When more is less: failure to compress discourse with re-telling in normal ageing

When young adults tell the same story repeatedly, their narratives become progressively more concise. Although impaired discourse production has been reliably demonstrated in the elderly, changes in narrative production with repetition have not been investigated in this cohort. Thirty young (aged 18-49 years, M=28.77, SD=9.73) and thirty elderly (aged 65+ years, M=73.57, SD=6.80) adults completed a discourse production task involving narrative construction using an eight-frame cartoon. Narratives were repeated 4 consecutive times. Variables analysed were narrative duration, word count and fluency (words/sec). For all variables the compression index for the elderly group was significantly lower than that for young participants. Further, compared to their younger counterparts, elderly adults were less able to improve the cohesion of their narratives with repetition. These findings suggest that the elderly have a reduced capacity to generate and refine discourse representations.     

Ageism and death: effects of mortality salience and perceived similarity to elders on reactions to elderly people

The present research investigated the hypotheses that elderly people can be reminders of our mortality and that concerns about our own mortality can therefore instigate ageism. In Study 1, college-age participants who saw photos of two elderly people subsequently showed more death accessibility than participants who saw photos of only younger people. In Study 2, making mortality salient for participants increased distancing from the average elderly person and decreased perceptions that the average elderly person possesses favorable attitudes. Mortality salience did not affect ratings of teenagers. In Study 3, these mortality salience effects were moderated by prior reported similarity to elderly people. Distancing from, and derogation of, elderly people after mortality salience occurred only in participants who, weeks before the study, rated their personalities as relatively similar to the average elderly person's. Discussion addresses distinguishing ageism from other forms of prejudice, as well as possibilities for reducing ageism.     

Evaluating the valence of remembered events: the importance of age and self-relevance

We examined the role of self-relevance in older and younger adults' evaluations of remembered events. In Study 1, participants rated the positivity of their own positive, negative and neutral memories as well as those of a same-aged peer. Older adults rated events more positively than younger adults did, regardless of the memory source. In Study 2, we showed that this age difference is not due to differences in the valence of the events that older and younger adults reported. This effect appears to reflect the more positive mindset of older people, rather than an intention to regulate emotions associated with personal experiences. Finally, there was one effect for self relevance: Regardless of age, participants rated their own remembered events as more emotionally intense than those of a same aged peer.     

Aging and the intrusion superiority effect in visuo-spatial working memory

This study investigated the active component of visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM) in younger and older adults testing the hypotheses that elderly individuals have a poorer performance than younger ones and that errors in active VSWM tasks depend, at least partially, on difficulties in avoiding intrusions (i.e., avoiding already activated information). In two experiments, participants were presented with sequences of matrices on which three positions were pointed out sequentially: their task was to process all the positions but indicate only the final position of each sequence. Results showed a poorer performance in the elderly compared to the younger group and a higher number of intrusion (errors due to activated but irrelevant positions) rather than invention (errors consisting of pointing out a position never indicated by the experiementer) errors. The number of errors increased when a concurrent task was introduced (Experiment 1) and it was affected by different patterns of matrices (Experiment 2). In general, results show that elderly people have an impaired VSWM and produce a large number of errors due to inhibition failures. However, both the younger and the older adults' visuo-spatial working memory was affected by the presence of activated irrelevant information, the reduction of the available resources, and task constraints.     

圣人之道，吾性自足：自我概念对生命意义的影响

生命意义是人类生命存在的永恒追求。东西方的理论均认为意义源于个体内在的自我结构,即自我概念。为了验证自我概念对生命意义的影响,对68名大学生进行实验研究。现场实验结果显示,控制生命意义基线水平和正负情绪后,自我概念仍显著预测生命意义;且自我概念提高组的生命意义得分显著高于降低组。行为实验结果显示,在高、低生命意义词汇记忆任务中,相比于低生命意义词,自我概念提高组对高生命意义词的再认率更高;相比于高生命意义词,自我概念降低组对低生命意义词的再认率更高。这些结果均表明,自我概念影响生命意义。结果暗示构建积极的自我概念形成强大的内心才是个体生命意义构建的根本途径。     

Meaning in life of young and elderly adults: An examination of the factorial validity and invariance of the Life Regard Index

The main question of the present investigation was whether the Life Regard Index (LRI) is an adequate instrument to study possible differences between young and elderly adults with regard to experienced meaning in life. Participants in this study were a group of 206 young adults (M= 17.8 years, 49.0% female) and a group of 373 elderly adults (M = 65.90 years, 58.8% female). Respondents completed a Dutch paper-and-pencil version of the LRI. The LISREL confirmatory factor analytic model was used to test for the equivalence of measurement and of structure of the instrument. Results show that in both age groups the items of the LRI were found to be distributed to the two a priori dimensions of meaning in life, Framework and Fulfillment. Only the factor loadings of the Framework items were invariant across both groups. Neither the error of measurement, nor the structure of the underlying concept were equivalent for young and elderly adults. Young adults were found to experience less meaning in life than the elderly.     

Executive functioning in normal aging: a study of action planning using the Zoo Map Test

A particularly important aspect of executive functioning involves the ability to form and carry out complex plans, that is to say planning. This study aimed to investigate planning in 18 older and 16 younger normal participants using an ecological planning subtask derived from the Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome test battery, the "Zoo Map Test." There are two trials. The first trial consists of a "high demand" version of the subtask in which the participants must plan in advance the order in which they will visit designated locations in a zoo (formulation level). In the second, or "low demand" version, the participant is simply required to follow a concrete externally imposed strategy to reach the locations to visit (execution level). The two-way ANOVAs mainly showed more difficulties in elderly adults than in younger adults, more difficulties in formulation level than in execution level, and lastly a greater difference between formulation and execution in older participants than in younger adults. These results suggest that elderly participants have some problems developing logical strategies whereas they are able to execute complex predetermined plans.     

The Use and Benefits of External Memory Aids in Older and Younger Adults

We examined the spontaneous use and benefits of external memory aids in older (aged 60–85 years) and younger (aged 17–31 years) adults. In Study 1, participants were or were not given the opportunity to use a memory aid in a phone message recall task. In Study 2, a memory aid was available for one of two similar tasks. Participants' spontaneous use of external memory aids was measured. On the Memory Compensation Questionnaire, older adults reported using external memory aids more frequently but were no more likely than younger adults to take notes on the messages. Older adults benefitted from the availability of notes in both studies; younger adults benefitted when the memory task was more challenging. The results illustrate the value of external memory aids and suggest that older adults may underutilize them. The findings also raise questions about the relation between self‐reported and actual use of strategies in everyday life. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Two-Value Model of Preventive Health Behavior

Correlational analyses examined the effects of value "availability" and "relevance" on the relation between people's values (Rokeach, 1967) and their directrisk (DR) and indirect-risk (IR) health behavior (Langlie, 1977). The DR behavior of 181 female undergraduates was more strongly associated with their valuation of "an exciting life" than of "health"; a measure of "relative health value," in which the value of health was evaluated relative to the value of an exciting life, showed the strongest covariation with both their DR and IR actions. Thus, compared to health, an exciting life appeared to be more consciously available to these participants. Further, whereas the value of an exciting life and the measure of relative health value seemed to be regarded as relevant guides to both types of behavior, the value of health did not. Hence these results suggest that a two-value model of health behavior, based on the measure of relative health value, may be the best predictor of the health behavior of younger people. Among a sample of 113 older adults, the values of health and an exciting life were equally able to account for DR, but not IR, actions, suggesting that these values were equally available to these participants. Only the value of health, however, appeared to be regarded as a relevant guide to their IR actions, thereby suggesting that, whereas the two-value model may account for the DR behavior of older adults, the value of health alone may be a better predictor of their IR actions. The. implications for health research and education are discussed.     

仪式动作、象征意义和积极情绪增强控制感：双路径机制

以中国普米族人的传统文化仪式“敬锅庄”为例, 采用回忆任务、创设新颖仪式等方法考察仪式动作、象征意义和积极情绪对普米族青少年及成人的控制感的影响。结果表明, 熟悉敬锅庄仪式的动作、象征意义或者具有更多情感体验的青少年的控制感更强。仪式动作与象征意义对控制感的影响存在双路径机制：仪式动作直接增强个体的控制感, 象征意义通过积极情绪间接增强个体的控制感。象征意义与控制感的关系还因仪式主体不同有所区别：祈求庇佑通过积极情绪间接增强青少年的控制感, 表达感恩通过积极情绪间接增强成年人的控制感。研究结果对探究仪式动作、象征意义和积极情绪对个体控制感的影响有重要启示。     

Stronger evidence for own-age effects in memory for older as compared to younger adults

Three studies examined whether younger and older adults better recall information associated with their own than information related to another age group. All studies compared young and older adults with respect to incidental memory for previously presented stimuli (Studies 1 and 2: everyday objects; Study 3: vacation advertisements) that had been randomly paired with an age-related cue (e.g., photo of a young or an old person; the word “young” or “old”). All three studies found the expected interaction of participants’ age and age-associated information. Studies 1 and 2 showed that the memory bias for information arbitrarily associated with one's own as compared to another age group was significant for older adults only. However, when age-relevance was introduced in a context of equal importance to younger and older adults (information about vacations paired either with pictures of young or older adults), the memory bias for one's own age group was clearly present for both younger and older adults (Study 3).     

死亡启动影响自我参照记忆的年龄差异

以往研究表明对死亡不可避免性的认识使人类产生死亡焦虑,并且为了降低该焦虑,年轻人倾向于抑制生理自我加工;然而相比年轻人,老年人对死亡的接受程度更高,并且自我抑制能力减弱。因此本研究采用死亡启动范式,探讨了死亡对自我相关记忆的影响以及可能存在的年龄差异。实验一以大学生为被试,结果发现死亡启动后,个体对自我相关信息的再认率显著低于消极启动后;实验二以老年人为被试,结果发现死亡启动后,个体对自我相关信息的再认率与消极启动后无差异。上述结果说明,死亡启动对自我相关记忆的影响存在年龄差异。在大学生中,死亡启动使个体抑制自我相关信息,而在老年人中该抑制效应并不存在。     

Religious and non-religious predictors of life satisfaction in a sample of American college students

To promote understanding of young people behavioural mechanisms related to health, we evaluated religious attribution, meaning in life, and emotion regulation strategies as predictors of life satisfaction in the sample of 791 religious and non-religious American college students. Participants completed Religious Attribution Scale, Meaning in Life Questionnaire, Satisfaction with Life Scale, and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. A multiple linear regression revealed that the strongest predictor of life satisfaction for both groups was the presence of meaning in life, followed by the use of cognitive reappraisal. We found that participants with high levels of presence of meaning in life, regardless of their religious identity, were able to benefit from the use of cognitive reappraisal. Presence of meaning in life and emotion regulation strategy reside outside of the religious confines, supporting the notion that religiosity is not a singular meaning making system. By identifying constructs related to life satisfaction, we can acquire better understanding of what mechanisms contribute to positive coping strategies that religious and non-religious young adults use to achieve positive life outcomes.     

Recognizing images: The role of motivational significance,complexity, social content,age, and gender

Memory for affective events plays an important role in determining people’s behavior and well-being. Its determinants are far from being completely understood. We investigated how recognition memory for affective pictures depends on pictures’ motivational significance (valence and arousal), complexity (figure-ground compositions vs. scenes), and social content (pictures with people vs. without people) and on observers’ age and gender. Younger, middle-aged, and older adults viewed 84 pictures depicting real-life situations. After a break, the participants viewed 72 pictures, half of which had been viewed previously and half of which were novel, and were asked to endorse whether each picture was novel or had been presented previously. Hits, false alarms, and overall performance (discrimination accuracy) were our dependent variables. The main findings were that, across participants, recognition memory was better for unpleasant than pleasant pictures and for pictures depicting people than pictures without people. Low-arousal pictures were more accurately recognized than high-arousal pictures, and this effect was significantly larger among middle-aged and older adults than younger adults. Recognition memory worsened across adulthood, and this decline was steeper among men than women. Middle-aged and older women outperformed their male counterparts. This study suggests that how well we are able to successfully discriminate previously seen pictorial stimuli from novel stimuli depends on several pictures’ properties related to their motivational significance and content, and on observer’s age and gender.     

Sociality and intergenerational transfer of older adults’ nostalgia

Interest in nostalgia has blossomed, yet its nature in older adulthood and potential for intergenerational transfer to younger adults has remained neglected. In Experiment 1, we focused on the content of older adults’ nostalgic (vs. ordinary) recollections and asked whether older adults’ nostalgia could be transferred to younger adults. We showed that nostalgia expressed in older adults’ narratives was positively associated with nostalgia reported by young-adult readers. In Experiment 2, undergraduates read a nostalgic or ordinary narrative written by an older adult. Then they rated their own nostalgia as well as their perceived social connectedness, self-continuity, and meaning in life. Exposure to older adults’ nostalgic (vs. ordinary) narratives promoted concurrent nostalgia among young adults, along with associated psychological benefits (social connectedness, self-continuity, meaning). The findings illustrate the potential for intergenerational transfer of nostalgia through written narratives, and attest to the universality of nostalgic themes across younger and older adults.     

The role of mental rotation and age in spatial perspective‐taking tasks: when age does not impair perspective‐taking performance

The relationship between self‐evaluation of sense of direction, mental rotation, and performance in map learning and pointing tasks has been investigated in a life‐span perspective. Study 1 compared younger and older people in the Mental Rotation Test (MRT) and on the Sense of Direction and Spatial Representation (SDSR) Scale. Older people achieved higher scores on the SDSR Scale, but a lower performance in MRT compared with younger participants. In Study 2, groups of younger and older adults, one of each, were matched in the MRT, and pointing tasks in aligned and counter‐aligned perspectives were administered. Our results showed that, when so matched, older participants performed better than the younger counterparts in perspective‐taking tasks, but their performance was worse in map learning. Aligned pointing was performed better than the counter‐aligned task in both age groups, showing an alignment effect. Furthermore the performance in the counter‐aligned pointing was significantly correlated with MRT scores. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Age-related differences in affective and cognitive empathy: self-report and performance-based evidence

The correlation between age and empathy is not clear, with prior findings yielding mixed and inconsistent results. Here, we distinguished between two aspects of empathy and respectively investigated the effects of age on the affective and cognitive facets of empathy using a self-report measure (interpersonal reactivity index, IRI) and performance-based tasks (viewing films). The results showed that older adults manifested age-related deficits in both trait and state cognitive empathy, with the latter being positively associated with memory. Otherwise, the overall affective empathy increased in the elderly, but the age-related differences in affective empathy may be qualified by the valence of the film clips. Specifically, older participants showed more empathic concern (EC) and less personal distress (PD) to other people’s emotions than the younger participants for the distress film. Interestingly, for the amusing film, older participants demonstrated more EC and PD. Overall, the two aspects of empathy have different development trajectories.     

Studies of Motor Function in Schizophrenia: III. Steadiness

Younger and older adults performed lexical decisions on ambiguous words, unambiguous words, and pseudowords, and simultaneously responded to an auditory probe presented at stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) of 90, 180, or 270 ms. For both age groups, lexical decisions and probe responses were faster for ambiguous words than for unambiguous words, and slowest for pseudowords. For the older adults, but not the younger adults, lexical decisions were slower when the probe was presented (the dual-task condition), compared with a control condition in which the lexical decision was performed alone. The older participants also showed slower tone-detection responses in the dual-task condition than when the tone was presented alone. For all participants, proportional tone-detection times (compared with tones in isolation) decreased with increasing SOA, but this decrease was less pronounced in the older group. Finally, the time between responses in the dual-task condition was longer for older than for younger adults. The results indicate that word meaning influences the allocation of attention similarly for younger and older adults, but that older adults suffer a cost and become disproportionately slower in processes related to response coordination and output.     

Metaphors can give life meaning

Conceptual metaphor theory offers a perspective on how and when people find meaning in life. Whereas life’s meaning can be difficult to grasp, metaphor compares life to a relatively more concrete and structured concept. Supporting this account, American adults (Study 1) and German undergraduates (Study 2) who framed life as a journey reported more meaning in life. The journey metaphor was particularly beneficial for individuals with low levels of perceived coherence in life (Study 2). Study 3 further explored this pattern of moderation: An accessible metaphor, compared to other life framings, benefited participants who lack a strong meaning framework. Study 4 focused on the mechanism behind metaphor’s influence. Participants who imagined events from their life journey perceived stronger interrelatedness among those events as measured with an analog spatial organization task. Perceived interrelatedness in turn predicted meaning in life, particularly for individuals with a strong preference for well-structured knowledge. Finally, participants who applied their own metaphor to life expressed greater meaning (Study 5), especially those high in personal need for structure (Study 6). An internal meta-analysis of these findings provides cumulative evidence for metaphor’s influence on perceived meaning in life and reveals moderating features of the individual.