The effect of ageing on the recollection of emotional and neutral pictures

This study investigated age-related differences in recognition memory for emotional and neutral pictures. Younger and older participants were asked to rate pictures according to their emotional valence, arousal, and visual complexity. Two weeks later they had to recognise these pictures and the states of awareness associated with memory were assessed with the “remember/know/guess” paradigm. We found that, although the influence of emotion on recognition accuracy (as assessed by d′) was similar in both age groups, the tendency for positive and negative pictures to create a rich recollective experience was weaker in older adults. In addition, “remember” responses were more often based on a recollection of emotional reactions in older than in younger participants. We suggest that the elderly tend to focus on their feelings when confronted with emotional pictures, which could have impaired their memory for the contextual information associated with these stimuli.     

The effect of ageing on the recollection of emotional and neutral pictures

This study investigated age-related differences in recognition memory for emotional and neutral pictures. Younger and older participants were asked to rate pictures according to their emotional valence, arousal, and visual complexity. Two weeks later they had to recognise these pictures and the states of awareness associated with memory were assessed with the "remember/know/guess" paradigm. We found that, although the influence of emotion on recognition accuracy (as assessed by d') was similar in both age groups, the tendency for positive and negative pictures to create a rich recollective experience was weaker in older adults. In addition, "remember" responses were more often based on a recollection of emotional reactions in older than in younger participants. We suggest that the elderly tend to focus on their feelings when confronted with emotional pictures, which could have impaired their memory for the contextual information associated with these stimuli.     

The relationship between DSM-IV cluster B personality disorders and psychopathy according to Hare's criteria: clarification and resolution of previous contradictions

This study examines the relationship between DSM-cluster B personality disorders (PDs) and psychopaths according to Hare's criteria as detected by the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL:SV) in 299 violent offenders. To clarify some contradictions among several previous studies on this issue, individual cluster B PDs were looked at alone, excluding any cases of comorbidity with other PDs of this cluster. We found highly significant relationships between antisocial and borderline PD and Factor II of the PCL and a highly significant correlation between narcissistic PD and Factor I of the PCL. These results were to be expected from the theoretical basis of the development of the PCL and provide a contribution to the construct validity of the PCL, which until now has not been validated on such a large sample in Germany.