ABSTRACT
To assess age differences in attention-emotion interactions, the authors asked young adults (ages 18-33 years) and older adults (ages 60-80 years) to identify target words in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task. The second of two target words was neutral or emotional in content (positive in Experiment 1, negative in Experiment 2). In general, the ability to identify targets from a word stream declined with age. Age differences specific to the attentional blink were greatly reduced when baseline detection accuracy was equated between groups. With regard to emotion effects, older adults showed enhanced identification of both positive and negative words relative to neutral words, whereas young adults showed enhanced identification of positive words and reduced identification of negative words. Together these findings suggest that the nature of attention-emotion interactions changes with age, but there was little support for a motivational shift consistent with emotional regulation goals at an early stage of cognitive processing.
Subject(s)
Aging/psychology , Attentional Blink , Emotions , Verbal Learning , Visual Perception , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Color Perception , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Reading , Recognition, Psychology , Retention, Psychology , Serial Learning , Young AdultABSTRACT
Objective The purpose of this study was to examine among psychiatric inpatients (N=110) the relationship, if any, between the number of Axis I diagnoses and the number of self-harm behaviors (SHBs). We also wished to explore the role of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in mediating this possible relationship. Method We examined discharge diagnoses in relationship to scores on the Self-Harm Inventory (SHI) for all participants as well as by BPD status. Results For the entire sample, there was a significant correlation between the number of Axis I disorders and the number of SHBs [Spearman's rho(110)=0.21, p=0.03]. When examining this relationship in terms of BPD status, there were no significant between-group differences in the number of Axis I diagnoses. While patients diagnosed with BPD endorsed significantly more SHBs (M=9.53, SD=3.89) than nonBPD patients (M=5.32, SD=3.89), there was only a significant correlation between the number of Axis I disorders and SHB for the nonBPD, but not the BPD subsample. Conclusions Among psychiatric inpatients, there is a relationship between the number of Axis I diagnoses and the number of SHBs.
