priming when the test phase occurred immediately after the exposure phase and when a short delay separated the exposure and test phase. The implications of these results for an implicit learning account of syntactic priming are discussed.     

Reminiscence as Continuity: Comparison of Young and Older Adults

This study empirically investigates key propositions of a continuity theory approach to reminiscence. According to continuity theory, individuals seek familiarity in the face of uncertainty or impending change, which can accompany the aging process. The reminiscence behavior of young (n = 43) and older (n = 47) adults was compared to ascertain whether significant differences would emerge between the two populations concerning how often they reminisce and their use of reminiscence during transitional periods. Also of interest were differences in potential links between the content of reminiscence episodes and postreminiscence affect. Young adults in this sample reminisced significantly more frequently than older adults and were more likely to reminisce during times of change than were older adults. In addition, there was a direct relationship between the content of reminiscence episodes and postreminiscence affect, with older adults reporting greater emotional satisfaction after recalling the past than did younger adults. Findings lend support to continuity theory: Reminiscence occurs throughout the life span and should not be conceptualized as occurring most frequently in old age.     

Working Memory for Item and Temporal Information in Younger and Older Adults

ABSTRACT

Two experiments examined age differences in mechanisms hypothesized to affect activation of item and temporal information in working memory. Activation levels were inferred from the ability to reject n-back lures matching items in different temporal positions. Information with the least decay had a performance advantage over less recent information, but was susceptible to the same temporal context errors found in all adjacent-to-target lure positions. Lures most distant from the current item showed a performance rebound. The pattern of increased magnitudes of age effects at adjacent-to-target positions indicated a reduction in older adults' working memory for temporal context information above and beyond item memory declines. Results overall support the emphasis on context information as a critical factor in working memory and cognitive aging.     

Temporal Discounting of Hypothetical Monetary Rewards by Adolescents,Adults, and Older Adults

The Psychological Record - The present experiment examined temporal discounting across 3 different age bands: adolescents, adults, and older adults (mean ages 14, 46, and 73 years, respectively). A...     

判断框架对时序知觉位置启动效应的影响

研究采用包含两种判断框架（判断刺激出现的先后次序）的时序判断任务探讨了决策偏向对时序知觉位置启动效应的影响。实验结果表明,时序知觉中存在着位置启动效应,而且在两个靶刺激出现时间间隔不同时,被试在“哪个靶刺激先出现”和“哪个靶刺激后出现”两种判断框架下的正确率存在显著差异,但在两个靶刺激同时出现时并没有出现显著的判断框架效应。因此,本研究推测时序知觉位置启动效应的作用机制不仅包括知觉增强加工过程,而且也与认知决策有关,这为反应偏向理论提供了新的支持证据。     

加减法心算老化研究

以223名60～85岁老年人及30名大学生作为被试,对加减心算能力的老化过程进行研究。任务为加减法及加减法的组合,包括有：单加、单减、先加后减、先减后加、连加及连减。结果表明,年龄与心算类型存在明显的交互作用。单加及单减两种最基本的心算能力对其它类型心算成绩的作用,在不同年龄段表现不同：对于大学生,单加起主要影响作用,而对于老年人,单减起主要影响作用。     

Modernity and Identity: Themes and Perspectives in the Study of Older Adults

Developments in social gerontology have led to an increased awareness of the relationship between political economy, culture, and personal narrative as influences on social identity in later life. Central to this debate has been a growing interest in lifestyle choice as evidence of a change from modern to postmodern forms of aging. A key component of this process has been the erosion of a predictable framework for an aging identity, previously supplied by the welfare state. It is argued that, alongside the emergence of no-care zones in health and welfare, postmodern ideas on consumerism and the body have led to an assault on identity in old age. As a result, we may be seeing the emergence of no-identity zones which fail to sustain an authentic framework for supporting experiences in old age. A critical gerontology should include the study of identity as central to understanding the disjunction between aging from within and aging within society.     

Priming of Pop-out in Visual Search: A Comparison of Young and Old Adults

An experiment examined potential age-related differences in priming of pop-out (Maljkovic & Nakayama, 1994, 1996, 2000; McPeek, Maljkovic & Nakayama, 1999), an implicit, memory-based phenomenon that facilitates repeated gaze or attention shifts between visually similar stimuli. Older and younger adults performed a visual search task requiring them to judge the orientation of a color singleton target. Trial-to-trial repetition of target color and/or target position primed attentional selection for both age groups, producing faster and more accurate responses. Age-related increases in the strength of priming by target color appeared to arise from generalized slowing in older observers’, but marginal age-related increases in the strength of priming by target position remained even after transformation to account for generalized slowing.     

Bartlett Revisited: Reconfiguration of Long-Term Memory in Young and Older Adults

This study was performed after the tradition of F. C. Bartlett (1932), who demonstrated that memory reconfigures over time. The authors investigated the memory of young and older adults to examine the degree to which the aging process influences reconfigurative tendencies. From an initial sample of 53 participants, 20 young and 19 older adults completed 6 tests of recall for Bartlett's original text materials over an 84-day period. Consistent with the broad conclusions of Bartlett's study, reconfiguration was observed: Both young and older adults introduced errors into memory. Older adult recall was lower overall than that of young adults, and recall performance diminished over time. However, there was no difference between the performances of young and older adults with respect to incorrectly recalled intrusive elements.     

Identity Status,Gender, and Social Comparison Among Young Adults

The aim of this study was to investigate identity status globally and across identity domains among young Swedish adult women and men. Also, potential differences in social comparison among identity statuses were evaluated. The results showed that most of the 124 participants (50% women, M_age 33.29 years) were assigned to an achieved global identity and had made identity-defining commitments across domains. Gender differences in identity status were found in the occupational and parenthood domains. In addition, differences in social comparison orientation were found only in the parenthood domain, whereas those assigned to moratorium scored higher in social comparison than did those assigned to foreclosure and diffusion. These results bring important knowledge to our understanding of identity during young adulthood.     

Sequential Performance in Young and Older Adults: Evidence of Chunking and Inhibition

ABSTRACT

Two experiments were conducted to examine possible sources of age-related decline in sequential performance: age differences in sequence representation, retrieval of sequence elements, and efficiency of inhibitory processes. Healthy young and older participants learned a sequence of eight animal drawings in fixed order, then monitored for these targets within trials of mis-ordered stimuli, responding only when targets were shown in the correct order. Responses were slower for odd numbered targets, suggesting that participants spontaneously organized the sequence in two-element chunks. Perseverations (responses to previously relevant targets) served as an index of inhibitory inefficiency. Efficiency of chunk retrieval and self-inhibition were lower for older than for younger adults. Increasing environmental support in Experiment 2 through overt articulation of current chunk elements showed a pattern of results similar to Experiment 1, with particular benefit for older adults. The findings suggest an underlying susceptibility to interference in old age.     

The Effects of Ego Identity,Gender Role,and Attachment on Depression and Anxiety in Young Adults

Main and interaction effects of Ego Identity Status/Type (Bennion & Adams, 1986), Gender-Role Orientation (Bem, 1981a), and Adult Attachment Style (Feeney, Noller, & Hanrahan, 1994) on Depression (Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996) and Anxiety (Beck, Epstein, Brown, & Steer, 1988) were examined. Participants included adults 18 years and older from a midwestern U.S. university. Multivariate analysis revealed significant interactions between ego identity status and gender-role orientation only for participants with an insecure attachment style. A significant main effect for attachment style revealed that secure individuals were less anxious and depressed than insecure individuals. The influence of gender (rather than gender role) is explored. The influence of ethnicity on levels of depression and anxiety for various ego identity statuses and clinical implications are discussed.     

Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21: Factor Structure and Test-Retest Invariance,and Temporal Stability and Uniqueness of Latent Factors in Older Adults

This study examined the factor structure and test-retest invariance, and temporal stability and uniqueness of the latent factors (depression, anxiety, and stress) of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995) in group a of 269 older adults (age ranging from 60 to 85 years) from the general community. Participants completed the DASS-21 twice, 3 months apart. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of their ratings at Time 1 indicated support for the original 3-factor oblique model (factors for depression, anxiety, and stress). Additional analyses showed support for test-retest invariance for both the measurement (configural, metric and thresholds) and structural (variances and covariances) components of this model. Results also indicated temporal stability and uniqueness of the latent factors. The practical, theoretical, research and clinical implications of the findings are discussed.     

汉字间空格大小对青年人和老年人阅读的影响：眼动研究

拼音文字阅读的眼动研究发现,老年人会采取一种“风险”阅读策略来弥补因视力和认知的自然老化所造成的阅读困难。本研究通过控制字间空格的大小对青年人和老年人汉语阅读过程的眼动模式进行了比较,结果发现,相比青年人,老年人读得更慢,有更长的注视时间和更多的回视,这些研究结果与拼音文字一致;但更为重要的发现是,相比青年人,老年人有更短的向前眼跳距离,缩小汉语字间空格给老年人阅读造成了更为显著的困难,但扩大字间空格两组被试表现出相似的阅读眼动模式。结果说明,汉语阅读中老年人并不使用拼音文字研究中发现的“风险”阅读策略,反而采用了更为谨慎的策略,原因可能在于,作为拼音文字阅读中的重要视觉线索,空格是影响两种语言下老年人阅读加工策略不同的重要因素。