Walking While Memorizing: Age-Related Differences in Compensatory Behavior

This study investigated predictions of the life-span theory of selection, optimization, and compensation, focusing on different patterns of task priority during dual-task performance in younger and older adults. Cognitive (memorizing) and sensorimotor (walking a narrow track) performance were measured singly, concurrently, and when task difficulty was manipulated. Use of external aids was measured to provide another index of task priority. Before dual-task testing, participants received extensive training with each component task and external aid. Age differences in dual-task costs were greater in memory performance than in walking, suggesting that older adults prioritized walking over memory. Further, when given a choice of compensatory external aids to use, older adults optimized walking, whereas younger adults optimized memory performance. The results have broad implications for systemic theories of cognitive and sensorimotor aging, and the costs and benefits of assistive devices and environmental support for older populations.     

Interference and facilitation among personal goals: differential associations with subjective well-being and persistent goal pursuit

Three studies demonstrate that mutual facilitation and interference among personal goals are distinct characteristics rather than mutually exclusive opposites and have different functions for psychological well-being and goal pursuit. The three studies vary in design (cross-sectional, short-termlongitudinal) and follow a multimethod approach using questionnaires, diaries, and objective behavioral information. Results show that interference among goals (resulting from resource constraints and incompatible goal attainment strategies) is negatively associated with trait and state well-being, whereas mutual facilitation among goals (resulting from instrumental goal relations and overlapping goal attainment strategies) is positively associated with involvement in goal pursuit.     

Life-management strategies of selection, optimization, and compensation: measurement by self-report and construct validity

The authors examined the usefulness of a self-report measure for elective selection, loss-based selection. optimization, and compensation (SOC) as strategies of life management. The expected 4-factor solution was obtained in 2 independent samples (N = 218, 14-87 years; N = 181, 18-89 years) exhibiting high retest stability across 4 weeks (r(tt) = .74-82). As expected, middle-aged adults showed higher endorsement of SOC than younger and older adults. Moreover, SOC showed meaningful convergent and divergent associations to other psychological constructs (e.g., thinking styles, NEO) and evinced positive correlations with measures of well-being which were maintained after other personality and motivational constructs were controlled for. Initial evidence on behavioral associations involving SOC obtained in other studies is summarized.     

Coordination between breathing and mental grouping of pianistic finger movements

6 pianists (age 22 to 43 years) performed a simple finger exercise at a spontaneously chosen most comfortable tempo on a Yamaha-Disklavier piano. Five versions of the exercise, notated in quarter notes, were presented with different types of meters: (1) 3/4, (2) 4/4, (3) 5/4, (4) 6/4, and (5) 7/4. The onsets of finger strokes were measured while respiration was recorded in parallel by means of a thermistor placed at the front of the dominant nostril. The chosen tempo (finger-beat-rate) was about 3 Hz on all trials but not exactly constant. Correspondingly, the meter-rate chosen was faster for 3/4 and 4/4 meter (around 1 Hz), slower for 5/4, 6/4, and 7/4 meter (around 0.5 Hz). Mean breathing rate while playing the piano (0.38 Hz) was significantly higher than while resting (0.22 Hz, p<.05). Pooling the data of all subjects, the ratios of instantaneous meter and breathing rates clustered around different integer values, depending on the type of meter. Also the individual data indicated integer ratios between instantaneous meter and breathing rates. Even periods of constant phase relations between onsets of the meter and of inspiration could be observed. Thus, the mental process of grouping the same piece of music by various musical meters interacts with unconscious breathing rhythm.     

The Professional Context as a Predictor for Response Distortion in the Adaption-Innovation Inventory—An Investigation Using Mixture Distribution Item Response Theory Models

The Adaption-Innovation Inventory (AII), originally developed by Kirton (1976), is a widely used self-report instrument for measuring problem-solving styles at work. The present study investigates how scores on the AII are affected by different response styles. Data are collected from a combined sample (N = 738) of students, employees, and entrepreneurs. Using mixture distribution item response theory, we identify individuals with normal and distorted response styles. Additionally, we investigate antecedents and consequences of distorted responses. For antecedents, results indicate influences of cognitive schemata resulting from an individual's professional work context. For consequences, distorted responses show different relationships with occupational outcomes in comparison to normal responses.     

A Modal Sortal Logic

An intensional semantic system for languages containing, in their logical syntax, sortal quantifiers, sortal identities, (second-order) quantifiers over sortals and the necessity operator is constructed. This semantics provides non-standard assignments to predicate expressions, which diverge in kind from the entities assigned to sortal terms by the same semantic system. The nature of the entities assigned to predicate expressions shows, at the same time, that there is an internal semantic connection between those expressions and sortal terms. A formal logical system is formulated that is proved to be absolutely consistent, sound and complete with respect to the intensional semantic system.     

Individual Differences in Habitual Social Goals and Daily Well‐Being: The Role of Age and Relationship Closeness

There is a robust evidence that social approach goals (i.e. approach of positive social outcomes) have positive consequences and social avoidance goals (i.e. avoidance of negative social outcomes) have negative consequences for subjective well‐being in young adulthood. Little is known about individual differences in social goals in later life. The current diary study with young (n = 212), middle‐aged (n = 232), and older adults (n = 229) tested––and supported––the hypotheses that age (i) differentially predicts the strength of habitual approach and avoidance goals in close and peripheral relationships and (ii) moderates the relation of approach and avoidance goals in peripheral (but not close) relationships and daily outcomes (subjective well‐being, subjective health, and satisfaction with social encounters). Older adults compared to younger adults reported higher levels of avoidance goals in peripheral (but not close) relationships. Younger adults who reported high levels of approach goals and older adults who reported high levels of avoidance goals in peripheral relationships experienced the most positive daily outcomes. In addition, social goals moderated some of the associations between (positive and negative) daily interactions and daily outcomes. Results underscore the importance of the closeness of social partners for individual differences in social goals across adulthood. © 2019 European Association of Personality Psychology     

From gains to losses: Age-related differences in decisions under risk in a non-monetary gambling task

Lifespan theory suggests a shift from a primary orientation towards attaining gains in young adulthood to preventing losses in older adulthood. The current research tested if this motivational shift is reflected in behavioural and emotional responses to risks in non-monetary gains and losses. Study 1 established in a sample of N = 168 younger (18–30 years) and older adults (65–79 years) that a non-monetary gambling task was experienced similarly by the age groups with respect to arousal and valence of the task, and the willingness to continue playing. In Study 2 (N = 83), differences between young (18–30 years) and older (64–85 years) adults’ risk-taking in this non-monetary gambling task with mixed gambles were tested while assessing physiological responses (event-related heart rate change) to gain and loss feedback. Behavioural – but not physiological – results confirm hypotheses derived from a lifespan motivational framework regarding age-differential effects of gains and losses.