Psychophysiological and subjective indices of emotion as a function of age and gender

Old, middle-aged and young persons of both genders were presented with slides containing pictorial stimuli that varied in emotional content. Each picture was rated on three dimensions: (1) valence; (2) arousal; and (3) dominance, using a 25-point scale. Heart rate, skin conductance, and forehead and cheek EMG were recorded during each slide presentation. The old and middle-aged groups showed greatly attenuated psychophysiological responses, compared to the young group. However, the old and middle-aged subjects used more extreme ratings than the young subjects on both the valence and arousal dimensions. Females were more valence-sensitive than males, but males in general used more extreme ratings of arousal than females. These results suggest a tendency to report increased felt emotion but decreased physiological response to emotional stimuli across the life span.