Psychology and Aging

Moderators of curiosity and information seeking in younger and older adults.
The present study examined age differences in the influence of informational value cues on curiosity and information seeking. In two experiments, younger and older adults (total N = 514) rated their curiosity about content before having the opportunity to seek out more information. Experiment 1 examined the impact of social value on curiosity and information seeking about trivia. Online popularity metrics served as social value cues. Metric visibility increased engagement with high-popularity information for older adults, whereas it decreased engagement with low-popularity information for younger adults. Experiment 2 examined the impact of practical value on curiosity and information seeking about science facts. Personal and collective practical value were highlighted by linking the information to the domains of medicine and the environment, respectively. Patterns of curiosity and information seeking revealed greater sensitivity to collective practical value in older than younger adults. In both experiments, the relationship between curiosity and information seeking was stronger in older adults than in younger adults. Overall, these findings suggest that age differences in motivational priorities may lead to age differences in curiosity and information seeking. In addition to highlighting strategies for fostering curiosity in older learners, these findings may also inform digital literacy interventions aimed at reducing engagement with clickbait and misinformation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Age differences in context use during reading and downstream effects on recognition memory.
It is well-known that sentential context modulates sentence processing. But does context also have effects that extend beyond the immediate moment, for example, by impacting the memory representations that people store? And are there age-related differences in this process? Here, we investigated this question. German readers who varied in age self-paced through constraining sentences that continued in a predictable or less predictable fashion. Participants’ recognition memory was then tested for previously seen (i.e., “old”) words and for initially predictable but not actually presented words (i.e., “lures”). The results showed that readers of all ages slowed down when reading unpredictable sentences. However, aging individuals maintained less sentence-specific information than younger adults: They not only understood sentential materials less correctly on the fly, but they also showed disproportionate rates of false remembering and less successful old–new discrimination in the recognition memory test. Of note, rates of false remembering were reduced in those aging readers who allocated more time toward reading unpredictable sentence continuations. Together, our results show that aging increases reliance on gist or schema-congruent processing but that more attentive encoding of text can buffer against some of the resulting memory distortions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Age-related differences in memory encoding and retrieval during referential processing: A time–frequency analysis.
We investigated how lexical form similarity of referential candidates and ambiguity of following pronouns impact the encoding and retrieval of words from memory during sentence processing in younger and older adults. Critical sentences included two noun phrases (henceforth NPs) that were either phonologically and orthographically similar (Jason and Jacob/Jade) or dissimilar (Jason and Matt/Hannah), followed by a pronoun (e.g., he) that was either ambiguous or unambiguous (depending on the genders of the preceding NPs). We analyzed brain activity time-locked to the onsets of the second NP (NP2) and the pronoun to investigate the encoding and the retrieval of the NPs, respectively. During encoding NP2, older adults exhibited greater alpha power when NP1 had the same-gender, whereas younger adults showed no such effect, suggesting an increased need for inhibition for older adults during encoding. Moreover, although both groups exhibited an increase in alpha power for similar NPs, only younger adults exhibited a theta power increase, suggesting similarity-induced inhibition for both groups, but an additional maintenance cost only for younger adults. During retrieval (i.e., on the pronoun), we found that both pronominal ambiguity and form similarity resulted in greater theta power for younger adults, suggesting full pronominal processing and therefore more difficult retrieval, but smaller theta/alpha power for older adults, suggesting good-enough processing and therefore easier retrieval. Together with complementary behavioral results, our findings suggest that older adults resort to good-enough referential processing when the retrieval of relevant representations is cognitively demanding. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Attention to event segmentation improves memory in young adults: A lifespan study.
People spontaneously segment an observed everyday activity into discrete, meaningful events, but segmentation can be modified by task goals. Asking young adults to attend to event segmentation while watching movies of everyday actions improved their memory up to 1 month later (Flores et al., 2017). Does attending to event segmentation improve memory across the lifespan? Participants between the ages of 20 and 79 watched movies of actors performing everyday activities while intentionally encoding them for a recall and a recognition memory test 1 week (Experiment 1) or 1 month (Experiment 2) later. In addition to intentionally encoding the movies, half of the participants segmented the movies into fine-grained events. Young adults who segmented recalled more words in their recall responses than those who intentionally encoded 1 week and 1 month later. Middle-aged adults benefited from the intervention after a 1-week delay but not after a 1-month delay. Older adults over the age of 70 did not benefit from attending to segmentation. Of those who segmented, young and older adults showed similar agreement about the locations of event boundaries. Together, the results suggest that older adults are less able, compared to young adults, to maintain or retrieve well-encoded event memories after a delay. In addition, individual differences in segmentation agreement predicted memory up to 1 month later, regardless of age. These results suggest a practical and easy-to-implement intervention for improving recall of everyday events in young and middle-aged adults that is ineffective in older adults. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Enhanced multisensory gain in older adults may be a by-product of inverse effectiveness: Evidence from a speeded response-time task.
Older adults experience a greater benefit from multisensory integration than their younger counterparts, but it is unclear why. One hypothesis is that age-related sensory decline weakens unisensory stimulus effectiveness, causing a boost in multisensory gain through inverse effectiveness. Many previous studies present stimuli at the same intensity for both younger and older adults (i.e., stimulus-matched), as opposed to accounting for each participant’s unique perceptual ability (i.e., perception-matched). This makes it difficult to discern the source of age-related differences in multisensory gain. As such, we used two experiments to examine whether sensory decline is contributing to age-related differences in multisensory gain. In the first, we presented auditory (pure tones in noise), visual (Gabor patches in noise), and audiovisual stimuli and recorded response times from 31 younger (18–25) and 30 older (55–80) adults. Importantly, all participants were given identical stimuli, with the expectation that older adults would show worse unisensory performance, inducing inverse effectiveness. The second task was identical (younger N = 31, older N = 34), except stimuli were presented at each participant’s 50% detection threshold, identified with an adaptive psychophysical staircase, controlling for any influence of inverse effectiveness. Older adults were found to exhibit greater multisensory gain (as measured by race model violations) on stimulus- but not perception-matched tasks, thus aligning with the principle of inverse effectiveness. That is, when accounting for potential age-related differences in perceptual abilities, older adults no longer experienced greater benefit from multisensory integration. These two experiments together suggest that the age-related increases in multisensory integration previously reported may be in part due to age-related declines in vision and audition. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Reduced interhemispheric transfer in older adults: Evidence from a divided visual field one-back task.
One of the pivotal structural changes observed in the ageing brain pertains to the corpus callosum, the largest neural pathway interconnecting the two cerebral hemispheres. Studies have highlighted the degeneration of the corpus callosum, particularly in its anterior segments, as individuals age. This prompts an essential question regarding the potential functional repercussions of these structural changes on interhemispheric communication among older adults. Two experiments were conducted to explore potential compromises in the interhemispheric transfer of visual working memory (VWM) in older adults. Both young individuals (aged 18–28 years) and healthy older adults (aged 65–85 years) engaged in modified versions of the one-back paradigm. In this task, stimuli were sequentially presented in either the left or right hemifield, and participants indicated whether each stimulus matched the preceding one. Notably, when two stimuli are matched, they could appear either in the same hemifield or in opposite hemifields. The results revealed that, in comparison to young adults, older adults demonstrated a significant increase in matching errors when the two stimuli were presented in opposite hemifields rather than the same hemifield. This new finding strongly suggests a reduced interhemispheric transfer of VWM in older adults, potentially attributed to age-related atrophy in the anterior part of the corpus callosum. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Decreased resting-state brain function in older adults predicts enlarged representational momentum.
Representational momentum (RM) refers to the phenomenon in which an observer’s judgment of the final location of a previously viewed moving target is often displaced forward in the direction of motion. This phenomenon is an adaptive mechanism that compensates for neural processing delays and is closely associated with visual cortex function. However, the impact of age-related decline of visual cortex function on the manifestations of RM remains unclear. The present study examined differences in the RM effect between older (N = 82) and younger adults (N = 74) using a cursor-positioning task. Additionally, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to explore the potential neural substrates that underlie these differences, employing amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF, reflecting the intensity of neural activity) and regional homogeneity (ReHo, reflecting the synchronization of neural activity) as indicators. Our findings indicate a significant increase in RM among older adults compared with younger adults. Neuroimaging data revealed a significant decrease in ALFF and ReHo within extensive regions of the visual cortex in older adults, validating age-related differences in this cortical area. More importantly, ALFF values in the bilateral visual area 3 and ReHo values in the bilateral visual area 2 in older adults exhibited a strong negative correlation with their RM effects. These results suggest that larger RM in older adults may be functional compensation for aging of the visual cortex. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Conceptions of aging and beliefs about how one’s life is unfolding over time: A lifespan developmental perspective.
The present study examined beliefs about how one’s life satisfaction is unfolding over time in relation to conceptions of aging in an online American adult lifespan sample (N = 882; Mage = 47.89, SD = 15.30, range = 19–84 years; 56% female). Single-item and multi-item ratings of recollected past, current, and anticipated future life satisfaction were employed, along with subjective perceptions of change in life satisfaction over time. Person-centered (latent profile) analysis identified distinct linear and nonlinear patterns of beliefs concerning past–current and current–future changes in life satisfaction: improve–improve, stable–stable, worsen–worsen, and worsen–improve. Multiple facets of conceptions of aging were assessed, including subjective perceptions of age (chronological vs. felt and desired age); attitudes toward, experiences of, and expectations concerning aging; future time perspective; and goal orientations (growth, maintenance, prevention of losses). Multinomial logistic regression models identified unique facets of conceptions of aging characterizing the four profiles. In general, individuals reporting a distinct profile conveying the belief that one’s life was improving (vs. worsening) over time were characterized by more positive conceptions of aging. Further, conceptions of aging partially explained the link between chronological age and the belief that one’s life is getting worse and worse (vs. better and better). Thus, the present work provides new insights into how age and conceptions of aging may shape the directions and patterns with which individuals view their lives to be unfolding over time. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Self-perceptions of aging predict adjustment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Individuals faced extraordinary challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, psychosocial strengths may promote individuals’ adjustment during times of challenge. Positive self-perceptions of aging (SPA) have been found to predict a variety of health and well-being indicators outside the context of the pandemic. In the present study, we examined SPA (measured prior to the pandemic) as a prospective predictor of COVID-19-related behavior, adaptation, and functioning in a sample of 3,620 adults (Mage = 65.88; 61.1% women; 65.4% White) from the 2016 to 2020 waves of the Health and Retirement Study. Linear regressions revealed that more positive SPA in 2016 were associated with a higher likelihood of socially distanced behavior (β = .07, p <.001), less worry (β = −.27, p <.001), less stress (β = −.24, p <.001), less loneliness (β = −.27, p <.001), and greater positive functioning (β = .20, p <.001) during the first year of the pandemic (2020). Confounding variables explained SPA’s associations with preventive behavior and (to an extent) socially distanced behavior. Findings support SPA theories, suggesting linkages between SPA and flexible, adaptive behaviors and outcomes in the face of external challenges. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)

Psychology and Aging - Vol 39, Iss 7