Age differences in neural activity related to mentalizing during person perception

ABSTRACT

Mentalizing, or thinking about others’ mental states, shapes social interactions. Older adults (OA) have reduced mentalizing capacities reflected by lower medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) activation. The current study assessed if OA’ lower mPFC activation reflects less spontaneous mentalizing during person perception. Younger adults (YA) and OA viewed ingroup White and outgroup Black and Asian faces and completed a mentalizing task during fMRI. Afterward, they completed a task in which they inferred mental states from faces. Using an mPFC region defined by the mentalizing task, OA had lower activity than YA during person perception. OA’ mPFC activity toward faces positively related to their mentalizing outside the scanner. The extent of OA’ lower mPFC activation during person perception may depend on their actual detection of mental states in faces. Further, YA’, but not OA’, mPFC activity distinguished between outgroups. OA’ lower mentalizing-related mPFC activity may reduce their ability to individuate outgroup members.     

Fulfilment of intention and desire in children's judgements of emotion for sociomoral events

This study investigated whether children appreciate that enacting an intention can emotionally affect an agent separately from whether the agent's desire is fulfilled. Children ages 5–11 years and adults heard several vignettes about an agent who intended to take another child's toy in which the agent's intention was either enacted or blocked and desire was fulfilled or unfulfilled. The effect of intention on judgements of the agent's emotion varied according to desire fulfilment and age. Overall, participants judged that an agent who acted intentionally to fulfil a desire felt happier than an agent whose intention was blocked. When the agent's desire was unfulfilled, the effect of enacting an intention varied by age. Five‐ to 6‐year‐olds judged that acting intentionally could decrease the negative emotion associated with an unfulfilled desire. The findings show relatively early appreciation of intentionality in children's judgements of emotion. Happy victimizer attributions decreased between 5 and 8 years, but attributions of positive emotion to transgressors did not vary by intentionality. The relationships between intentionality, agency, and emotion are discussed.     

FAMILY AND JOB INFLUENCES ON ROLE SATISFACTION OF EMPLOYED RURAL MOTHERS

One hundred fifty rural employed mothers were surveyed to determine family and job predictors of satisfaction with the dual-work role. Findings indicated the saliency of job satisfaction variables in determining role satisfaction among this group of women as opposed to hypothesized reference group support variables and nontraditional value orientation variables. Discussion centered on the importance of employment outside the home to life satisfaction, particularly for mothers of older children.