Psychology and Aging最新文献

Negative experiences in daily life are related to feeling older, but the role of daily positive experiences for subjective age has rarely been investigated. Furthermore, the directionality of the relation between subjective age and daily experiences remains unclear. We thus investigated the dynamic interplay of daily subjective age and both daily stressors and uplifts. We hypothesized that the experience of daily stressors would be related to an older subjective age and daily uplifts to a younger subjective age. We also predicted reciprocal relations of stressors/uplifts and subjective age across days and addressed these questions using both a single item and a multidimensional operationalization of subjective age, asking about felt age in different domains. We used data from a daily diary study including N = 69 participants aged 52-75 years (M_age = 62.72, SD = 5.57, 58% women) who reported on their subjective age, daily stressors, and uplift experiences on 14 consecutive days. Dynamic structural equation models showed a differentiated picture: More uplifts were related to a younger subjective age within and between persons. Reporting more uplifts than usual on a given day predicted a younger subjective age than usual on the next day and vice versa, albeit the latter effect was only significant for the multidimensional operationalization. Surprisingly, stressors were unrelated to subjective age. The findings emphasize the importance of uplifts for daily aging experiences and provide empirical evidence for the conceptualization of subjective age as both a product and a driver of daily experiences in later life. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Eye movement research in Chinese shows that young adults encode character order flexibly during parafoveal processing and that word predictability can influence this early processing stage. Whether these effects change in older age is unclear, although other research suggests older readers have reduced parafoveal processing capabilities. Using the boundary paradigm (Rayner, 1975), we compared eye movement data from 60 young adults (18-30 years) with new data from 36 older adults (65-75 years). Participants read sentences with two-character target words of high or low predictability. Before their gaze crossed an invisible boundary, target words were presented normally (valid preview) or with characters transposed or replaced by unrelated characters (invalid previews). Previews reverted to normal once their gaze crossed the boundary. Our results reveal a larger word predictability effect for the older readers, while transposed-character effects were similar across groups, suggesting this intriguing aspect of parafoveal processing is preserved in aging readers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Memory selectivity refers to our ability to flexibly prioritize and remember important information over less important information. In three studies, we investigated the roles of various conative factors (i.e., task-specific motivation, memory self-efficacy, and self-determined learning goals) as mechanisms that might support intact, if not superior, memory selectivity in older age. Specifically, all three studies assessed efficacy beliefs (in younger and older adults) before participants completed a standard value-directed remembering task. Measures of task-specific motivation (Studies 1-3) and self-determined learning goals (Studies 2-3) were also included. Results suggested that older adults were generally more selective and more motivated to perform well on the value-directed remembering task compared to younger adults, even though they were also less confident in their memory abilities and tried to remember fewer words on each list. Critically, though, heightened task-specific motivation was associated with a tendency to recall a greater proportion of the to-be-remembered material but was not consistently associated with selectivity. A weak negative correlation between motivation and selectivity was only found in Study 3. However, inefficacious beliefs and lower self-determined learning goals were reliably associated with superior memory selectivity. Path analyses further revealed that memory self-efficacy and self-determined learning goals accounted for older adults' tendency to selectively remember important information. Collectively, these results are consistent with the idea that awareness of current memory limitations encourages older adults to focus on less material, which helps older adults more efficiently allocate attention to important information. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

With the global aging of the population, the importance of understanding the characteristics and mechanisms of developmental changes in later life has grown. The present study explored age-related differences in the effect of emotion on judgments of learning (JOLs) in Chinese participants and delved deeper into the mechanisms underlying this effect. Experiment 1 observed that older participants showed a positivity effect on JOLs, whereas young participants demonstrated an emotional salience effect on JOLs, reflecting age-related differences in the effect of emotion on JOLs. To investigate the mechanisms underlying these age-related differences, Experiment 2 measured participants' metamemory beliefs about the effect of emotion on memory and found that older participants held a belief of the positivity effect, whereas young participants possessed a belief of the emotional salience effect. Experiment 3 collected data of beliefs and JOLs from the same participants and provided further evidence highlighting the contribution of metamemory beliefs to age-related differences in the effect of emotion on JOLs. These findings are essential for advancing the theoretical framework of metamemory and for extending lifespan theory of socioemotional selectivity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Listeners adapt to diverse cues in real-time language processing. While younger adults can learn and adapt in complex multitalker settings, it remains uncertain whether this ability persists in older adults, especially when they must accumulate auditory inputs to learn novel statistics. We examined whether older adults adapt to talker-specific patterns using paralinguistic cues such as disfluency. In two experiments, older adults listened to instructions from two talkers: one used disfluency predictively (e.g., always referring to novel objects following disfluency) and the other used disfluency unpredictably (e.g., referring to either familiar or novel objects following disfluency). Experiment 1 examined a single-talker setting (N = 50, between-subjects), and Experiment 2 examined a multitalker setting (N = 50, within-subjects). Participants' eye movements were compared between the predictive and nonpredictive conditions. In Experiment 1, older adults demonstrated partner-specific adaptation by looking at novel images more in the predictive condition than in the nonpredictive condition. However, this partner-specific adaptation was not observed in Experiment 2. The results suggest that while older adults can adapt to simpler single-talker settings, their ability to learn and apply novel statistics specific to each talker diminishes in more complex multitalker settings. This limitation may stem from slower processing speed and decreased cognitive flexibility, which may lead older adults to rely on global statistics rather than partner-specific ones. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

People shape their development through selecting, maintaining, and ending personal goal pursuits. To manage multiple goals in a reality of limited resources, people may opt to temporarily shelve some goals with the intention to reengage (goal shelving) or to permanently give up on some goals for good (goal disengagement). Do preferences for goal shelving and disengagement change across adulthood? This cross-sectional study provides first evidence on age-related similarities and differences in the prevalence and antecedents of goal shelving and disengagement, and in characteristics of shelved and abandoned goals. The sample (N = 973) comprised 317 young (18-25 years), 327 middle-aged (36-64), and 329 older (65+) adults and was stratified by gender (50% women). Contrary to our expectation, there was no evidence for age-related differences in the number of shelved and abandoned goals, and little evidence for age-related differences in antecedents of shelving and disengagement or characteristics of shelved and abandoned goals. Young, middle-aged, and older adults most often shelved and abandoned leisure goals oriented toward gains, and most often shelved and abandoned goals to prioritize different goals and to manage resource-related restrictions, with health-related restrictions growing more relevant with age. Across all age groups, shelved goals had greater motivational value and salience than abandoned goals. Goal value, goal salience, and expected future goal-related opportunities predicted how sure people felt about readopting shelved goals and how sure they felt about not readopting abandoned goals, respectively. Implications are discussed in light of lifespan developmental theory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Previous research has demonstrated robust age-related differences in the Stroop effect. Such differences are often attributed to deficits in cognitive control processes, such as goal maintenance ability. Previous research in younger adults has reliably demonstrated that the magnitude of the Stroop effect, particularly for those lower in working memory capacity, can be reduced by providing periodic goal reminders. The present study tested if this benefit of goal reminders extends to another group with reduced goal maintenance ability, older adults. Younger (N = 80) and older (N = 78) adults completed a vocal color-word Stroop task in which most trials were congruent, a condition which induces goal neglect and exacerbates Stroop effects. Critically, half of the participants in each age group were stopped every 24 trials to vocalize either a goal-reminder statement ("The goal is to name the color, not the word") or a nongoal statement ("This is part of my psychology study"). The key finding was that the goal reminders benefitted older adults as evidenced by a reduced Stroop effect in reaction time for the goal condition compared with the nongoal condition. This pattern was not observed for younger adults. Error rate analyses suggested that the benefits of goal reminders were short-lived, with errors primarily reduced in the first half of the run (e.g., 12 trials) following goal reminders. We suggest that goal reminders can be a useful intervention to momentarily improve cognitive control in older adults. We discuss the implications of this finding for theories of cognitive control that implicate reductions in goal maintenance at the center of age-related cognitive decline. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

People who migrate at a later age are vulnerable to loneliness: They are challenged to maintain social ties in the origin country while establishing new ties in the destination. In the present study, we investigate (a) the differences in loneliness levels between retirement migrants and older adults who reside in their country of origin (nonmigrants) and (b) the determinants of emotional and social loneliness among retirement migrants. We employ the survey of Dutch retirement migrants abroad (DRM, 2021: Henkens et al., 2022), including 4,995 Dutch retirement migrants residing in 40 destination countries and 1,338 nonmigrants residing in the Netherlands (aged 66-90). Our results showed that retirement migrants were socially lonelier than nonmigrants; however, they were not emotionally lonelier. Among retirement migrants, those who had lost contact with good friends in the country of origin were both emotionally and socially lonelier. Retirement migrants who had more neighbor contact and a higher sense of belonging to the destination were emotionally and socially less lonely. Furthermore, those who had lost contact with their children and had a higher sense of belonging to the Netherlands were emotionally lonelier. The present study presents new insights into the interplay between aging and migration by using a unique representative survey of individuals who migrated at a later age to a new country and points to the risks of the increasingly popular phenomenon of international retirement migration. Differences in levels and predictors of emotional and social loneliness highlight the importance of studying these dimensions separately. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Following the experimental medicine approach, Diehl et al. (2023) demonstrated the malleability of negative views of aging (NVOA), self-efficacy beliefs, and exercise intention in middle-aged and older adults who participated in the AgingPLUS intervention program. The present study built on those findings and addressed (a) whether the intervention resulted in significant improvements in physical activity (PA) and (b) whether the purported mechanistic variables were significant mediators of the intervention's effects on PA outcomes. AgingPLUS used a randomized, single-blind control group design to implement the intervention in a sample of 335 adults aged 45-75 years. This study reports findings from 278 participants (M_age = 60.1 years; SD = 8.3 years) for whom PA measures were available at baseline and the delayed posttest at Week 8. Compared to participants in the Health Education control group and compared to baseline, participants in the AgingPLUS program showed significant improvements in accelerometer-assessed PA (e.g., total daily steps walked; total daily minutes of moderate-to-vigorous PA [MVPA]) and self-reported PA (e.g., weekly kcals burned in MVPA; increase in weekly total minutes of MVPA). Findings from bias-corrected bootstrap mediation analyses yielded partial support for the purported mechanisms of the intervention. Specifically, improvements in NVOA mediated the effects of the intervention on several accelerometer-assessed PA outcomes. Furthermore, improvements in NVOA, general, motivational, and volitional self-efficacy beliefs were significant mediators on several self-reported PA outcomes. Overall, findings provided support for small but significant effects of AgingPLUS on PA outcomes and supportive evidence for several of the theoretical mechanisms tested. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Existing research shows a clear link between the way people experience the aging process (i.e., self-perceptions of aging) and their health, cognitive abilities, and well-being. In contrast, there is little research on the association between self-perceptions of aging and social functioning. This study examines the relationship between awareness of age-related gains and losses as two facets of self-perceptions of aging and social approach and avoidance goals. Social approach goals (i.e., goals that focus on positive, desirable social outcomes) and social avoidance goals (i.e., goals that focus on negative, undesirable social outcomes) play a fundamental role in shaping individuals' social experiences and behaviors. We hypothesize that awareness of age-related gains is associated with social approach goals, whereas awareness of age-related losses is associated with social avoidance goals. In an experience sampling study with N = 117 participants aged 18-85 years (M = 40.4, SD = 17.1), we examined interindividual differences in participants' awareness of age-related gains and losses and how these relate to social goals. We focused on social goals in everyday social situations (aggregated state) and as individual dispositions (trait). As hypothesized, awareness of age-related gains was positively associated with social approach (but not avoidance) goals, while awareness of age-related losses was positively associated with social avoidance (but not approach) goals. These associations largely persisted even after controlling for age. These findings suggest that perceptions of age-related gains and losses are important factors in how people navigate their social lives. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).