Emotional valence impacts lexical activation and inhibition differently in aging: an emotional Hayling task investigation

Background: Aging is characterized by cognitive changes such as a potential inhibition deficit. However, growing evidence shows that positive valence stimuli enhance performances in older adults to a greater degree than in younger adults. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of the emotional valence of words on lexical activation and inhibition in aging by using a new Emotional Hayling Task. Methods: Thirty-eight younger adults (mean age = 20.11 years) and 38 older adults (mean age = 66.47 years) performed a computerized Emotional Hayling task. Participants had to choose the correct (initiation part) or incorrect (inhibition part) final words of highly predictable incomplete sentences. Final words had a negative or positive emotional valence and were paired for reaction time comparison with neutral words. Results: Response times were faster in younger adults than in older adults in both the initiation and the inhibition parts. In addition, response times indicated that older adults initiated more slowly negative than neutral words while no differences emerged in inhibition. No differences were obtained between negative and neutral words in younger adults. Response times showed faster initiation and inhibition for positive than for neutral words in both age groups. Conclusion: These data are consistent with previous findings suggesting a disengagement from the processing of negative versus neutral words in older adults when compared with younger adults. A possible explanation is that activation of negative words in the mental lexicon is weaker in older than in younger adults. Conversely, the positive valence of words seems to enhance both activation and inhibition processes in both young and older adults. These findings suggest that positive stimuli can improve performance.     

Emotional information processing in young and older adults: meta-analysis reveals faces elicit distinct biases

Although a number of empirical studies have found support for distinct emotional information processing biases in young versus older adults, it remains unclear whether these biases are driven by differential processing of positive or negative emotional information (or both) and whether they are moderated by stimulus type, in particular face versus non-face, the former of which is known to be subject to distinct processing. To address these gaps in the literature, our analyses included 2237 younger (mean age?=?21.61 years) and 2136 older (mean age?=?70.58 years) adults from 73 data sets, 19 involving face stimuli and 54 involving non-face stimuli (objects or scenes). Our findings indicated a significant overall age-related positivity effect (Hedge’s g?=?0.35) when comparing positive and negative stimuli, but consideration of emotionally neutral stimuli revealed significant age differences in emotional processing for negative stimuli only, with younger adults showing a stronger negativity bias. Furthermore, compared to emotionally neutral stimuli, both younger and older adults showed evidence of biases toward non-face positive and negative stimuli and toward positive but not negative face stimuli. Thus, although the present meta-analysis found evidence of an overall age-related positivity effect consistent with a shift toward positivity with aging, a different picture emerged when comparing emotional against neutral stimuli, and consideration of stimulus type revealed a distinct pattern for face stimuli, which may reflect the biological and social significance of facial expressions.

     

Phenomenal characteristics of autobiographical memories for emotional and neutral events in older and younger adults

The authors investigated age-related differences in phenomenal characteristics of autobiographical memories for positive, negative, and neutral events. Younger and older participants were asked to recall two specific memories of each type and then to rate their memories on several sensorial (e.g., visual, taste) and contextual (e.g., location, time) characteristics. The authors found that emotional (both positive and negative) memories contained more sensorial and contextual details than neutral memories in both age groups, whereas positive and negative memories did not differ on most dimensions. In addition, negative memories were associated with a higher intensity of positive feelings and a reduced complexity of storyline in older as compared to younger adults. These results suggest that the effect of emotion on phenomenal characteristics of autobiographical memories is similar in younger and older adults, but that older adults tend to reappraise negative events in a more positive light than younger adults.     

Age-Related Differences in the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) Valence and Arousal Ratings among Japanese Individuals

Study Context: The question of whether relationships between valence and arousal might differ among older and younger adults has not yet been totally clarified. Previous studies focused on only age-related mean-differences, but in the current study mean differences and variance in emotional ratings for the International Affective Picture Systems (IAPS) were both examined in Japanese older and younger adults.

Methods: Participants were 31 older adults (69 ± 5.17 years) and 31 younger adults (19 ± 0.77 years). Each picture was projected on the screen for about 5 s in random order and participants subsequently rated its valence from “unhappy” to “happy” and its arousal from “calm” to “exciting,” using 9-point scales.

Results: Pearson’s correlation analysis showed that positive and negative valence tended to be negatively correlated with arousal in both age groups. The 95% Confidence Intervals for positive arousal in older adults included those of younger adults. Arousal ratings for negative pictures were higher than those for neutral pictures, and those for neutral pictures were higher than those for positive pictures in older adults. There were no significant differences between arousal ratings for neutral pictures and positive pictures in younger adults.

Conclusion: Older adults tended to rate the pictures as more arousing, with higher arousal ratings for negative pictures than for positive pictures, and the variance of positive arousal in older adults was the highest variance for all conditions. The results of this study suggest that older adults may be sensitive to harmful negative experiences in order to make them less aversive.     

Perceived Duration of Emotional Events: Evidence for a Positivity Effect in Older Adults

Background/Study Context: Arousal and negative affect modulate the effect of emotion on the subjective experience of the passage of time. Given that older adults are less aroused by negative emotional stimuli, and report lower levels of negative affect, compared with younger adults, the present study examined whether the effect of emotion on time perception differed in older and younger adults.

Methods: Participants performed a temporal bisection task for emotional (i.e., angry, sad, happy) and neutral facial expressions presented at varying temporal intervals.

Results: Older adults perceived the duration of both positive and threatening events longer than neutral events, whereas younger adults only perceived threatening events longer than neutral events.

Conclusion: The results, which are partially consistent with the positivity effect of aging postulated by the socioemotional selectivity theory, are the first to show how the effect of emotion on perceived duration affects older adults, and support previous research indicating that only threatening events prolong perceived duration in younger adults.     

Decision strategies in health care choices for self and others: older but not younger adults make adjustments for the age of the decision target

Participants (N = 142 younger and older adults) made health care choices for themselves, a social partner of similar age, or a social partner substantially younger or older than themselves. Using computer-based decision scenarios, participants reviewed positive, negative, or neutral choice criteria before choosing. Older adults who chose for themselves reviewed a greater proportion of positive choice criteria, recalled their choices more positively, and showed more positive emotional responses than did younger adults. Comparable results were found when participants chose for another person of similar age. Older adults who were asked to choose for a young person, however, showed a reduced focus on positive information; in addition, their emotional experience during the review process was less positive. Younger adults' performance was not influenced by the decision target.     

A Positivity Effect in Older Adults’ Memorability Judgments of Pictures

Background/Study Context: A growing literature suggests that older adults are biased to preferentially cognitively process positively valenced information. The authors investigated whether this bias extended to preferential selection of information to remember, and also examined whether the arousal invoked by stimuli biased item selection and memory.

Methods: Thirty older (63–88 years of age) and 30 younger (18–25 years of age) adults viewed emotional (positive, negative) and neutral pictures that varied in arousal (low, high), and were asked to select a subset they deemed memorable (memorability judgments), before recalling pictures. Repeated-measures analyses of variance were conducted to examine aging-related differences in selection and recall of positive, negative, and neutral pictures, and of low- and high-arousal pictures.

Results: Older adults selected more positive pictures as memorable, whereas in younger adults selection did not differ by valence. In both age groups, recall of positive pictures was highest. Older adults selected more low- than high-arousal pictures as memorable, although recall was greater for high- than low-arousal pictures in both age groups.

Conclusion: Findings are consistent with the view that the aging-related positivity bias is under cognitive control, and suggest an awareness of this in older adults. Future investigations should seek to disentangle the influence of positive valence from other factors (e.g., perceptual, semantic, arousal level) on older adults’ memorability judgments.     

Age differences in depicting and perceiving tridimensionality in simple line drawings

Twelve young adults (M = 21 years) and twelve elderly adults (M = 67 years) were asked to draw a solid cube. The depictions produced by elderly adults were rated by judges as less accurate than the depictions produced by young adults. Both age groups were also asked to evaluate cube drawings that were deliberately distorted in ways characteristic of the depictions produced by older adults. Compared to younger participants, the elderly were more likely to accept distorted drawings as accurate. Control tasks demonstrated that older adults were able to draw and evaluate simpler two-dimensional patterns on par with younger adults. Apparently the mental representation of tridimensional information deteriorates with age leading to deficits in both production and recognition.     

Age Differences in the Accuracy of Confidence Judgments

Eighty-four younger adults (M = 20.9 years), and 70 older adults (M = 71.1 years) watched a videotaped presentation of medication instructions presented in either neutral speech or elderspeak. Older adults, particularly those with higher working memory performance, tended to recall more information from the elderspeak version. Younger and older adults agreed in rating the elderspeak as having both positive and negative characteristics. Findings supported our hypothesis that the relationship between recall performance and positive subjective reactions to speaking styles would be stronger for older adults than for younger adults.     

Recall and subjective reactions to speaking styles: does age matter?

Eighty-four younger adults (M = 20.9 years), and 70 older adults (M = 71.1 years) watched a videotaped presentation of medication instructions presented in either neutral speech or elderspeak. Older adults, particularly those with higher working memory performance, tended to recall more information from the elderspeak version. Younger and older adults agreed in rating the elderspeak as having both positive and negative characteristics. Findings supported our hypothesis that the relationship between recall performance and positive subjective reactions to speaking styles would be stronger for older adults than for younger adults.     

Exploring the Cognitive Processes Causing the Age-Related Categorization Deficit in the Recognition of Facial Expressions

Background/Study Context: Elderly people do not categorize emotional facial expressions as accurately as younger people, particularly negative emotions. Although age-related impairments in decoding emotions in facial expressions are well documented, the causes of this deficit are poorly understood. This study examined the potential mechanisms that account for this age-related categorization deficit by assessing its dependence on presentation time.

Methods: Thirty young (19–27 years old) and 31 older (68–78 years old) Chinese adults were asked to categorize the six basic emotions in facial expressions, each presented for 120, 200, 600, or 1000 ms, before and after exposure to a neutral facial expression.

Results: Shortened presentation times caused an age-related deficit in the recognition of happy faces, whereas no deficit was observed at longer exposure times. An age-related deficit was observed for all negative emotions but was not exacerbated by shorter presentation times.

Conclusion: Age-related deficits in categorization of positive and negative emotions are caused by different mechanisms. Because negative emotions are perceptually similar, they cause high categorization demands. Elderly people may need more evidence in favor of the target emotion than younger people, and they make mistakes if this surplus of evidence is missing. In contrast, perceptually distinct happy faces were easily identified, and elderly people only failed when the presentation time was too short for their slower perceptual processing.     

Negative Arousal Increases the Effects of Stimulus Salience in Older Adults

Background/Study Context: Stimuli compete for mental representation, with salient stimuli attracting more attention than less salient stimuli. In a recent study, we found that presenting an emotionally negative arousing sound before briefly showing an array of letters with different levels of salience increased the reporting of the more salient letters but decreased reporting of the less salient letters (Sutherland & Mather, 2012, Emotion, 12, 1367–1372). In the current study we examined whether negative arousal produces similar effects on attention in older adults.

Methods: Data from 55 older adults (61–80 years; M = 70.7, SD = 5.1) were compared with those from 110 younger adults (18–29 years; M = 20.3, SD = 2.3) from Sutherland and Mather (2012). Neutral or negative arousing sound clips were played before a brief presentation of eight letters, three of which were presented in a darker font than the others to create a group of high- and low-salience targets. Next, participants recalled as many of the letters as they could. At the end of the study, participants rated the emotional arousal and the valence of the sounds.

Results: Higher ratings of emotional arousal for the sounds predicted a greater advantage for high-salience letters in recall. This influence of arousal did not significantly differ by age.

Conclusion: The effects of negative arousal on subsequent attention were similar in older adults as in younger adults. Moreover, the results support arousal-biased competition theory (Mather & Sutherland, 2011, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6, 114–133), which predicts that emotional arousal amplifies the effects of stimulus salience in attention and memory.     

Emotional expressivity in older and younger adults' descriptions of personal memories

Background/Study Context: According to the socioemotional selectivity theory (SST; Mather & Carstensen, 2003, Psychological Sciences, 14, 409-415), aging is associated with greater motivation to regulate emotions. The authors propose that the language people use to describe personal memories provides an index of age differences in emotional self-regulation. Methods: In the present article, the authors reanalyzed three previously published studies in which older (aged 60-88) and younger (aged 17-33) participants described emotional and neutral memories from their recent and distant pasts. The authors analyzed the language of the memories using Pennebaker, Booth, and Francis's ( 2007 ) Linguistic Inquiry Word Count program (Austin, TX: LIWC Inc.), which calculates the percentage of positive and negative emotion words. Results: In Studies 1 and 2, older adults used more positive emotion words than did younger adults to describe their autobiographical memories from the recent past, particularly when these were of a neutral valence. In Study 3, older adults used more positive emotion words when describing more recent memories (from the past 5 years) but not when describing distant childhood or adolescent memories. Conclusion: The authors suggest that these age differences in emotional expressivity support SST, and represent an as-yet unreported age difference that may stem from differences in motivation to regulate emotion.     

The Emotional Stroop as an Emotion Regulation Task

Background/Study Context: The present studies investigate age differences observed when performing the emotional Stroop task considered as an expression of emotion regulation. Previous studies employing this task showed mixed findings regarding age differences, with a lack of evidence for positivity effects. However, moderating factors such as arousal or dispositional (emotion) regulation strategies were mostly not taken into account. Moreover, relations between Stroop effects and emotional reactions were not examined.

Methods: In two studies (Study 1/2: n_young = 26/41; n_old = 19/39), an emotional Stroop task was employed and valence (negative, neutral, positive [Study 2 only]) and arousal of the word stimuli were varied. Additionally, flexible goal adjustment (FGA), positive and negative affect in the last 12 months, and change in momentary affect (Study 2 only) were measured.

Results: Study 1 showed larger emotional Stroop effects (ESE) in older than younger adults with medium arousing negative words. We also found correlations between FGA (positive correlation) as well as negative affect (negative correlation) and the ESE with medium arousing negative words. Study 2 corroborates these findings by exhibiting positive change in momentary affect with larger ESEs for medium arousing negative words in the older age group.

Conclusions: The findings emphasize the importance of including arousal level and dispositional regulation measures (such as FGA) as moderating factors in age differences and within-group differences in emotion regulation. Although we did not find evidence for a positivity effect, processing in the emotional Stroop task was related to positive change in momentary affect and less negative affect in the older age group. Taken together, our experiments demonstrate that the emotional Stroop task is suited as a measure for emotion induction and related emotion regulation mechanisms.     

The Attractiveness Halo Effect and the Babyface Stereotype in Older and Younger Adults: Similarities,Own-Age Accentuation,and Older Adult Positivity Effects

Background/Study Context: Two well-documented phenomena in person perception are the attractiveness halo effect (more positive impressions of more attractive people), and the babyface stereotype (more childlike impressions of more babyfaced people), shown by children, young adults (YA), and people from diverse cultures. This is the first study to systematically investigate these face stereotypes in older adults (OA) and to compare effects for younger and older adult faces.

Methods: YA and OA judges rated competence, health, hostility, untrustworthiness, attractiveness, and babyfaceness of older and younger neutral expression faces. Multilevel modeling assessed effects of rater age and face age on appearance stereotypes.

Results: Like YA, OA showed both the attractiveness halo effect and the babyface stereotype. However, OA showed weaker effects of attractiveness on impressions of untrustworthiness, and only OA associated higher babyfaceness with greater competence. There also was own-age accentuation, with both OA and YA showing stronger face stereotypes for faces closer to their own age. Age differences in the strength of the stereotypes reflected an OA positivity effect shown in more influence of positive facial qualities on impressions or less influence of negative ones, rather than vice versa.

Conclusion: OA own-age biases, previously shown in emotion, age, and identity recognition, and OA positivity effects, previously revealed in attention, memory, and social judgments, also influence age differences in the strength and content of appearance stereotypes. Future research should assess implications of these results for age-related differences in susceptibility to appearance biases that YA have shown in socially significant domains, such as judicial and personnel decisions.     

“La vie en rose”: A positive shift of autobiographical memory in Alzheimer’s Disease

We investigated emotional regulation of autobiographical memories in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). AD patients and control participants were asked to retrieve memories in response to “happy” and “sad” cues. Participants were also asked to rate the emotional valence of memories at retrieval as well as at the moment the events were encoded. Results showed that both control participants and AD patients rated memories cued by “happy” as more positive when retrieved than when encoded. Both control participants and AD patients also rated memories cued by “sad” as less negative when retrieved than when encoded. Furthermore, emotional regulation (i.e., emotional variation across retrieval and encoding of memories) was significantly correlated with depression in AD patients and control participants. These findings suggest a cognitive reappraisal strategy by which AD patients 1) attribute positive meaning to positive memories, and 2) view negative emotional memories from a less negative perspective, demonstrating an ability to re-interpret the meaning of these memories, and thereby, to change their emotional impact. This reappraisal strategy seems to be related with depression as depressive symptoms was inversely correlated with cognitive reappraisal in AD.     

A comparison of younger and older adults' self-assessment manikin ratings of affective pictures

Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) ratings were used to examine whether groups of 21 younger (M age = 20.02 years, SD = 2.28) and 21 older (M age = 66.26 years, SD = 5.64) adults had similar affective experiences to pictures from the International Affective Picture System (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 1997). The psychometrics of the SAM valence and arousal scales were also compared across age groups. Internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha) was similar for younger and older adults, where both groups made less consistent valence ratings than arousal ratings. Both groups differed from the norms for valence for pleasant pictures, but were no more different from each other than they were from the norms. Age group differences were most evident in the pleasant region of the bivariate valence by arousal affective space, where younger adults found pleasant-aroused pictures to be more pleasant and arousing than older adults did. We suggest that this age group difference could be explained by greater affect intensity and surgency for the younger group and greater emotional control and leveling of positive affect for the older group.