ABSTRACT
The age-related positivity effect is the tendency of older adults to preferentially process positive information over negative information when compared to younger adults (e.g., Reed & Carstensen, 2012). The aim of the study was to determine whether common and/or distinct mechanisms underlie the age-related positivity effect in lexical access and episodic memory. Fifty young and 50 older adults successively performed a progressive demasking task incorporating memory instructions, an immediate free recall task, a memory recognition task, and delayed free recalls at 20 min and 7 days. The materials included 60 words that varied in emotional valence (positive, neutral, negative) and arousal (low, high). The results revealed that distinct processes underlie the age-related positivity effect in lexical access and episodic memory. In progressive demasking, this effect emerged for both low- and high-arousal words, suggesting that it depends on automatic processes. In immediate and delayed free recall and recognition, this effect emerged for low-arousal words only, suggesting that it depends on more controlled processes. Moreover, in older adults, positivity scores correlated with well-being scores for episodic memory. These results are discussed in relation to affective aging theories. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
Subject(s)
Memory, Episodic , Humans , Aged , Aging/psychology , Emotions , Recognition, Psychology , Memory, Short-TermABSTRACT
A growing number of studies have shown that when compared to younger adults, older adults are better at recalling positive information than negative information. However, it is not yet clear whether this age-related positivity effect relies on a greater ability to recall positive information or on a decreased ability to recall negative information. We therefore aimed to study the specific mechanisms underlying the age-related positivity effect using different memory tasks. We used an emotional word memory paradigm including immediate free recall, recognition, and delayed free recall tasks. Forty-five young adults (m = 20.0 years) and 45 older adults (m = 69.2 years) participated, all of whom were native French speakers. Thirty-six French low-arousal words (12 positve, 12, negative, 12 neutral) were selected from an emotional lexical database (Gobin et al. 2017) and divided into three equal groups of positive, neutral and negative terms. For the recognition task, 36 new words were selected. The results show that the age-related positivity effect specifically depended on a decrease in negativity preference (i.e., the comparison between negative and neutral words) in older adults, in comparison with younger adults, both in the immediate and delayed free recall tasks. In these tasks, younger adults recalled more negative than neutral words, whereas there was no difference in older adults. During the recognition task, no age-related positivity effect was observed. The results also show that, for the immediate recall task, the greater the memory ability of older adults, the lower their negativity preference. This correlation was not significant in the delayed recall task. These results suggest that, when compared with younger adults, older adults disengage from processing negative words that require costly cognitive processes. A low negativity preference indicates that memory abilities are well-maintained. The results are discussed within the framework of socio-emotional selectivity theory.
ABSTRACT
A growing number of studies have shown that, compared to young adults, older adults better remember positive information than negative information. However, it is not clear whether this age-related positivity effect relies on an increase in positive information memory and/or on a decrease in negative information memory. Thus, we aimed to study the specific mechanisms underlying the age-related positivity effect in different memory tasks. To do so, we used an emotional word memory paradigm including immediate free recall, recognition and delayed free recall tasks. Forty-five young adults (m = 20.0 years) and 45 older adults (m = 69.2 years) native French speakers participated. Thirty-six low French words, including 12 negative (e.g. égout), 12 positive (e.g. lagune) and 12 neutral (e.g. notion) words were selected from an emotional lexical database (Gobin et al. 2017). For the recognition task, 36 new words were selected. The results showed that the age-related positivity effect specifically depended on a decrease in negativity preference (i.e. the comparison between negative and neutral words) in older adults, in comparison with young adults, both in immediate and delayed free recall tasks. Indeed, in these tasks, young adults recalled more negative than neutral words whereas there was no difference in older adults. In recognition task, no age-related positivity effect has been observed. Moreover, the results showed that, in immediate recall, the higher the older adults memory abilities, the lower their negativity preference. This correlation was not significant in delayed recall. These results suggest that, when compared with young adults, older adults disengage from negative words processing through costly cognitive processes. A small magnitude of negativity preference would indicate good maintenance of memory abilities. Results are discussed in the framework of the socioemotional selectivity theory.
