Psychology and Aging最新文献

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).

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).

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).

Research has long shown that men suffer more from romantic breakups than women. We predicted that men would on average be less inclined to initiate separation, decline with the separation more in well-being and increase more in loneliness, are less satisfied with singlehood, and desire a new partner more than women. We theorized that these gender differences in separation adaptation could be linked to men's higher reliance on their partners for emotional support. Because socioemotional selectivity theory suggests that with age people shift toward more fulfilling social connections, we also expected men's dependency on their partners for emotional support to be smaller in midlife than in young adulthood. To examine our hypotheses, we analyzed multiyear within-person longitudinal change data from 1,530 mostly unmarried participants from the annual German pairfam study who had experienced a relationship dissolution. We applied propensity score matching to compare separation-related changes in well-being and loneliness to case-matched controls who remained in a romantic relationship. Results showed that men relative to women were less likely to initiate separation, less satisfied with singlehood, and wished for a partner more. In contrast to our expectations, the gender differences observed did not differ by age, and no gender differences were found in separation-related changes in well-being and loneliness. Dissolution-related effects on well-being were only evident for marital relationships, while dissolution-related effects on loneliness were equally strong for marital and nonmarital dissolutions. Our study suggests that previous findings on gender-specific divorce-induced changes in well-being may not generalize to nonmarital dissolutions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Life satisfaction and purpose in life are fundamental yet separate ways to evaluate one's life. Both positively predict physical health and longevity, making them key factors for length and quality of life. However, we do not know which of them predicts mortality, when controlling for the influence of each other. Given that purpose in life involves a more active engagement with life and can help to cope with suffering, we hypothesize that purpose in life could be a more direct prospective predictor of longevity, overshadowing any effect of life satisfaction, when the two are pitted against each other as prospective predictors of longevity. To examine these hypotheses, we utilized Midlife in the U.S. survey, which is a 23-year follow-up study, (N = 5,993) and Cox proportional hazards models, repeating the analyses both without covariates and when controlling for various demographic and health-related variables. We show that both life satisfaction and purpose in life predict mortality when modeled separately. When life satisfaction, purpose in life and self-rated health were entered as simultaneous predictors of mortality, purpose in life remained a slightly more robust predictor of mortality, while life satisfaction became only marginally significant, suggesting that some of the factors that connect it to mortality are covered by the other two subjective evaluations. Overall, the results demonstrate that purpose in life is a robust predictor of mortality, and thus a key dimension of well-being to attend to as people age, while the predictive power of life satisfaction is more dependent on the choice of covariates. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Social relationships accompany us throughout adulthood and are among the most important sources of meaning in a person's life. However, little is known about age differences in meaningfulness of social interactions across adulthood. According to socioemotional selectivity theory, as people age, they develop relatively stronger preferences for social relationships that are emotionally meaningful. Consequently, older adults may perceive social interactions in everyday life as more meaningful than younger adults. To test this hypothesis, the present study examined age-related differences in the perceived meaningfulness of daily social interactions using experience sampling data. Three-hundred six participants (56.9% women, 18-88 years) completed a total of 6,407 entries over 3 days. Results of the multilevel analyses showed that age was positively associated with perceived meaningfulness of daily social interactions, controlling for relationship closeness and situation valence. In addition, the perceived meaningfulness of daily social interactions was positively related to subjective well-being both between and within all participants, indicating that meaningful social interactions are beneficial for well-being regardless of age. Thus, perceiving social interactions as meaningful could be one way that older people maintain a high level of well-being in their daily lives. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Previous research showed the importance of control beliefs for many life outcomes. The present study examines associations between subjectively perceived work environment and objectively measured work activities at the beginning of midlife as a central developmental phase in the context of work, with control beliefs across the subsequent 20 years. We analyzed four-wave longitudinal data from N = 374 participants (born 1950-1952; M_age baseline = 44 years, SD = 1; 44% women) from the Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Study of Adult Development and Aging within a structural equation modeling framework. Over 20 years and overall, internal control beliefs were stable, while external control beliefs decreased. Individuals who reported higher task variety and better social integration at work at baseline also reported higher levels of control beliefs for positive life outcomes. In addition, higher social integration at work at baseline was related to lower levels of external control beliefs. Work characteristics at baseline were not associated with individual differences in change in control beliefs across the 20-year observational interval. In summary, our findings suggest that work experiences at the prime of job-related development around the midst of the fifth decade of life do not play a major role in subsequent control beliefs development across 20 years. However, investigations measuring control beliefs as well as work characteristics continuously over a long period of time are necessary to shed light on reciprocal influences between work and personality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Reports an error in "Do caregiver interventions improve outcomes in relatives with dementia and mild cognitive impairment? A comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis" by Sheung-Tak Cheng, Kin-Kit Li, Peggy P. L. Or and Andrés Losada (Psychology and Aging, 2022[Dec], Vol 37[8], 929-953). In the original article, two of the labels in the first column of Table 6 were incorrect. The first Recommended intervention should have been "Education with psychotherapeutic components (psychoeducation-b)," and the first Moderately recommended intervention should have been "Education with probable psychological components (psychoeducation-a)." Despite the misnomers, the nature of the intervention type can be clearly discerned from the description in the far-right column. The online version of this article has been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2022-76749-001). Some reviews suggest benefits of nonpharmacological interventions for informal caregivers of people with dementia and mild cognitive impairment. These benefits may transfer to the care-recipients (CRs) through increased caregiving capability, reduced burden and depression among caregivers, and decreased negative mood contagion. However, large-scale review on these effects on the CRs is lacking. We searched PsycINFO, CINAHL with Full Text, MEDLINE, and PubMed from inception to end of 2020 and found 142 articles that reported randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of caregiver interventions using CR outcomes. Interventions were found to reduce neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) in general and behavioral and mood disturbance specifically, enhance cognition and quality of life, and delay institutionalization and mortality, with care coordination/case management, educational intervention with psychotherapeutic components (psychoeducation-b), and direct training of the CR (with caregiver involvement) being the more potent interventions. The kinds of benefit depend on the types of intervention. NPS was reduced by psychoeducation-b, care coordination/case management, and CR training. Cognition and quality of life were enhanced by CR training and care coordination/case management, respectively. Institutionalization was delayed by multicomponent interventions and respite (based on one study). However, the effects were generally small to very small. Together with existing findings on caregiver outcomes, a tripartite scaffolding model of caregiver support is proposed. The model is composed of three components: (a) care coordination/case management (i.e., enhanced usual care), (b) psychoeducation-b, and (c) CR training. Future directions in terms of developing consensual guidelines, a registry of intervention manuals, and family-centered programs with flexibility in delivery are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The mechanisms by which older adults maintain large, complex social networks are not well understood. Prior work has primarily focused on general cognitive ability (e.g., executive function, episodic memory), largely overlooking social cognition-the ability to process, store, and remember social information. Because social cognition plays a key role in navigating social interactions and is distinct from general cognition, we examined whether general and social cognition uniquely predicted the nature of older adults' personal social networks. Our study leveraged comprehensive measures of general cognition (executive function, episodic memory), social cognition (face memory and dynamic measures of cognitive and affective theory of mind), and a rigorous measure of personal social networks from 143 community-dwelling older adults. We found that, when modeled together and controlling for sociodemographic variables, only executive function and dynamic cognitive theory of mind positively predicted having social networks with relatively unfamiliar, loosely connected others, accounting for 17% of the unique variance in older adults' social connectedness. Interestingly, having a social network comprised primarily of close, tightly knit relationships was negatively associated with affective theory of mind performance. Findings are discussed in the context of the social-cognitive resource framework-which suggests that social cognition may be more engaged in relatively unfamiliar, versus close, interactions. Specifically, our results show that social-cognitive processes may be relatively automatic for individuals whose primary social relationships are very close but may be more strongly engaged for individuals whose interactions include at least some relatively less close relationships. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Both older and younger employees are stereotyped at work, making them susceptible to age-based stereotype threat or the concern about being negatively stereotyped based on their age. To date, there is limited understanding of the workplace events that spark age-based stereotype threat and the mechanisms through which they do so. The current daily diary study aimed to assess the frequency with which older and younger employees experience various events that have been identified as potential antecedents of age-based stereotype threat (e.g., being overlooked for training or development opportunities, feeling excluded from informal socializing) as well as their association with experiences of stereotype threat. As predicted, we found that employees who reported more frequent experiences of these events subsequently reported greater feelings of stereotype threat. This association was partially mediated by the capacity of these events to increase the salience of a participant's age. There was also evidence of reciprocal association, whereby employees who felt more stereotype threat were also more likely to subsequently report experiencing these events. Employee age did not moderate the relationship between daily feelings of stereotype threat and daily outcomes, suggesting that everyday feelings of stereotype threat may be equally problematic for both older and younger employees. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).