MedWorm.com provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest items from the 'Psychology and Aging' source. Thu, 22 Sep 2011 07:01:30 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5210008&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2Frf_bAbYwc4s%2F731 Postural control performances of 18 younger and 18 older adults were repeatedly measured on 45 weekdays with five trials per day. This design made it possible to dissociate between long-term trends and processing fluctuations in the sensorimotor domain at moment-to-moment, trial-to-trial, and day-to-day levels. Older adults fluctuated more than younger adults at all timescales. Age differences in trial-to-trial and day-to-day processing fluctuations were reduced but remained statistically significant when controlling for fluctuations on faster timescales. We concluded that age differences in intraindividual fluctuations at the longer timescales are in part related to age differences in low-level system robustness, suggesting a cascade of effects across multiple timescales. (PsycINFO Databa... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5210008 Mon, 25 Jul 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5210008 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5210005&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F8z3o-zzxsbI%2F695 This study investigated age-related differences between younger (M = 25.52 years) and older (M = 70.51 years) adults in avoidance motivation and the influence of avoidance motivation on gaze preferences for happy, neutral, and angry faces. In line with the hypothesis of reduced negativity effect later in life, older adults avoided angry faces and (to a lesser degree) preferred happy faces more than younger adults did. This effect cannot be explained by age-related changes in dispositional motivation. Irrespective of age, avoidance motivation predicted gaze behavior towards emotional faces. The study demonstrates the importance of interindividual differences beyond young adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5210005 Mon, 27 Jun 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5210005 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5210003&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FXPZ3muUex3k%2F678 Healthy aging is often accompanied by episodic memory decline. Prior studies have consistently demonstrated that older adults show disproportionate deficits in relational memory (RM) relative to item memory (IM). Despite rich evidence of an age-related RM deficit, the source of this deficit remains unspecified. One of the most widely investigated factors of age-related RM impairment is a reduction in attentional resources. However, no prior studies have demonstrated that reduced attentional resources are the critical source of age-related RM deficits. Here, we used qualitatively different attention tasks and tested whether reduced attention for relational processing underlies the RM deficit observed in aging. In Experiment 1, we imposed either item-detection or relation-detection attention... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5210003 Mon, 27 Jun 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5210003 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5209988&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FrYX28RyErMQ%2F525 Problem-solving does not take place in isolation and often involves social others such as spouses. Using repeated daily life assessments from 98 older spouses (M age = 72 years; M marriage length = 42 years), the present study examined theoretical notions from social-contextual models of coping regarding (a) the origins of problem-solving variability and (b) associations between problem-solving and specific problem-, person-, and couple- characteristics. Multilevel models indicate that the lion's share of variability in everyday problem-solving is located at the level of the problem situation. Importantly, participants reported more proactive emotion regulation and collaborative problem-solving for social than nonsocial problems. We also found person-specific consistencies in problem-solvi... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5209988 Mon, 27 Jun 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5209988 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938704&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FLkHtk1be894%2F480 Little is known about how APOE ε4-related differences in cognitive performance translate to real-life performance, where training and experience may help to sustain performance. We investigated the influences of APOE ε4 status, expertise (FAA pilot proficiency ratings), and their interaction on longitudinal flight simulator performance. Over a 2-year period, 139 pilots aged 42–69 years were tested annually. APOE ε4 carriers had lower memory performance than noncarriers (p = .019). APOE interacted with Expertise (p = .036), such that the beneficial influence of expertise (p = .013) on longitudinal flight simulator performance was more pronounced for ε4 carriers. Results suggest that relevant training and activity may help sustain middle-aged and older adults' real-world performance, e... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938704 Sun, 12 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4938704 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938689&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FL1sNX3BNHTI%2F350 Reports an error in "Age differences in psychosocial predictors of positive and negative affect: A longitudinal investigation of young, midlife, and older adults" by Tim D. Windsor and Kaarin J. Anstey (Psychology and Aging, 2010[Sep], Vol 25[3], 641-652). Contains an error in Figure 3, on page 649. The correction discusses where to find the correct data. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2010-18944-009.) Research has consistently shown that despite aging-related losses, older adults have high levels of emotional well-being relative to those in young and midlife adults. We aimed to contribute to knowledge around the factors that predict emotional well-being over the life course by examining age group differences in associations of positive and negative soci... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938689 Sun, 12 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4938689 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938682&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FBR2ddqvg424%2F285 Decision makers are influenced by the frame of information such that preferences vary depending on whether survival or mortality data are presented. Research is inconsistent as to whether and how age impacts framing effects. This paper presents two studies that used qualitative analyses of think-aloud protocols to understand how the type of information used in the decision making process varies by frame and age. In Study 1, 40 older adults, age 65 to 89, and 40 younger adults, age 18 to 24, responded to a hypothetical lung cancer scenario in a within-subject design. Participants received both a survival and mortality frame. Qualitative analyses revealed that two main decisional strategies were used by all participants: one strategy reflected a data-driven decisional process, whereas the ot... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938682 Sun, 12 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4938682 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5210010&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FyYpIzlSNiF4%2F744 The isolation paradigm is the classic method for studying the effects of distinctiveness on memory (Hunt, 1995). Previous studies using the isolation paradigm with older adults (Bireta, Suprenant, & Neath, 2008; Cimbalo & Brink, 1982; Geraci, McDaniel, Manzano, & Roediger (2009); Vitali et al., 2006) placed the isolated items late in the study list. The current experiments, which are the first to investigate the isolation effect in young and older adults when the isolated item occurs early in the list, were motivated by a new framework for understanding age-related differences in the beneficial effects of distinctive processing. The framework, which is motivated by Hunt's (2006) discussion of distinctiveness and Craik's (1986) environmental support view, proposes that when contextual suppo... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5210010 Mon, 23 May 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5210010 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938683&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F2BFtw1GXG78%2F295 In this study, in a sample of 121 adults, we examined the impact that increasing choice options has on decision-making abilities in older versus younger adults. Consistent with our hypotheses, we found that participants performed better with less choice versus more choice, and that older adults performed worse than younger adults across conditions. We further examined the role that numeracy may play in making these decisions and the role of more traditional cognitive variables such as working memory, executive functioning, intelligence, and education. Finally, we examined how personality style may interact with cognitive variables and age in decision making. Regression analysis revealed that numeracy is related to performance across the lifespan. When controlling for additional measures of... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938683 Sun, 08 May 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4938683 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938684&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FVBgBZFDbJpc%2F308 The Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Program places an unprecedented degree of choice in the hands of older adults despite concerns over their ability to make effective decisions and desire to have extensive choice in this context. While previous research has compared older adults to younger adults along these dimensions, our study, in contrast, examines how likelihood to delay decision making and preferences for choice differ by age among older age cohorts. Our analysis is based on responses of older adults to a simulation of enrollment in Medicare Part D. We examine how age, numeracy, cognitive reflection, and the interaction between age and performance on these instruments are related to the decision to enroll in a Medicare prescription drug plan and preference for choice in this conte... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938684 Sun, 01 May 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4938684 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938681&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FuRH-QsUx78o%2F274 We examined age differences in temporal discounting, the tendency to devalue delayed outcomes relative to immediate ones, with particular emphasis on the role of affective responses. A life-span sample completed an incentive-compatible temporal discounting task involving both monetary gains and losses. Covariates included demographic characteristics, cognitive functioning, personality traits, affective responses, and subjective health. Advanced age was associated with a lower tendency to discount the future, but this effect reached statistical significance only for the discounting of delayed gains. An examination of covariates suggested that age effects were associated with age differences in mental health and affective responses rather than demographic or cognitive variables. (PsycINFO Da... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938681 Sun, 01 May 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4938681 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938680&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2Foavf4bq9P8k%2F269 Our primary purpose in this study was to examine age differences in using choice deferral when young and older adults made trade-off decisions. Ninety-two young and 92 older adults were asked to make a trade-off decision among four cars or to use choice deferral (i.e., not buy any of these cars and keep looking for other cars). High and low emotional trade-off difficulty were manipulated between participants through different attribute labels of available cars. Older adults were more likely than young adults to choose deferral. Older adults who used deferral reported less retrospective negative emotion than those who did not. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938680 Sun, 01 May 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4938680 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5209992&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F7xf01Vb75Ks%2F576 We examined the directionality of relations between depressive symptoms and perceptual speed using bivariate dual change score models. Assessments of depressive symptoms and perceptual speed were completed by 1,206 nondemented older adults at baseline, and after 2, 8, 11, and 15 years. After controlling for age, education, baseline general cognitive ability, and self-reported health, allowing depressive symptoms to predict subsequent change in perceptual speed provided the best fit. More depressive symptoms predicted subsequently stronger declines in perceptual speed over time lags of 1 year. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5209992 Mon, 25 Apr 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5209992 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5209991&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FyrdC37sVydc%2F559 Perceived control plays an important role in shaping development throughout adulthood and old age. Using data from the adult lifespan sample of the national German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP; N > 10,000, covering 25 years of measurement), we explored long-term antecedents, correlates, and outcomes of perceived control and examined if associations differ with age. Targeting correlates and antecedents of control, findings indicated that higher concurrent levels of social participation, life satisfaction, and self-rated health as well as more positive changes in social participation over the preceding 11 years were each predictive of between-person differences in perceived control. Targeting health outcomes of control, survival analyses revealed that perceived control predicted 14-year hazard... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5209991 Mon, 25 Apr 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5209991 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5210006&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FEXCJmOeQkps%2F701 Face cognition is considered a specific human ability, clearly differentiable from general cognitive functioning. Its specificity is primarily supported by cognitive-experimental and neuroimaging research, but recently also from an individual differences perspective. However, no comprehensive behavioral data are available, which would allow estimating lifespan changes of the covariance structure of face-cognition abilities and general cognitive functioning as well as age-differences in face cognition after accounting for interindividual variability in general cognition. The present study aimed to fill this gap. In an age-heterogeneous (18–82 years) sample of 448 adults, we found no factorial dedifferentiation between face cognition and general cognition. Age-related differences in face m... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5210006 Mon, 11 Apr 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5210006 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5209999&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FafJIQEaahLg%2F636 Self-referencing has been identified as an advantageous mnemonic strategy for young and older adults. However, little research has investigated the ways in which self-referencing may influence older adults' memory for details, which is typically impaired with age, beyond memory for the item itself. Experiment 1 assessed the effects of self- and other-referencing on memory for visually detailed pictures of objects in thirty-two young and thirty-two older adults. Results indicate that self- and close other-referencing similarly enhance general (item) and specific (detail) recognition for both young and older adults relative to the distant other condition. Experiment 2 extended these findings to source memory, with young and older adults encoding verbal information in self-referent, semantic,... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5209999 Mon, 11 Apr 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5209999 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5209990&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FLpEr5RRHPPQ%2F546 This study examined competing substantive hypotheses about dynamic (i.e., time-ordered) links between memory and functional limitations in old age. We applied the Bivariate Dual Change Score Model to 13-year longitudinal data from the Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old Study (AHEAD; N = 6,990; ages 70 – 95). Results revealed that better memory predicted shallower increases in functional limitations. Little evidence was found for the opposite direction that functional limitations predict ensuing changes in memory. Spline models indicated that dynamic associations between memory and functional limitations were substantively similar between participants aged 70–79 and those aged 80–95. Potential covariates (gender, education, health conditions, and depressive symptoms) did n... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5209990 Mon, 11 Apr 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5209990 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938705&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2Fu9vhUDcGdJo%2F488 We charted daily variations in intrusive thoughts to gain access to adult age differences in affective reactivity to daily stressors. On 100 days, 101 younger and 103 older adults reported stressors, intrusive thoughts, and negative affect. Although increments in intrusive thoughts were similar in both age groups on days with stressors, older adults' negative affect increased less than younger adults' on such days. In addition, (a) levels of intrusive thoughts and negative affect across study time were positively associated; (b) days with increased thoughts were days with increased negative affect; and (c) experiencing above-average intrusive thoughts about stressors strengthened affective reactions to stress. Relative to younger adults, all three associations were reduced in older adults.... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938705 Sun, 10 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4938705 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938699&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FJPXVUasjQZ0%2F439 Two hundred participants, 50 in each of four age ranges (19–29, 30–49, 50–69, 70–90) were tested for working memory, speed of processing, and the processing of sentences with relative clauses. In Experiment 1, participants read four sentence types (cleft subject, cleft object, subject-subject, subject-object) in a word-by-word, non-cumulative, self-paced reading task and made speeded plausibility judgments about them. In Experiment 2, participants read two types of sentences, one of which contained a doubly center embedded relative clause. Older participants' comprehension was less accurate and there was age-related slowing of online processing times in all but the simplest sentences, which increased in syntactically complex sentences in Experiment 1. This pattern suggests an age-r... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938699 Sun, 10 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4938699 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938688&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F3HZp4CE3mGA%2F339 In conclusion, the rate and onset of terminal decline varied somewhat across cognitive domains. Education affected terminal decline differently across the domains, but this modification was not consistent with the predictions of cognitive reserve theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938688 Sun, 10 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4938688 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5210011&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FL7o7R1i7Pwg%2F752 Previous studies reveal age by valence interactions in attention and memory, such that older adults focus relatively more on positive and relatively less on negative stimuli than younger adults. In the current study, eyeblink startle response was used to measure differences in emotional reactivity to images that were equally arousing to both age groups. Viewing positive and negative pictures from the International Affective Picture System had opposite effects on startle modulation for older and younger adults. Younger adults showed the typical startle blink pattern, with potentiated startle when viewing negative pictures compared to positive pictures. Older adults, on the other hand, showed the opposite pattern, with potentiated startle when viewing positive pictures compared to viewing ne... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5210011 Mon, 04 Apr 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5210011 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5210001&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F5eyp3xEeZIk%2F661 Discussion focuses on age differences in short term forgetting, working memory capacity, and the relation between forgetting rates and spaced retrieval schedules. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5210001 Mon, 04 Apr 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5210001 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5209998&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FHl3LF7rRco4%2F631 The present study examined whether there are age-related differences in the ability to accurately monitor forgetting. Young and older adults studied a mixed list of categorized words, and later recalled items when cued with each category. They then estimated the number of additional items that they did not recall—a form of monitoring one's forgetting. Older adults exhibited impaired memory performance compared with young adults, but also accurately estimated they forgot more information than young adults. Both age groups were fairly accurate in predicting forgetting in terms of resolution, indicating that aging does not impair the ability to monitor forgetting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5209998 Mon, 04 Apr 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5209998 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5209996&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FyWxgzsYRGQg%2F612 Working memory (WM) shows a gradual increase during childhood, followed by accelerating decline from adulthood to old age. To examine these lifespan differences more closely, we asked 34 children (10–12 years), 40 younger adults (20–25 years), and 39 older adults (70–75 years) to perform a color change detection task. Load levels and encoding durations were varied for displays including targets only (Experiment 1) or targets plus distracters (Experiment 2, investigating a subsample of Experiment 1). WM performance was lower in older adults and children than in younger adults. Longer presentation times were associated with better performance in all age groups, presumably reflecting increasing effects of strategic selection mechanisms on WM performance. Children outperformed older adul... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5209996 Mon, 04 Apr 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5209996 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5209995&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F78TL5loUQwI%2F605 This brief report examined how the likelihood of destructive anger responses varied with age across relationship contexts. Seventy-six older adults and 100 younger adults from Hong Kong and Mainland China reported their responses to anger-eliciting scenarios elicited by a kin, a close or a casual friend. Results indicated that compared with their younger counterparts, older Hong Kong Chinese were less likely to report direct aggression toward kin, but older Mainland Chinese were more likely to do so. Older Hong Kong Chinese were less likely to report malevolent and fractious motives than were younger Chinese across all relationships; Older Mainland Chinese were less likely to do so only in friendship. Findings have implications for conceptualizing age-related emotion regulation across rela... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5209995 Mon, 04 Apr 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5209995 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5209989&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FYrdT6sVgw0Q%2F532 Rapidly growing research reveals complex yet systematic consequences of collaboration on memory in young adults, but much less is known about this phenomenon in older adults. Young and older adults studied a list of categorized words and took three successive recall tests. Test 1 and 3 were always taken individually, and Test 2 was done either in triads or alone. Despite older adults recalling less overall than young adults, both age groups exhibited similar costs and benefits of collaboration: Collaboration reduced both correct and false recall during collaborative remembering, was associated with more positive beliefs about its value, and produced reminiscence, collective memory, and some forgetting in its cascading effects on postcollaborative recall. We examine the role of retrieval or... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5209989 Mon, 04 Apr 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5209989 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5209987&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FQ0d85w7b5Gc%2F518 Within the context of the ACTIVE study, the current investigation explored the relationships between objective memory and two components of subjective memory (frequency of forgetting and use of external aids) over a five-year period. Relationships were assessed using parallel process latent growth curve models. Results indicated that changes in objective memory were associated with changes in perceived frequency of forgetting, but not with use of external aids (calendars, reminder notes) over time. Findings suggest that memory complaints may accurately reflect decline in objective memory performance, but that these memory changes are not necessarily related to compensatory behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5209987 Mon, 04 Apr 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5209987 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938678&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FnSMM9PDb6OQ%2F253 Successful mobility requires appropriate decision-making. Seniors with reduced executive functioning—such as senior fallers—may be prone to poor mobility judgments, especially under dual-task conditions. We classified participants as “At-Risk” and “Not-At-Risk” for falls using a validated physiological falls-risk assessment. Dual-task performance was assessed in a virtual reality environment where participants crossed a simulated street by walking on a manual treadmill while listening to music or conversing on a phone. Those “At-Risk” experienced more collisions with oncoming cars and had longer crossing times in the Phone condition compared to controls. We conclude that poor mobility judgments during a dual-task leads to unsafe mobility for those at-risk for falls. (PsycIN... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938678 Sun, 03 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4938678 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5210009&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FKzuNiidjQC4%2F738 The current study investigated the nature of the flow state among older adults. Flow is a pleasurable experiential state that occurs during full-capacity engagement in which an individual is performing at a level that is matched with the demands of the task. Each participant completed a scale assessing dimensions of flow in a particular activity selected by the participant. More cognitively demanding activities elicited higher levels of flow for those with higher fluid ability, but lower levels of flow for those with lower fluid ability. This pattern was reversed for activities that were low in demand. Our data highlight the potential importance of considering motivational states such as flow in understanding cognitive optimization in adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all ... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5210009 Mon, 28 Mar 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5210009 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5210007&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F45BGNB9rNJo%2F716 Many theoretical accounts predict that as people age, they rely increasingly on affect. At least one account (Dynamic Integration Theory) makes the additional prediction that an accompanying effect of aging is a narrowing of affective space. These predictions were tested in the context of the relatively automatic low-level cognitive process of lexical access (auditory word recognition). Experiment 1 used emotion words and Experiment 2 used nonemotion words. Both experiments provided support for both predictions. Compared to younger adults (ns = 36 and 56), older adults (ns = 36 and 54) showed larger but less complex effects of dimensions of affective connotation. In addition, older adults with more cognitive resources showed a data pattern like that of younger adults, while those with fewe... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5210007 Mon, 28 Mar 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5210007 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5210004&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FAohT9DpK3jw%2F689 Words and nonwords were used as stimuli to assess item and associative recognition memory performance in young and older adults. Participants were presented with pairs of items and then tested on both item memory (old/new items) and associative memory (intact/recombined pairs). For words, older participants performed worse than young participants on item and associative tests but to a greater extent on the latter. In contrast, for nonwords, older participants performed equally worse than young participants on item and associative tests. This is the first study to demonstrate that a manipulation of stimulus novelty can alter age-related associative deficits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5210004 Mon, 28 Mar 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5210004 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5210002&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2Fdc-_PYVpNOo%2F671 The study explored age-related differences in the effects of context change on recognition memory by presenting object names (Expt. 1A) or their pictures (Expt. 1B) on background scenes. Participants later attempted to recognize previously presented items on background scenes that were original, switched, blank, or new. Older adults recognized fewer word stimuli than did younger adults, and context effects were larger for older adults. With pictures, however, the age-related decrement was eliminated and context effects were reduced. The beneficial effect of context reinstatement in older adults occurs despite the finding that they are less able to recall or recognize such contexts (Experiment 2). Older adults can use context information in recognition memory at least as efficiently as youn... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5210002 Mon, 28 Mar 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5210002 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5209997&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FRTr7leY5X8M%2F625 The present study examines source memory for actions (e.g., placing items in a suitcase). For both young and older adult participants, source memory for actions performed by the self was better than memory for actions performed by either a known (close) or unknown other. In addition, neither young nor older adults were more likely to confuse self with close others than with unknown others. Results suggest an advantage in source memory for actions performed by the self compared to others, possibly associated with sensorimotor cues that are relatively preserved in aging. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5209997 Mon, 28 Mar 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5209997 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5209986&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FAQ2YmvFnGuY%2F503 This study provides evidence that older adults can be trained to use cognitive strategies, the effects are durable, and strategies are associated with memory and everyday functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5209986 Mon, 28 Mar 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5209986 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938702&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FlvM5ye4-Pk8%2F467 To study age effects in the resolution of idiomatic semantic ambiguity, we focus on decomposability, the extent to which a literal reading of an idiom's words shares meaning with its figurative interpretation. Younger and older adults judged whether decomposable and nondecomposable idioms and nonidioms had a literal interpretation. Older adults were slower at making literality judgments and more sensitive to conflicts between literal and figurative meanings. The results support claims of decompositional analysis of idioms during later processing stages and of obligatory activation of figurative meanings. They also lend support to research that has shown age-related effects in ambiguity resolution. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938702 Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4938702 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938701&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FKnzW7qlVSXo%2F461 The authors studied the effects of aging on the flexible use of categorization rules based on thematic and taxonomic relations. Two components of flexibility were distinguished: maintenance of a categorical relation, and switching between two relations. Results showed that age affects these two components. In older adults, an effect of the nature of the categorical relations to be used was revealed. Older adults demonstrated a specific difficulty in the flexible use of taxonomic relations. Moreover, all adults, independent of their age, showed better performance in maintaining the use of a categorical relation than in switching between two categorical relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938701 Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4938701 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938698&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FgVugH9G-qjc%2F427 The current study addressed the question whether audiovisual (AV) speech can improve speech perception in older and younger adults in a noisy environment. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded to investigate age-related differences in the processes underlying AV speech perception. Participants performed an object categorization task in three conditions, namely auditory-only (A), visual-only (V), and AVspeech. Both age groups revealed an equivalent behavioral AVspeech benefit over unisensory trials. ERP analyses revealed an amplitude reduction of the auditory P1 and N1 on AVspeech trials relative to the summed unisensory (A + V) response in both age groups. These amplitude reductions are interpreted as an indication of multisensory efficiency as fewer neural resources were recruited... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938698 Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4938698 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938697&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FX1v-7pVzciE%2F415 Age-related deficits in selective attention have often been demonstrated in the visual modality and, to a lesser extent, in the auditory modality. In contrast, a mounting body of evidence has suggested that cross-modal selective attention is intact in aging, especially in visual tasks that require ignoring the auditory modality. Our goal in this study was to investigate age-related differences in the ability to ignore cross-modal auditory and visual distraction and to assess the role of cognitive control demands thereby. In a set of two experiments, 30 young (mean age = 23.3 years) and 30 older adults (mean age = 67.7 years) performed a visual and an auditory n-back task (0 ≤ n ≤ 2), with and without cross-modal distraction. The results show an asymmetry in cross-modal distraction as a... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938697 Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4938697 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938695&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2Ficl4hnUFhpA%2F397 People often encounter reminders to memories that they would prefer not to think about. When this happens, they often try to exclude the unwanted memory from awareness, a process that relies upon inhibitory control. We propose that the ability to regulate awareness of unwanted memories through inhibition declines with advancing age. In two experiments, we examined younger and older adults' ability to intentionally suppress retrieval when repeatedly confronted with reminders to an experience they were instructed to not think about. Older adults exhibited significantly less forgetting of the suppressed items compared to younger adults on a later independent probe test of recall, indicating that older adults failed to inhibit the to-be-avoided memories. These findings demonstrate that the abi... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938695 Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4938695 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938693&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FxQkHH50hDWs%2F381 How optimistically individuals view their future and what they expect from it has often been studied in younger adults. Less attention has been paid to future perceptions in older adults whose future is temporally limited. Using longitudinal data from the Berlin Aging Study, the authors examined whether future orientation and optimism change in older adults (70–104 years) and whether changes in future perception precede changes in well-being. With advancing age participants reported fewer future plans and less optimism. Those changes were related to changes in well-being with partial support for a lead-lag relationship. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938693 Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4938693 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938692&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FwjT46nv0DNk%2F372 Previous binocular rivalry studies with younger adults have shown that emotional stimuli dominate perception over neutral stimuli. Here we investigated the effects of age on patterns of emotional dominance during binocular rivalry. Participants performed a face/house rivalry task where the emotion of the face (happy, angry, neutral) and orientation (upright, inverted) of the face and house stimuli were varied systematically. Age differences were found with younger adults showing a general emotionality effect (happy and angry faces were more dominant than neutral faces) and older adults showing inhibition of anger (neutral faces were more dominant than angry faces) and positivity effects (happy faces were more dominant than both angry and neutral faces). Age differences in dominance pattern... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938692 Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4938692 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938691&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FQWGqn8j4HbI%2F363 Repeated assessments obtained over years can be used to measure individuals' developmental change, whereas repeated assessments obtained over a few weeks can be used to measure individuals' dynamic characteristics. Using data from a burst of measurement embedded in the Berlin Aging Study (BASE; Baltes & Mayer, 1999), we illustrate and examine how long-term changes in cognitive ability are related to short-term changes in cognitive performance, cardiovascular function, and emotional experience. Our findings suggest that “better” cognitive aging over approximately 13 years was associated with greater cognitive plasticity, less cardiovascular lability, and less emotional diversity over approximately 2 weeks at age 90 years. The study highlights the potential benefits of multi-time scale l... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938691 Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4938691 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938685&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FiqhDNslZul8%2F321 Suicidal behavior is a potentially lethal complication of late-life depression. In younger adults, suicide has been linked to abnormal decision-making ability. Given that there are substantial age-related decreases in decision-making ability, and that older adults experience environmental stressors that require effective decision-making, we reasoned that impaired decision-making may be particularly relevant to suicidal behavior in the elderly. We thus compared performance on a probabilistic decision-making task that does not involve working memory (“Cambridge Gamble Task”) in four groups of older adults: (1) individuals with major depression and a history of suicide attempt (n = 25), (2) individuals with major depression with active suicidal ideation but no suicide attempt (n = 13), (3... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938685 Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4938685 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5209994&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FTKnV2_Je3-I%2F592 This study examined the association among caregivers' five-factor personality traits and subjective health with particular emphasis on the role of two theoretically implicated mediators: multi-domain self-efficacy and caregiver strain. The sample comprised 536 informal caregivers (mean age = 62.9 years, SD = 19.9, 72% female, 98% White) of community-dwelling older adults with multiple functional impairments. Both physical health and mental health were negatively associated with neuroticism and positively associated with extraversion and conscientiousness. Agreeableness and openness were associated with better subjective mental health and physical health, respectively. Multiple mediation analyses indicated that self-efficacy mediated all observed associations between personality and subject... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5209994 Mon, 21 Mar 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5209994 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5209993&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2Fddseom9Dfik%2F584 This research examined longitudinal associations between caregiving stressors, caregiver depression, and quality of care. Informal caregivers of elderly care recipients were interviewed at baseline (N = 310) and again one year later (N = 213). Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that increases in caregiving stressors (i.e., caregiver physical health symptoms, caregiver activity restriction, and care recipient controlling and manipulative behavior) were related to increased caregiver depression. In turn, increased caregiver depression and decreased caregiver respectful behavior predicted increases in potentially harmful behavior. These results extend previous cross-sectional findings and indicate that changes in caregiving stressors, caregiver depression, and caregiver respect over t... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5209993 Mon, 21 Mar 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5209993 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938703&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FTQqOpcDOdAY%2F475 The maintenance of effects from home-delivered cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) was examined. One hundred thirty-four participants, predominantly African American and primarily rural, low-resource, and physically frail, were randomly assigned to either immediate or delayed CBT. The six-month follow-up assessments indicated that among those who remained in the study, participants evidenced significantly improved quality of life and reductions in psychological symptoms at follow-up, relative to pretreatment levels. Posttreatment gains were maintained at follow-up. These data suggest that treatment effects can be achieved and perhaps maintained with a disadvantaged sample of older adults and suggest that evidence-based treatments delivered through nontraditional means can have effects beyon... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938703 Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4938703 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938687&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FRr_U8aFCijg%2F338 This article contains an error in the Discussion, under the Implications, Caveats, Future Directions heading. The third paragraph includes sentences that should have been removed, as they are a variation on similar text immediately following. The sentences that should have been removed are presented in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2010-22067-001.) We conducted secondary analyses to determine the relationship between longstanding personality traits and risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD) among 767 participants 72 years of age or older who were followed for more than 6 years. Personality was assessed with the NEO-FFI. We hypothesized that elevated Neuroticism, lower Openness, and lower Conscientiousness would be independently associated with r... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938687 Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4938687 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623401&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2Flcd4_LeXjaw%2F137 The present study examined how younger and older adults choose to selectively remember important information. Participants studied words paired with point values, and “bet” on whether they could later recall each word. If they bet on and recalled the word, they received the points, but if they failed to recall it, they lost those points. Participants (especially older adults) initially bet on more words than they later recalled, but greatly improved with task experience. The incorporation of rewards and penalties associated with metacognitive predictions, and multiple study-test trials, revealed that both younger and older adults can learn to maximize performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623401 Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4623401 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623399&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FONhciRpK-vI%2F127 We report that healthy older adults showed learning impairments in contextual cuing when compared with younger adults. The display properties in the task were altered to artificially increase younger adults' response times to match those of older adults and to produce faster responses in older participants; however, younger participants' learning remained intact, whereas older participants continued to show impairments under these conditions. These results suggest that older adults have intrinsic deficits in contextual cuing that cannot be attributed to their slower overall response speed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623399 Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4623399 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623391&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FxRgcxSPLdXM%2F34 In cross-sectional age variance extraction (CAVE), age, the indicator of a hypothesized developmental mechanism, and a developmental outcome are specified as independent, mediator, and target variables, respectively, to test hypotheses about behavioral development. We show that: (a) longitudinal change in a mediator variable accounting for substantial cross-sectional age-related variance in the target variable need not correlate with the target variable's longitudinal change; and, conversely, (b) longitudinal change in a mediator not sharing cross-sectional age-related variance with the target variable may nevertheless correlate highly with that variable's longitudinal change. We discourage use of CAVE for testing multivariate hypotheses about behavioral development. (PsycINFO Database Rec... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623391 Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4623391 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623388&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F5e1JY9Hy68w%2F1 The present meta-analysis integrates the results from 168 empirical studies on differences between caregiving spouses, adult children, and children-in-law. Spouses differ from children and children-in-law significantly with regard to sociodemographic variables; also, they provide more support but report fewer care recipient behavior problems. Spouse caregivers report more depression symptoms, greater financial and physical burden, and lower levels of psychological well-being. Higher levels of psychological distress among spouses are explained mostly—but not completely—by higher levels of care provision. Few differences emerge between children and children-in-law, but children-in-law perceive the relationship with the care recipient as less positive and they report fewer uplifts of care... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623388 Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4623388 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5210000&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FJ7grj-hacj8%2F647 The noun-pair lookup (NP) task was used to evaluate strategic shift from visual scanning to retrieval. We investigated whether age differences in feeling-of-knowing (FOK) account for older adults' delayed retrieval shift. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) standard NP learning, (2) fast binary FOK judgments, or (3) Choice, where participants had to choose in advance whether to see the look-up table or respond from memory. We found small age differences in FOK magnitudes but major age differences in memory retrieval choices that mirrored retrieval use in the standard NP task. Older adults showed lower resolution in their confidence judgments (CJs) for recognition memory tests on the NP items, and this difference appeared to influence rates of retrieval shift... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5210000 Mon, 14 Mar 2011 04:00:00 +0100 5210000 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938700&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FWW3ewPatVww%2F451 Following up on research suggesting an age-related reduction in the rightward extent of the perceptual span during reading (Rayner, Castelhano, & Yang, 2009), we compared old and young adults in an N + 2-boundary paradigm in which a nonword preview of word N + 2 or word N + 2 itself is replaced by the target word once the eyes cross an invisible boundary located after word N. The intermediate word N + 1 was always three letters long. Gaze durations on word N + 2 were significantly shorter for identical than nonword N + 2 preview both for young and for old adults, with no significant difference in this preview benefit. Young adults, however, did modulate their gaze duration on word N more strongly than old adults in response to the difficulty of the parafoveal word N + 1. Taken together, th... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938700 Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4938700 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938696&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FSYmb4g6m3Hc%2F406 Older adults are not as good as younger adults at decoding prosodic emotions. We sought to determine the specificity of this finding. Performance of older and younger adults was compared on a prosodic emotion task, a “pure” prosodic emotion task, a linguistic prosody task, and a “pure” linguistic prosody task. Older adults were less accurate at interpreting prosodic emotion cues and nonemotional contours, concurrent semantic processing worsened interpretation, and performance was further degraded when identifying negative emotions and questions. Older adults display a pervasive problem interpreting prosodic cues, but further study is required to clarify the stage at which performance declines. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Agin... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938696 Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4938696 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938686&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FJOrTpxjYXnA%2F331 Older adults have the highest risk of death by suicide in the United States. Improving our understanding of the factors that lead to increased risk of suicide in older adults will greatly inform our ability to prevent suicide in this high-risk group. Two studies were conducted to test the effect of perceived burdensomeness, a component of the interpersonal-psychological theory of suicide (Joiner, 2005), on suicide ideation in older adults. Further, gender was examined as a moderator of this association to determine if perceived burdensomeness exerted a greater influence on suicide ideation in males. The results of these studies suggest that perceived burdensomeness accounts for significant variance in suicide ideation, even after predictors such as depressive symptoms, hopelessness, and fu... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938686 Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4938686 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938679&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F2giy3y7AIp8%2F260 The ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously has become increasingly important as technologies such as cell phones and portable music players have become more common. In the current study, we examined dual-task costs in older and younger adults using a simulated street crossing task constructed in an immersive virtual environment with an integrated treadmill so that participants could walk as they would in the real world. Participants were asked to cross simulated streets of varying difficulty while either undistracted, listening to music, or conversing on a cell phone. Older adults were more vulnerable to dual-task impairments than younger adults when the crossing task was difficult; dual-task costs were largely absent in the younger adult group. Performance costs in older adults ... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938679 Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4938679 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623413&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FCVMPGhoc0FU%2F241 In this study, the authors investigated leader generativity as a moderator of the relationships between leader age, leader-member exchange, and three criteria of leadership success (follower perceptions of leader effectiveness, follower satisfaction with leader, and follower extra effort). Data came from 128 university professors paired with one research assistant each. Results showed positive relationships between leader age and leader generativity, and negative relationships between leader age and follower perceptions of leader effectiveness and follower extra effort. Consistent with expectations based on leadership categorization theory, leader generativity moderated the relationships between leader age and all three criteria of leadership success, such that leaders high in generativity... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623413 Mon, 14 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4623413 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623407&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FAsbqu3Mn_bY%2F181 Highly efficient dual-task processing is demonstrated when reaction time to each of two tasks does not differ between the dual-task situation and the single-task situation. This has been demonstrated reliably in younger adults; nevertheless, the two extant studies of extensive dual-task training did not find evidence for it in any elderly adult. The origins of age-related differences after training were explored in a study in which the stimuli for the two tasks were perfectly redundant although two distinct responses were required. The dual-task situation thus greatly reduced the demands of stimulus categorization while still requiring two response selections and two response executions. After only limited training 8 of 8 younger adults and 5 of 8 older adults showed performance consistent... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623407 Mon, 07 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4623407 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623406&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FlY6T4qSu1Aw%2F174 The flexible goal adjustment (FLEX) and tenacious goal pursuit (TEN) scales are used regularly in aging research. The current study examined their validity in a sample of 517 women (30–75 years) in multiple ways. Overall, the findings show that the scales do not clearly distinguish between FLEX and TEN. The direction in which the items were formulated was just as important as what was being measured. Moreover, face validity of the inversely phrased items in particular appeared to be weak. On the basis of these findings, the authors recommend a revision of the concept definitions as well as of the items. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623406 Mon, 07 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4623406 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623397&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FCvgJm_ZQQ80%2F92 The present study addresses three questions regarding age differences in working memory: (1) whether performance on complex span tasks decreases as a function of age at a faster rate than performance on simple span tasks; (2) whether spatial working memory decreases at a faster rate than verbal working memory; and (3) whether the structure of working memory abilities is different for different age groups. Adults, ages 20–89 (n = 388), performed three simple and three complex verbal span tasks and three simple and three complex spatial memory tasks. Performance on the spatial tasks decreased at faster rates as a function of age than performance on the verbal tasks, but within each domain, performance on complex and simple span tasks decreased at the same rates. Confirmatory factor analyse... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623397 Mon, 07 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4623397 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623400&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FUX7HCAdCtoc%2F133 Young (59) adults viewed videos in which the same individual committed a faux pas, or acted appropriately, toward his coworkers. Older participants did not discriminate appropriate and inappropriate behaviors as well as young participants. Older participants also scored lower than young participants on an extensive battery of emotion recognition tests, and emotion performance fully mediated age differences in faux pas discrimination. The results provide further evidence for the role of emotion perception in a range of important social deficits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623400 Mon, 31 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4623400 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623404&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FX5tDw4hFZGU%2F162 When engaged in an attention-demanding task, people are surprisingly vulnerable to inattentional blindness—the failure to notice an unexpected event. Two theories of cognitive aging, attentional capacity models and inhibitory deficit models, make opposite predictions about age differences in susceptibility to inattentional blindness. We tested these predictions using an inattentional blindness paradigm developed by Simons and Chabris (1999) and found that older adults were more likely to experience inattentional blindness than young adults. These results are compatible with attentional capacity models of cognitive aging but not with current inhibitory deficit models. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623404 Mon, 24 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4623404 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623389&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FibZSh0VVTG8%2F15 A meta-analysis of 26 published articles (with 36 independent participant groups) was conducted to analyze the relationship between task-switching effects and aging. Latency served as the dependent measure. Multilevel modeling was used to test for additive and multiplicative complexity effects in local and global switch costs. Global task switching was found to add 1 or more stages to processing and resulted in a marked age deficit. Local task-switching costs, on the other hand, showed a multiplicative complexity effect but no specific attention-related age deficits. Cueing or switch predictability did not affect age differences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623389 Mon, 24 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100 4623389 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296739&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FIZtdcsDCNis%2F991 Previous research suggests that older adults suffer declines in producing accurate spellings but retain the ability to accurately detect misspellings. The preservation of perception in the face of impaired production has been used to support a model of aging in which age impairs access to linguistic representations under specific circumstances, while representations themselves remain intact. The current research tests two predictions of this Transmission Deficit Hypothesis (TDH): first, that the differential effect of age on perception and production occurs when tasks are equated on response requirements and underlying representations, and second, that both word and spelling frequency interact to determine the effect of age on performance. Results of two error monitoring tasks supported th... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296739 Mon, 27 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296739 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296738&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FtAdcKC_wrMQ%2F980 We investigated adult age-differences in timing control of fast vs. slow repetitive movements using a dual-task approach. Twenty-two young (M = 24.23 yr) and 22 older adults (M = 66.64 yr) performed three cognitive tasks differing in working memory load and response production demands and they tapped series of 550-ms or 2100-ms target intervals. Single-task timing was comparable in both groups. Dual-task timing was characterized by shortening of produced intervals and increases in drift and variability. Dual-task costs for both cognitive and timing performances were pronounced at slower tapping tempos, an effect exacerbated in older adults. Our findings implicate attention and working memory processes as critical components of slow movement timing and sources of specific challenges thereof... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296738 Mon, 27 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296738 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296735&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FIDjs8PWiPaI%2F949 Tracking a digital pursuit rotor task was used to measure dual task costs of language production by young and older adults. Tracking performance by both groups was affected by dual task demands: time on target declined and tracking error increased as dual task demands increased from the baseline condition to a moderately demanding dual task condition to a more demanding dual task condition. When dual task demands were moderate, older adults' speech rate declined but their fluency, grammatical complexity, and content were unaffected. When the dual task was more demanding, older adults' speech, like young adults' speech, became highly fragmented, ungrammatical, and incoherent. Vocabulary, working memory, processing speed, and inhibition affected vulnerability to dual task costs: vocabulary p... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296735 Mon, 27 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296735 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296727&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FuMenDmDbFak%2F867 We tested the hypothesis that the previously reported association between a higher body mass index (BMI) and poorer cognition in later adulthood is an artifact of confounding by previous cognitive ability and socioeconomic status. Participants were 1,079 adults aged about 70 years in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 Study, on whom there are IQ data from age 11. Cognitive outcome measures included: IQ at age 70 using the same test that was administered at age 11; composite measures of general cognitive ability (g factor), speed of information processing, and memory; and two tests of verbal ability. People classified as overweight or obese in later adulthood had significantly lower scores on tests of childhood IQ, age 70 IQ, g factor, and verbal ability. There was no significant association wit... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296727 Mon, 27 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296727 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296719&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2Fr6DtHOMwDQc%2F788 Although age-related deficits in emotion recognition have been widely explored, the nature and scope of these deficits remain poorly understood. We conducted two experiments to examine whether these deficits are less pronounced when older adults evaluate dynamic compared with static images, and second, whether age-related cognitive decline exacerbates these deficits. Our results suggest that age-related cognitive decline exacerbates older adults' deficits in detecting anger, but only from static faces. Furthermore, older adults do not show emotion recognition deficits when evaluating global emotions from dynamic images of faces. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296719 Mon, 27 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296719 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296718&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FESc7HnzXyGs%2F779 This article comprises 2 studies that directly address issues of age differences on cross-modal emotional matching and explicit identification. The first study compared 25 younger adults (19–40 years) and 25 older adults (60–80 years) on their ability to match cross-modal congruent and incongruent emotional stimuli. The second study looked at performance of 20 younger (19–40) and 20 older adults (60–80) on explicit emotion identification when information was presented congruently in faces and voices or only in faces or in voices. In Study 1, older adults performed as well as younger adults on tasks in which congruent auditory and visual emotional information were presented concurrently, but there were age-related differences in matching incongruent cross-modal information. Results ... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296718 Mon, 27 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296718 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938694&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F5S-iqmN8Kg8%2F388 Previous research has suggested that older and young adults are equally able to regulate their outward expressions of emotion and that the regulation of emotional expression in younger adults results in decreased memory for the emotional stimulus. In the current study, we examined whether older adults show this same memory effect. Older and young adults viewed positive and negative emotional pictures under instructions to view the pictures naturally, enhance their facial expressions, or suppress their facial expressions. Older and young adults showed equivalent outward regulation of expression, but suppressing their emotional expressions led to reduced memory for emotional stimuli only in the young adults. The results suggest that older and young adults are achieving control of their expre... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938694 Mon, 20 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4938694 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623410&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2Frvy0pcSk2r8%2F214 Older and younger readers read sentences in which target words were masked 40 to 60 ms after fixation onset. Masking only the target word caused more disruption than did masking each word in the sentence, and this effect was stronger for the younger readers than for the older readers. Although older readers had longer eye fixations than did younger readers, the results indicated that the masking effect was comparable for the 2 groups. However, for both groups, how long the eyes remained in place was strongly influenced by the frequency of the fixated word (even though it had been rapidly replaced by the mask and was no longer there when the eyes did move). This is compelling evidence that for both older and younger readers, cognitive/lexical processing has a very strong influence on when t... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623410 Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4623410 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623409&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F5v9NvQn0vI0%2F203 This study used vision loss due to age-related macular degeneration to learn about adaptation processes related to chronic functional impairment, focusing on Horowitz and Reinhardt's (1998) concept of Adaptation to Age-related Vision Loss (AVL) as the outcome. We hypothesized that impacts of visual acuity on AVL are mediated by perceived functional vision losses and functional abilities, and tested for “adaptive” weakening of this impact with ongoing loss. Longitudinal data covering a one-year interval from samples with age-related macular degeneration gathered in New York (N = 361) and Heidelberg (Germany, N = 90) were used. We analyzed the hypothesized causal structure by modeling latent change scores, and checked if those with low, medium, and high levels of vision loss at baseline ... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623409 Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4623409 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296731&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FPEFvPLQqSNA%2F911 Older adults show disproportionate declines in explicit memory for associative relative to item information. However, the source of these declines is still uncertain. One explanation is a generalized impairment in the processing of associative information. A second explanation is a more specialized impairment in the strategic, effortful recollection of associative information, leaving less effortful forms of associative retrieval preserved. Assessing implicit memory of new associations is a way to distinguish between these viewpoints. To date, mixed findings have emerged from studies of associative priming in aging. One factor that may account for the variability is whether the manipulations inadvertently involve strategic, explicit processes. In two experiments we present a novel paradigm... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296731 Mon, 15 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296731 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623411&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F7IZ4yTpQ4SA%2F224 Although positive and negative images enhance the visual processing of young adults, recent work suggests that a life-span shift in emotion processing goals may lead older adults to avoid negative images. To examine this tendency for older adults to regulate their intake of negative emotional information, the current study investigated age-related differences in the perceptual boost received by probes appearing over facial expressions of emotion. Visually-evoked event-related potentials were recorded from the scalp over cortical regions associated with visual processing as a probe appeared over facial expressions depicting anger, sadness, happiness, or no emotion. The activity of the visual system in response to each probe was operationalized in terms of the P1 component of the event-relat... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623411 Mon, 08 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4623411 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623402&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FU6zXz-y1z8o%2F143 While episodic memory declines with age, metacognitive monitoring is spared. The current study explored whether older adults can use their preserved metacognitive knowledge to make source guesses in the absence of source memory. Through repetition, words from two sources (italic vs. bold text type) differed in memorability. There were no age differences in monitoring this difference despite an age difference in memory. Older adults used their metacognitive knowledge to make source guesses but showed a deficit in varying their source guessing based on word recognition. Therefore, older adults may not fully benefit from metacognitive knowledge about sources in source monitoring. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623402 Mon, 08 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4623402 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623395&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FDwi59M3mCKs%2F80 When remembering past events or imagining possible future events, older adults generate fewer episodic details than do younger adults. These results support the constructive episodic simulation hypothesis: deficits in retrieving episodic details underlie changes during memory and imagination. To examine the extent of this age-related reduction in specificity, we compared performance on memory and imagination tasks to a picture description task that does not require episodic memory. In two experiments, older adults exhibited comparable specificity reductions across all conditions. These findings emphasize the need to consider age-related changes in imagination and memory in a broader theoretical context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Ag... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623395 Mon, 08 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4623395 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623393&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FQOVDjiRKZ74%2F60 This study investigated age differences in cognitive and affective facets of empathy: the ability to perceive another's emotions accurately, the capacity to share another's emotions, and the ability to behaviorally express sympathy in an empathic episode. Participants, 80 younger (Mage = 32 years) and 73 older (Mage = 59 years) adults, viewed eight film clips, each portraying a younger or an older adult thinking-aloud about an emotionally engaging topic that was relevant to either younger adults or older adults. In comparison to their younger counterparts, older adults generally reported and expressed greater sympathy while observing the target persons; and they were better able to share the emotions of the target persons who talked about a topic that was relevant to older adults. Age-rela... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623393 Mon, 08 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4623393 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296725&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FEQZJP-TU-gc%2F851 This study examined the within-person relationship between sleep and cognitive functioning. Fifty community-dwelling African Americans (age range = 50–80 years) were asked to report their sleep duration and quality the previous evening and to complete cognitive measures over 8 occasions within a 2–3 week period. A within-person daily change in sleep duration was significantly associated with worse global cognitive performance. The greater an individual deviated away from his or her average sleep duration on a particular day, the more likely his or her performance would decline. These results demonstrate that the sleep-cognition relationship can be observed at a within-person level of analysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296725 Mon, 08 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296725 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296722&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FtHEXTICYWag%2F822 Memory for ages of unfamiliar faces was examined in an associative memory task to determine whether generation as well as schematic support (cues from faces) would enhance later cued recall of the age information and reduce older adults' associative deficit. Participants studied faces and were either presented with the age or first had to guess before being shown the correct age. Later, participants were given a cued-recall test. Both younger and older adults exhibited associative memory enhancements from first generating the ages at encoding (a generation effect) despite the fact the initial generation was often inaccurate. Although older adults recalled fewer ages overall compared with younger adults, older adults were able to remember the age information for older faces equally as well ... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296722 Mon, 08 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296722 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623392&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F3XTP75H_qQ8%2F48 In this study, we examined how these cultural differences in context processing affect how people interpret facial emotions. We found that younger Koreans were more influenced than younger Americans by emotional background pictures when rating the emotion of a central face, especially those younger Koreans with low self-rated stress. In contrast, among older adults, neither Koreans nor Americans showed significant influences of context in their face emotion ratings. These findings suggest that cultural differences in reliance on context to interpret others' emotions depend on perceptual integration processes that decline with age, leading to fewer cultural differences in perception among older adults than among younger adults. Furthermore, when asked to recall the background pictures, youn... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623392 Mon, 01 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4623392 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623412&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FpF60Cg02PKA%2F232 This study also examined, in the LBC1921, whether MHT score at age 11 influenced the amount of change in MHT between ages 79 and 87. It did not. Higher intelligence from early life was apparently protective of intelligence in old age due to the stability of cognitive function across the lifespan, rather than because it slowed the decline experienced in later life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623412 Mon, 25 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4623412 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623408&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FAEy91FOCFlc%2F188 The present study examined whether people become more susceptible to capture by salient objects as they age. Participants searched a target display for a letter in a specific color and indicated its identity. In Experiment 1, this target display was preceded by a non-informative cue display containing one target-color box, one ignored-color box, and two white boxes. On half of the trials, this cue display also contained a salient-but-irrelevant abrupt onset. To assess capture by the target-color cue, we used the N2pc component of the event-related potential, thought to reflect attentional allocation to the left or right visual field. The target-color box in the cue display produced a substantial N2pc effect for younger adults and, most importantly, this effect was not diminished by the pre... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623408 Mon, 25 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4623408 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623405&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FGSDjODjrobs%2F167 Perceptions of cognitive compensation and interpersonal enjoyment of collaboration were examined in three hundred middle-aged and older couples who completed measures of perceptions of collaboration, cognitive ability, marital satisfaction, an errand task and judged their spouse's affiliation. Older adults (especially men) endorsed cognitive compensation and interpersonal enjoyment and reported using collaboration more frequently than middle-aged adults. Greater need for cognitive compensation was related to lower cognitive ability only for older wives. Greater marital satisfaction was associated with greater interpersonal enjoyment. These two functions related to reports of more frequent use of collaboration and perceptions of spousal affiliation in a collaborative task. (PsycINFO Databas... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623405 Mon, 25 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4623405 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623403&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F0MrL53mx1vY%2F150 This study assessed motor limits of regular tapping, timing error detection, and correction in 60 participants aged from 19 to 98 years. Rate limitations on motor production were estimated from the average inter-tap interval when tapping as fast as possible for 30 s. Timing error detection required participants to judge whether a sound sequence presented at a slow, intermediate, or fast speed contained an irregularity because of phase shift. This was performed with or without synchronizing to the sounds. On the basis of the just-detectable positive phase shift (JND), participants synchronized with sequences containing phase shifts that were subliminal, just detectable or supraliminal. On average, JNDs were 9% of the inter-onset interval and by and large were not affected by synchronization... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623403 Mon, 25 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4623403 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623398&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FcxFSyyy1j40%2F111 Young and older adults studied word pairs and later discriminated studied pairs from various types of foils including recombined word-pairs and foil pairs containing one or two previously unstudied words. We manipulated how many times a specific word pair was repeated (1 or 5) and how many different words were associated with a given word (1 or 5) to tease apart the effects of item familiarity from recollection of the association. Rather than making simple old/new judgments, subjects chose one of five responses: (a) Old-Old (original), (b) Old-Old (rearranged), (c) Old-New, (d) New-Old, (e) New-New. Veridical recollection was impaired in old age in all memory conditions. There was evidence for a higher rate of false recollection of rearranged pairs following exact repetition of study pairs... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623398 Mon, 25 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4623398 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623394&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F6sO8pruD4GQ%2F71 Problems with face recognition are frequent in older adults. However, the mechanisms involved have only been partially discovered. In particular, it is unknown to what extent these problems may be related to changes in configural face processing. Here, we investigated the face inversion effect (FIE) together with the ability to detect modifications in the vertical or horizontal second-order relations between facial features. We used a same/different unfamiliar face discrimination task with 33 young and 33 older adults. The results showed dissociations in the performances of older versus younger adults. There was a lack of inversion effect during the recognition of original faces by older adults. However, for modified faces, older adults showed a pattern of performance similar to that of yo... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623394 Mon, 25 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4623394 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623390&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FGQKju52b2Go%2F21 This study used experience-sampling to examine the developmental course of emotional experience in a representative sample of adults spanning early to very late adulthood. Participants (N = 184, Wave 1; N = 191, Wave 2; N = 178, Wave 3) reported their emotional states at five randomly selected times each day for a one week period. Using a measurement burst design, the one-week sampling procedure was repeated five and then ten years later. Cross-sectional and growth curve analyses indicate that aging is associated with more positive overall emotional well-being, with greater emotional stability and with more complexity (as evidenced by greater co-occurrence of positive and negative emotions). These findings remained robust after accounting for other variables that may be related to emotiona... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623390 Mon, 25 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4623390 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296737&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FwJl-CKV9lz0%2F968 It is commonly found that memory for context declines disproportionately with aging, arguably due to a general age-related deficit in associative memory processes. One possible mechanism for such deficits is an age-related reduction in available processing resources. In two experiments we compared the effects of aging to the effects of division of attention in younger adults on memory for items and context. Using a technique proposed by Craik (1989), linear functions relating memory performance for items and their contexts were derived for a Young Full Attention group, a Young Divided Attention group, and an Older Adult group. Results suggested that the Old group showed an additional deficit in associative memory that was not mimicked by divided attention. It is speculated that both divide... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296737 Mon, 25 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296737 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296733&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2Fr-u2yCGWFtU%2F929 Practice of different tasks in a random order induces better retention than practicing them in a blocked order, a phenomenon known as the contextual interference (CI) effect. Our purpose was to investigate whether the CI effect exists in sequence learning, such that practicing different sequences in a random order will result in better learning of sequences than practicing them in blocks, and whether this effect is affected by aging. Subjects practiced a serial reaction time task where a set of three 4-element sequences were arranged in blocks or in a random order on 2 successive days. Subjects were divided into 4 groups based on a 2-GROUP (young or old) by 2-ORDER (random or blocked practice) between-subject design. Three days after practice (Day 5), subjects were tested with practiced an... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296733 Mon, 25 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296733 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296717&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F1o4MTzzCQ3Y%2F778 Reports an error in "The utility of Stroop task switching as a marker for early-stage Alzheimer's disease" by Keith A. Hutchison, David A. Balota and Janet M. Ducheck (Psychology and Aging, 2010[Sep], Vol 25[3], 545-559). Author Janet M. Duchek’s name was misspelled as Janet M. Ducheck. The online version has been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2010-18944-003.) Past studies have suggested attentional control tasks such as the Stroop task and the task-switching paradigm may be sensitive for the early detection of dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT). The authors of the current study combined these tasks to create a Stroop switching task. Performance was compared across young adults, older adults, and individuals diagnosed with very mild dem... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296717 Mon, 25 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296717 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296716&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FSTzV3EXWt28%2F767 Few studies have examined working memory (WM) training-related gains and their transfer and maintenance effects in older adults. This present research investigates the efficacy of a verbal WM training program in adults aged 65–75 years, considering specific training gains on a verbal WM (criterion) task as well as transfer effects on measures of visuospatial WM, short-term memory, inhibition, processing speed, and fluid intelligence. Maintenance of training benefits was evaluated at 8-month follow-up. Trained older adults showed higher performance than did controls on the criterion task and maintained this benefit after 8 months. Substantial general transfer effects were found for the trained group, but not for the control one. Transfer maintenance gains were found at follow-up, but only... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296716 Mon, 25 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296716 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4938690&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FV7UwD7GysQU%2F351 This article contains an error in the Discussion, under the Implications, Caveats, Future Directions heading. The third paragraph includes the sentences that should have been removed. The corrected paragraph appears in the correction.] We conducted secondary analyses to determine the relationship between longstanding personality traits and risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD) among 767 participants 72 years of age or older who were followed for more than 6 years. Personality was assessed with the NEO-FFI. We hypothesized that elevated Neuroticism, lower Openness, and lower Conscientiousness would be independently associated with risk of AD. Hypotheses were supported. The finding that AD risk is associated with elevated Neuroticism and lower Conscientiousness can be added to the accumulating l... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4938690 Sun, 24 Oct 2010 23:00:00 +0100 4938690 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296730&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FqfLL0vKF9fQ%2F898 Strong evidence exists for an age-related impairment in associative processing under intentional encoding and retrieval conditions, but the status of incidental associative processing has been less clear. In 2 experiments, we examined the effects of age on rapid response learning—the incidentally learned stimulus–response association that results in a reduction in priming when a learned response becomes inappropriate for a new task. Specifically, we tested whether priming was equivalently sensitive in both age groups to reversal of the task-specific decision cue. Experiment 1 showed that cue inversion reduced priming in both age groups with a speeded inside/outside classification task, and in Experiment 2, cue inversion eliminated priming on an associative version of this task. Thus, t... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296730 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296730 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296729&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2Fq4TPFwQnfZ4%2F886 Two experiments examined how sensory acuity affects age differences in susceptibility to interference in the reading-with-distraction task. In both experiments, older and younger adults read texts in an italic font and were required to ignore distractor words in an upright font. Experiment 1 examined whether the age-related increase in distractibility can be simulated in younger adults by reducing their visual acuity. Experiment 2 investigated whether the age differences in distractibility disappear if visual acuity is equated across all participants in both age groups. Both experiments showed that an impairment in visual acuity leads to increased interference in the reading-with-distraction task. However, older adults were much more impaired by the distractor material than younger adults ... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296729 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296729 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145516&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FWdJaP3IXzQE%2F741 L. Hoffman, J. M. McDowd, P. Atchley, and R. A. Dubinsky (2005) reported that visual and attentional impairment (measured by the Useful Field of View test and DriverScan) and performance in a low-fidelity driving simulator did not predict self-reported accidents in the previous 3 years. The present study applied these data to predict accidents occurring within a subsequent 5-year period (N = 114 older adults, 75% retention rate). Multivariate path models revealed that accidents in which the driver was at least partially at fault were significantly more likely in persons who had shown impaired simulator performance. These results suggest that even low-fidelity driving simulators may be useful in predicting real-world outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (So... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145516 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145516 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145515&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FiRQfc1J9aHk%2F736 The authors investigated perceptual learning of a novel accent in young and older listeners through measuring speech reception thresholds (SRTs) using speech materials spoken in a novel—unfamiliar—accent. Younger and older listeners adapted to this accent, but older listeners showed poorer comprehension of the accent. Furthermore, perceptual learning differed across groups: The older listeners stopped learning after the first block, whereas younger listeners showed further improvement with longer exposure. Among the older participants, hearing acuity predicted the SRT as well as the effect of the novel accent on SRT. Finally, a measure of executive function predicted the impact of accent on SRT. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145515 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145515 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145514&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FneCW8UbohdI%2F730 Older adults with good hearing and with mild-to-moderate hearing loss were tested for comprehension of spoken sentences that required perceptual effort (hearing speech at lower sound levels), and two degrees of cognitive load (sentences with simpler or more complex syntax). Although comprehension accuracy was equivalent for both participant groups and for young adults with good hearing, hearing loss was associated with longer response latencies to the correct comprehension judgments, especially for complex sentences heard at relatively low amplitudes. These findings demonstrate the need to take into account both sensory and cognitive demands of speech materials in older adults' language comprehension. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Agin... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145514 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145514 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145513&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FPep_yrTNnm4%2F725 The present study examined age and cultural differences in cognitive and affective components of subjective well-being. A sample of 188 American and Chinese young and older adults completed surveys measuring self-life satisfaction, perceived family's life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect. Across cultures, older adults reported lower negative affect than did young adults. Americans reported higher self-life satisfaction, perceived family's life satisfaction, and positive affect than did Chinese. In addition, perceived family's life satisfaction was more related to self-life satisfaction for Chinese than for Americans. Findings are discussed in light of socioemotional selectivity theory and theories on culture and self-construal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all ... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145513 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145513 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145512&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FVhlBc8mgFBg%2F719 Picture-naming performance for 48 black-and-white drawings was investigated in 1,145 Hebrew speakers, ages 5–86. Both a linear and a curvilinear quadratic model fit the data, reflecting an increase in ability with age as well as an increase followed by a decrease beyond that linear rise. Late-life performance was more affected by access difficulty than was early-life performance, with children's responses limited by lexicon size. Immigrants performed more poorly than nonimmigrants, but an identical correlation between participant age and naming scores was found in both groups. We discuss the role of vocabulary funds and controlled access in naming pictures throughout life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145512 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145512 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145511&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F-x8hxLFxD8g%2F714 Older and younger readers read sentences as their eye movements were recorded, and the boundary paradigm (Rayner, 1975) was used to present either a valid or an invalid parafoveal preview of a target word. During the saccade to the target word, the preview word changed to the target word. For early measures of processing time (first fixation duration and single fixation duration), the standard preview benefit effect (shorter fixation times on the target word with a valid preview than an invalid preview) was obtained for both older and younger readers. However, for gaze duration and go-past time, the preview benefit was somewhat attenuated in the older readers in comparison to the younger readers, suggesting that on some fixations older readers obtain less preview benefit from the word to t... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145511 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145511 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145509&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FzQdx2J8K2NY%2F702 We tested the effects of aging on the use of prosody to convey meaning and the ability to monitor communicative effectiveness. Participants read aloud ambiguous sentences with the goal of clearly communicating one designated meaning. Young and older adults produced intonational boundaries consistent with the designated meaning equally often, but listener judgments indicated that older adults disambiguated the sentences more often than chance and young adults did so only marginally more often than chance. Young adults believed they communicated their message clearly, and older adults evaluated their own communication even more favorably. Participants were more confident for structurally ambiguous sentences than for lexically ambiguous sentences (which cannot be differentiated through prosod... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145509 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145509 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145508&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FTO-TRWm5_hM%2F697 The inhibitory deficit hypothesis has often been cited as a possible explanation for cognitive changes related to age. The aim of this study was to develop a new procedure for evaluating effortful inhibition on the basis of the comprehension of metaphors. Our experiment was carried out on younger and older adults, in whom we also measured inhibitory capacity, working memory, and processing speed. The results show that older participants required a longer time and made more frequent errors in rejecting metaphors versus literally false statements. The interference effect was predicted by the psychometric tests designed to evaluate inhibition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145508 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145508 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145503&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FOt6qv3_Z0wo%2F653 Whereas theoreticians are interested in modeling how bereavement contributes to health, the bulk of research on spousal bereavement is conducted after a loss has occurred. Using prospective longitudinal data, this study examined the extent to which positive emotion following spousal loss varies on the basis of preloss characteristics of the bereaved spouse and the marital relationship prior to loss. Analyses are based on the National Survey of Midlife Development (MIDUS), a 2-wave panel survey of adults in the contiguous United States. Results indicate that compared with continuously married controls, widowed participants experienced a significant decline in positive emotion within 3 years following loss. Conversely, no significant declines in positive emotion were evident among widowed pe... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145503 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145503 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145502&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FY55aB_lXZ58%2F641 Research has consistently shown that despite aging-related losses, older adults have high levels of emotional well-being relative to those in young and midlife adults. We aimed to contribute to knowledge around the factors that predict emotional well-being over the life course by examining age group differences in associations of positive and negative social exchanges and mastery beliefs with positive and negative affect in a sample of 7,472 young, midlife, and older adults assessed on 2 measurement occasions, 4 years apart. Results from structural equation models indicated lower levels of negative affect with advancing age. Mastery was consistently related to higher well-being, with the strongest associations evident for young adults. Older adults reported the most frequent positive and l... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145502 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145502 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145501&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FrEvIyDUrLn0%2F631 Resilience is often considered both a trait and a process. The current study proposes a new way to conceptualize resilience-as-process based on dynamical systems modeling, which allows researchers to capture the process of stress management in real time. Coupled damped linear oscillator models succinctly describe daily stress and negative affect in terms of developmental forces (e.g., velocity, acceleration). Models were fit to 56-day daily response data from 42 aging adults (Mage = 78.8 years; SDage = 6.6 years) to observe and understand linkages between daily stress and affect. It was speculated that individuals with greater resilience would experience stress as less coupled to changes in negative affect (less stress reactivity), and would recover their affective equilibrium more quickly... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145501 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145501 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145500&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FZrdIctp5Khs%2F620 Two experiments provide evidence for an age-related deficit in the binding of actors with actions that is distinct from binding deficits associated with distraction or response pressure. Young and older adults viewed a series of actors performing different actions. Participants returned 1 week later for a recognition test. Older adults were more likely than young adults to falsely recognize novel conjunctions of familiar actors and actions. This age-related binding deficit occurred even when older adults could discriminate old items from new items just as well as could young adults. Young adults who experienced distraction or time pressure also had difficulty discriminating old items from conjunction items, but this deficit was accompanied by a deficit at discriminating old and new items. ... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145500 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145500 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145498&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F8brwN_lnbw8%2F595 Young (ages 18–22 years) and older (ages 61–87 years) adults (N = 106) played the Virtual Week board game, which involves simulating common prospective memory (PM) tasks of everyday life (e.g., taking medication), and performed working memory (WM) and vigilance tasks. The Virtual Week game includes regular (repeated) and irregular (nonrepeated) PM tasks with cues that are either more or less focal to other ongoing activities. Age differences in PM were reduced for repeated tasks, and performance improved over the course of the week, suggesting retrieval was more spontaneous or habitual. Correlations with WM within each age group were reduced for PM tasks that had more regular or focal cues. WM (but not vigilance) ability was a strong predictor of irregular PM tasks with less focal cues... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145498 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145498 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145497&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2Fm91ZhWkDwoA%2F587 This study investigates whether cortical gray matter asymmetry also shows age-related differences, and whether gray matter asymmetry differs between cognitively stable persons and persons who have shown profound age-related declines in cognitive functioning. In addition, we have examined whether prodromal dementia affects the study outcome. The gray matter volumes of seven prefrontal and temporal regions of interest were delineated on T1-weighted MRI scans in 70 adults aged between 52 and 84 years. Statistical analyses were conducted with and without participants who developed dementia within 6 years after the MRI scan session. It was found that asymmetry did not differ over the age range of 52–84 years of age. This result did not change when data from participants who were diagnosed wit... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145497 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145497 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145496&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FkJbIqBWLgeI%2F575 In this study, the authors addressed the longitudinal nature of intraindividual variability over 3 years. A sample of 304 community-dwelling older adults, initially between the ages of 64 and 92 years, completed 4 waves of annual testing on a battery of accuracy- and latency-based tests covering a wide range of cognitive complexity. Increases in response-time inconsistency on moderately and highly complex tasks were associated with increasing age, but there were significant individual differences in change across the entire sample. The time-varying covariation between cognition and inconsistency was significant across the 1-year intervals and remained stable across both time and age. On occasions when intraindividual variability was high, participants' cognitive performance was correspondi... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145496 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145496 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145493&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FviudMwd8EQk%2F545 [Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in of Psychology and Aging (see record 2010-22172-001). Author Janet M. Duchek’s name was misspelled as Janet M. Ducheck. The online version has been corrected.] Past studies have suggested attentional control tasks such as the Stroop task and the task-switching paradigm may be sensitive for the early detection of dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT). The authors of the current study combined these tasks to create a Stroop switching task. Performance was compared across young adults, older adults, and individuals diagnosed with very mild dementia. Results indicated that this task strongly discriminated individuals with healthy aging from those with early-stage DAT. In a logistic regression analysis, incongruent error rates fr... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145493 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145493 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145491&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FTaqXTiPP0kk%2F524 The present research examined stressful life events and personality development across middle adulthood. Participants (N = 533) related the most stressful event they had experienced within the last 10 years, indicated whether they considered the event to be a turning point and/or lesson learned, and twice completed a comprehensive measure of traits defined by the five-factor model of personality; the stressful event occurred between these two assessments. Descriptions were coded to classify events into broad content domains based on the nature of the event. Prospectively, individuals high in Neuroticism perceived the event as a turning point; extraverts learned a lesson from it. Longitudinally, perceiving the event as a negative turning point was associated with increases in Neuroticism, w... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145491 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145491 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145490&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F7WgK0ssCiVQ%2F516 The study used a daily process design to examine the role of psychological resilience and positive emotions in the day-to-day experience of pain catastrophizing. A sample of 95 men and women with chronic pain completed initial assessments of neuroticism, psychological resilience, and demographic data, and then completed short diaries regarding pain intensity, pain catastrophizing, and positive and negative emotions every day for 14 consecutive days. Multilevel modeling analyses indicated that independent of level of neuroticism, negative emotions, pain intensity, income, and age, high-resilient individuals reported greater positive emotions and exhibited lower day-to-day pain catastrophizing compared with low-resilient individuals. Mediation analyses revealed that psychologically resilient... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145490 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145490 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3995599&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FFZiHOVQViHw%2F741 L. Hoffman, J. M. McDowd, P. Atchley, and R. A. Dubinsky (2005) reported that visual and attentional impairment (measured by the Useful Field of View test and DriverScan) and performance in a low-fidelity driving simulator did not predict self-reported accidents in the previous 3 years. The present study applied these data to predict accidents occurring within a subsequent 5-year period (N = 114 older adults, 75% retention rate). Multivariate path models revealed that accidents in which the driver was at least partially at fault were significantly more likely in persons who had shown impaired simulator performance. These results suggest that even low-fidelity driving simulators may be useful in predicting real-world outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (So... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3995599 Sun, 19 Sep 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3995599 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3995598&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FQhy4dUFYio4%2F736 The authors investigated perceptual learning of a novel accent in young and older listeners through measuring speech reception thresholds (SRTs) using speech materials spoken in a novel—unfamiliar—accent. Younger and older listeners adapted to this accent, but older listeners showed poorer comprehension of the accent. Furthermore, perceptual learning differed across groups: The older listeners stopped learning after the first block, whereas younger listeners showed further improvement with longer exposure. Among the older participants, hearing acuity predicted the SRT as well as the effect of the novel accent on SRT. Finally, a measure of executive function predicted the impact of accent on SRT. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3995598 Sun, 19 Sep 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3995598 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3995597&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FZ_63CerOkWI%2F730 Older adults with good hearing and with mild-to-moderate hearing loss were tested for comprehension of spoken sentences that required perceptual effort (hearing speech at lower sound levels), and two degrees of cognitive load (sentences with simpler or more complex syntax). Although comprehension accuracy was equivalent for both participant groups and for young adults with good hearing, hearing loss was associated with longer response latencies to the correct comprehension judgments, especially for complex sentences heard at relatively low amplitudes. These findings demonstrate the need to take into account both sensory and cognitive demands of speech materials in older adults' language comprehension. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Agin... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3995597 Sun, 19 Sep 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3995597 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3995596&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FqSHVd49D6W4%2F725 The present study examined age and cultural differences in cognitive and affective components of subjective well-being. A sample of 188 American and Chinese young and older adults completed surveys measuring self-life satisfaction, perceived family's life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect. Across cultures, older adults reported lower negative affect than did young adults. Americans reported higher self-life satisfaction, perceived family's life satisfaction, and positive affect than did Chinese. In addition, perceived family's life satisfaction was more related to self-life satisfaction for Chinese than for Americans. Findings are discussed in light of socioemotional selectivity theory and theories on culture and self-construal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all ... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3995596 Sun, 19 Sep 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3995596 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3995595&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FBfEuQ5FPZPw%2F719 Picture-naming performance for 48 black-and-white drawings was investigated in 1,145 Hebrew speakers, ages 5–86. Both a linear and a curvilinear quadratic model fit the data, reflecting an increase in ability with age as well as an increase followed by a decrease beyond that linear rise. Late-life performance was more affected by access difficulty than was early-life performance, with children's responses limited by lexicon size. Immigrants performed more poorly than nonimmigrants, but an identical correlation between participant age and naming scores was found in both groups. We discuss the role of vocabulary funds and controlled access in naming pictures throughout life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3995595 Sun, 19 Sep 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3995595 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3995594&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FqGP8SVaGFtE%2F714 Older and younger readers read sentences as their eye movements were recorded, and the boundary paradigm (Rayner, 1975) was used to present either a valid or an invalid parafoveal preview of a target word. During the saccade to the target word, the preview word changed to the target word. For early measures of processing time (first fixation duration and single fixation duration), the standard preview benefit effect (shorter fixation times on the target word with a valid preview than an invalid preview) was obtained for both older and younger readers. However, for gaze duration and go-past time, the preview benefit was somewhat attenuated in the older readers in comparison to the younger readers, suggesting that on some fixations older readers obtain less preview benefit from the word to t... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3995594 Sun, 19 Sep 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3995594 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3995592&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F_NOOiuET0RI%2F702 We tested the effects of aging on the use of prosody to convey meaning and the ability to monitor communicative effectiveness. Participants read aloud ambiguous sentences with the goal of clearly communicating one designated meaning. Young and older adults produced intonational boundaries consistent with the designated meaning equally often, but listener judgments indicated that older adults disambiguated the sentences more often than chance and young adults did so only marginally more often than chance. Young adults believed they communicated their message clearly, and older adults evaluated their own communication even more favorably. Participants were more confident for structurally ambiguous sentences than for lexically ambiguous sentences (which cannot be differentiated through prosod... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3995592 Sun, 19 Sep 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3995592 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3995591&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FOlPpuz3Ur7U%2F697 The inhibitory deficit hypothesis has often been cited as a possible explanation for cognitive changes related to age. The aim of this study was to develop a new procedure for evaluating effortful inhibition on the basis of the comprehension of metaphors. Our experiment was carried out on younger and older adults, in whom we also measured inhibitory capacity, working memory, and processing speed. The results show that older participants required a longer time and made more frequent errors in rejecting metaphors versus literally false statements. The interference effect was predicted by the psychometric tests designed to evaluate inhibition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3995591 Sun, 19 Sep 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3995591 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3995586&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FkkXwThlSmlo%2F653 Whereas theoreticians are interested in modeling how bereavement contributes to health, the bulk of research on spousal bereavement is conducted after a loss has occurred. Using prospective longitudinal data, this study examined the extent to which positive emotion following spousal loss varies on the basis of preloss characteristics of the bereaved spouse and the marital relationship prior to loss. Analyses are based on the National Survey of Midlife Development (MIDUS), a 2-wave panel survey of adults in the contiguous United States. Results indicate that compared with continuously married controls, widowed participants experienced a significant decline in positive emotion within 3 years following loss. Conversely, no significant declines in positive emotion were evident among widowed pe... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3995586 Sun, 19 Sep 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3995586 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3995585&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FJWbQh8dwzXA%2F641 Research has consistently shown that despite aging-related losses, older adults have high levels of emotional well-being relative to those in young and midlife adults. We aimed to contribute to knowledge around the factors that predict emotional well-being over the life course by examining age group differences in associations of positive and negative social exchanges and mastery beliefs with positive and negative affect in a sample of 7,472 young, midlife, and older adults assessed on 2 measurement occasions, 4 years apart. Results from structural equation models indicated lower levels of negative affect with advancing age. Mastery was consistently related to higher well-being, with the strongest associations evident for young adults. Older adults reported the most frequent positive and l... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3995585 Sun, 19 Sep 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3995585 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3995584&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FHJaJkMma3Jw%2F631 Resilience is often considered both a trait and a process. The current study proposes a new way to conceptualize resilience-as-process based on dynamical systems modeling, which allows researchers to capture the process of stress management in real time. Coupled damped linear oscillator models succinctly describe daily stress and negative affect in terms of developmental forces (e.g., velocity, acceleration). Models were fit to 56-day daily response data from 42 aging adults (Mage = 78.8 years; SDage = 6.6 years) to observe and understand linkages between daily stress and affect. It was speculated that individuals with greater resilience would experience stress as less coupled to changes in negative affect (less stress reactivity), and would recover their affective equilibrium more quickly... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3995584 Sun, 19 Sep 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3995584 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3995583&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FKJBJC94pJnc%2F620 Two experiments provide evidence for an age-related deficit in the binding of actors with actions that is distinct from binding deficits associated with distraction or response pressure. Young and older adults viewed a series of actors performing different actions. Participants returned 1 week later for a recognition test. Older adults were more likely than young adults to falsely recognize novel conjunctions of familiar actors and actions. This age-related binding deficit occurred even when older adults could discriminate old items from new items just as well as could young adults. Young adults who experienced distraction or time pressure also had difficulty discriminating old items from conjunction items, but this deficit was accompanied by a deficit at discriminating old and new items. ... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3995583 Sun, 19 Sep 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3995583 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3995581&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FXkKUCZEFa3w%2F595 Young (ages 18–22 years) and older (ages 61–87 years) adults (N = 106) played the Virtual Week board game, which involves simulating common prospective memory (PM) tasks of everyday life (e.g., taking medication), and performed working memory (WM) and vigilance tasks. The Virtual Week game includes regular (repeated) and irregular (nonrepeated) PM tasks with cues that are either more or less focal to other ongoing activities. Age differences in PM were reduced for repeated tasks, and performance improved over the course of the week, suggesting retrieval was more spontaneous or habitual. Correlations with WM within each age group were reduced for PM tasks that had more regular or focal cues. WM (but not vigilance) ability was a strong predictor of irregular PM tasks with less focal cues... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3995581 Sun, 19 Sep 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3995581 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3995580&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F5tQsmFUEF1Y%2F587 This study investigates whether cortical gray matter asymmetry also shows age-related differences, and whether gray matter asymmetry differs between cognitively stable persons and persons who have shown profound age-related declines in cognitive functioning. In addition, we have examined whether prodromal dementia affects the study outcome. The gray matter volumes of seven prefrontal and temporal regions of interest were delineated on T1-weighted MRI scans in 70 adults aged between 52 and 84 years. Statistical analyses were conducted with and without participants who developed dementia within 6 years after the MRI scan session. It was found that asymmetry did not differ over the age range of 52–84 years of age. This result did not change when data from participants who were diagnosed wit... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3995580 Sun, 19 Sep 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3995580 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3995579&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F0z6TcI7RS44%2F575 In this study, the authors addressed the longitudinal nature of intraindividual variability over 3 years. A sample of 304 community-dwelling older adults, initially between the ages of 64 and 92 years, completed 4 waves of annual testing on a battery of accuracy- and latency-based tests covering a wide range of cognitive complexity. Increases in response-time inconsistency on moderately and highly complex tasks were associated with increasing age, but there were significant individual differences in change across the entire sample. The time-varying covariation between cognition and inconsistency was significant across the 1-year intervals and remained stable across both time and age. On occasions when intraindividual variability was high, participants' cognitive performance was correspondi... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3995579 Sun, 19 Sep 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3995579 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3995576&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FBzqrE2-mP7g%2F545 Past studies have suggested attentional control tasks such as the Stroop task and the task-switching paradigm may be sensitive for the early detection of dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT). The authors of the current study combined these tasks to create a Stroop switching task. Performance was compared across young adults, older adults, and individuals diagnosed with very mild dementia. Results indicated that this task strongly discriminated individuals with healthy aging from those with early-stage DAT. In a logistic regression analysis, incongruent error rates from the Stroop switching task discriminated healthy aging from DAT better than any of the other 18 cognitive tasks given in a psychometric battery. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psycholo... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3995576 Sun, 19 Sep 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3995576 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3995574&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FJzchtMRvhZs%2F524 The present research examined stressful life events and personality development across middle adulthood. Participants (N = 533) related the most stressful event they had experienced within the last 10 years, indicated whether they considered the event to be a turning point and/or lesson learned, and twice completed a comprehensive measure of traits defined by the five-factor model of personality; the stressful event occurred between these two assessments. Descriptions were coded to classify events into broad content domains based on the nature of the event. Prospectively, individuals high in Neuroticism perceived the event as a turning point; extraverts learned a lesson from it. Longitudinally, perceiving the event as a negative turning point was associated with increases in Neuroticism, w... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3995574 Sun, 19 Sep 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3995574 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3995573&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FTko5lK571Ew%2F516 The study used a daily process design to examine the role of psychological resilience and positive emotions in the day-to-day experience of pain catastrophizing. A sample of 95 men and women with chronic pain completed initial assessments of neuroticism, psychological resilience, and demographic data, and then completed short diaries regarding pain intensity, pain catastrophizing, and positive and negative emotions every day for 14 consecutive days. Multilevel modeling analyses indicated that independent of level of neuroticism, negative emotions, pain intensity, income, and age, high-resilient individuals reported greater positive emotions and exhibited lower day-to-day pain catastrophizing compared with low-resilient individuals. Mediation analyses revealed that psychologically resilient... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3995573 Sun, 19 Sep 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3995573 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296734&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FuKAMY3b4cNM%2F940 Advanced age is associated with decrements in episodic memory, which are more pronounced in memory for associations than for individual items. The associative deficit hypothesis (ADH) states that age differences in recognition memory reflect difficulty in binding components of a memory episode and retrieving bound units. To date, ADH has received support only in studies of extreme age groups, and the influence of sex, education, and health on age-related associative deficit is unknown. We address those issues using a verbal paired-associate yes–no recognition paradigm on a lifespan sample of 278 healthy, well-educated adults. In accord with the ADH, greater age was associated with lower hit and greater false alarm rates and more liberal response bias on associative recognition tests. Wom... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296734 Mon, 06 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296734 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296720&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FgFvT8tpe75s%2F794 Perceiving and memorizing faces swiftly and correctly are important social competencies. The organization of these interpersonal abilities and how they change across the life span are still poorly understood. We investigated changes in the mean and covariance structure of face cognition abilities across the adult life span. A sample of 448 participants, with age ranging from 18 to 88 years, completed a battery of 15 face cognition tasks. After establishing a measurement model of face cognition that distinguishes between face perception, face memory, and the speed of face cognition, we used multiple group models and age-weighted measurement models to explore age-related changes. The modeling showed that the loadings and intercepts of all measures are age invariant. The factor means showed s... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296720 Mon, 06 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296720 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296715&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FnejsrXJM7iU%2F753 We investigated the training effects and transfer effects associated with 2 approaches to cognitive activities (so-called brain training) that might mitigate age-related cognitive decline. A sample of 78 adults between the ages of 50 and 71 completed 20 one-hr training sessions with the Nintendo Wii Big Brain Academy software over the course of 1 month and, in a second month, completed 20 one-hr reading sessions with articles on 4 different current topics (order of assignment was counterbalanced for the participants). An extensive battery of cognitive and perceptual speed ability measures was administered before and after each month of cognitive training activities, along with a battery of domain-knowledge tests. Results indicated substantial improvements on the Wii tasks, somewhat less im... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296715 Mon, 06 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296715 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296726&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2Fwq6rw9ZGAbg%2F858 The authors of this investigation sought to examine changes in the sleep quality of older women over time and to determine whether dimensions of psychological well-being, health (subjective health and number of illnesses), and psychological distress (depression and anxiety) predict these changes. A secondary analysis was conducted with a longitudinal sample of aging women (Kwan, Love, Ryff, & Essex, 2003). Of 518 community-dwelling older women in the parent study, 115 women (baseline M age = 67 years, SD = 7.18) with data at baseline, 8 years, and 10 years were used for this investigation. Participants completed self-administered questionnaires and participated in in-home interviews and observations. Growth curve modeling was used to examine the overall linear trajectories of sleep quality... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296726 Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296726 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4623396&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F7AycRyuvxy4%2F85 The impact of sensory acuity, processing speed, and working memory capacity on auditory working memory span (L-span) performance at 5 presentation levels was examined in 80 young adults (18–30 years of age) and 26 older adults (60–82 years of age). Lowering the presentation level of the L-span task had a greater detrimental effect on the older adults than on the younger ones. Furthermore, the relationship between sensory acuity and L-span performance varied as a function of age and presentation level. These results suggest that declining acuity plays an important explanatory role in age-related declines in cognitive abilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4623396 Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4623396 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296736&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FP57PpJFc6JU%2F963 To assess whether age-related differences in suppressing nontarget material impact subsequent performance, the authors initially asked younger and older adults to perform a go/nogo task with colored letters used as conflicting go/nogo stimuli and 2 colored numbers as low-conflict nogo stimuli. Next, participants performed another go/nogo task. A previous number was reused as a nogo stimulus and the other as a go stimulus, with new numbers serving as a baseline. In a 1st block of trials, younger adults showed slower responses to previous nogo/now-go numbers than to new go numbers, an effect not shown by older adults. Alternative accounts of these differential transfer costs are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296736 Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296736 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296732&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FgMbApJClojA%2F922 Older adults are assumed to have poor destination memory—knowing to whom they tell particular information—and anecdotes about them repeating stories to the same people are cited as informal evidence for this claim. Experiment 1 assessed young and older adults' destination memory by having participants tell facts (e.g., “A dime has 118 ridges around its edge”) to pictures of famous people (e.g., Oprah Winfrey). Surprise recognition memory tests, which also assessed confidence, revealed that older adults, compared to young adults, were disproportionately impaired on destination memory relative to spared memory for the individual components (i.e., facts, faces) of the episode. Older adults also were more confident that they had not told a fact to a particular person when they actually... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296732 Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296732 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296728&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F7qvuLXAYoCE%2F876 In the present study, we investigated whether self-regulation improves across adulthood, especially regarding the mastery of setbacks and failure in an important health-related behavior, namely, staying on a low-calorie diet when overweight. Overweight women (N = 126; 19–77 years of age, M = 47.2) filled out weekly questionnaires on the outcomes of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive self-regulation during a dieting program; outcomes included deviations from the diet, weight loss, affect, and rumination. Confirming hypotheses, multilevel analyses revealed that—even after controlling for prior dieting attempts—age was associated with better self-reported self-regulation (i.e., fewer deviations from the diet, lower disinhibition and rumination after failure, and higher affective well-... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296728 Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296728 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296723&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2Fh0RnPBqJia0%2F833 We compared the benefits of repeated testing and repeated study on cued recall of unfamiliar face–name pairs in healthy middle-aged and older adults. We extended Karpicke and Roediger's (2008) paradigm to compare the effects of repeated study versus repeated testing after each face–name pair was correctly recalled once. The results from Experiment 1, which provided no feedback during the acquisition phase, yielded a crossover interaction: Middle-aged adults showed the expected benefit of repeated testing, whereas older adults produced a benefit of repeated study. When participants were given feedback in Experiment 2, both middle-aged and older adults benefited from repeated testing. We suggest that for face–name pairs, feedback may be particularly important for individuals who have r... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296723 Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296723 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296721&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FaeDiShbDx-o%2F811 In 2 studies, we investigated age effects in the ability to recognize dynamic posed and spontaneous smiles. Study 1 showed that both young and older adult participants were above chance in their ability to distinguish between posed and spontaneous smiles in young adults. In Study 2, we found that young adult participant performance declined when judging a combination of both young and older adult target smiles, while older adult participants outperformed young adult participants in distinguishing between posed and spontaneous smiles. A synthesis of results across the 2 studies showed a small-to-medium age effect (d = −0.40), suggesting that older adults have an advantage in discriminating between smile types. Mixed stimuli (i.e., a mixture of young and older adult faces) may impact accur... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296721 Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296721 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145505&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F4UzDi5sYDlY%2F677 This study investigated the influence of verbal self-instructions (VSI) on the transfer of task-switching training in older adults (56–78 years). We applied an internally cued switching paradigm in a pretest–training–posttest design. Training-related improvements were not modulated by VSI. Transfer (the pretest–posttest reduction of switch costs) was most pronounced when participants applied the VSI at posttest after practicing the switching task without VSI. The results indicate that in contrast to transfer of executive control training, transfer of (verbal) strategy training seems to be limited and that VSI is most beneficial when the task-switching abilities are already well practiced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145505 Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145505 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4296724&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FdVOghDhvTFw%2F846 Fundamental to face processing is the ability to encode information about the spatial relations among facial features (configural information). Using a bizarreness rating paradigm, we found older adults differed from young adults in rating configurally distorted faces (eyes, mouth inverted) as less bizarre across all tested orientations (0° to 180°), and were more vulnerable to orientation effects when faces were rotated beyond 90°. No age-related differences in perception of either unaltered faces or featurally distorted faces (eyes whitened, teeth blackened) occurred. These findings identify changes in sensitivity to configural information as an important factor in age-related differences in face perception. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychol... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4296724 Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4296724 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145517&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FT41QAASXsYs%2F746 This study examined impressions of, and memory for, positively and negatively framed health care messages that were presented in pamphlets to 25 older adults and 24 younger adults. Older adults relative to younger adults rated positive pamphlets more informative than negative pamphlets and remembered a higher proportion of positive to negative messages. However, older adults misremembered negative messages to be positive. These findings demonstrate the age-related positivity effect in health care messages with promise as to the persuasive nature and lingering effects of positive messages. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145517 Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145517 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145510&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F_hn2wbXZm5Q%2F708 Conversational speech from over 300 speakers from 17 to 68 years of age was analyzed for age-related changes in the timing and content of spoken language production. Overall, several relationships between the lexical content, timing, and fluency of speech emerged, such that more novel and lower frequency words were associated with slower speech and higher levels of disfluencies. Speaker age was associated with slower speech and more filled pauses, particularly those associated with lexical selection. Increasing age, however, was also associated with longer utterances and greater lexical diversity. On balance, these analyses present a picture of age-related changes in speech performance that largely support data obtained from controlled laboratory studies. However, particular patterns of ag... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145510 Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145510 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145507&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F4zLMXw17maI%2F691 The naming of manipulable objects in older and younger adults was evaluated across auditory, visual, and multisensory conditions. Older adults were less accurate and slower in naming across conditions, and all subjects were more impaired and slower to name action sounds than pictures or audiovisual combinations. Moreover, there was a sensory by age group interaction, revealing lower accuracy and increased latencies in auditory naming for older adults unrelated to hearing insensitivity but modest improvement to multisensory cues. These findings support age-related deficits in object action naming and suggest that auditory confrontation naming may be more sensitive than visual naming. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology and Aging) Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145507 Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145507 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145506&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2F712ZgUFXoWk%2F684 Normal aging has been shown to impact performance during human eyeblink classical conditioning, with older adults showing lower conditioning levels than younger adults. Previous findings showed younger adults can acquire both delay and trace conditioning concurrently, but it is not known whether older adults can learn under the same conditions. Present results indicated older adults did not produce a significantly greater number of conditioned responses during acquisition, but their ability to time eyeblink responses prior to the unconditioned stimulus was preserved. The decline in eyeblink conditioning that typically accompanies aging has been extended to concurrent presentations of delay and trace conditioning trials. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: ... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145506 Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145506 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145504&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2Fad7XjjVWQww%2F661 Life-span psychological research has long been interested in the contextual embeddedness of individual development. To examine whether and how regional variables relate to between-person disparities in the progression of late-life well-being, we applied three-level growth curve models to 24-year longitudinal data from deceased participants of the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (N = 3,427; age at death = 18 to 101 years). Results indicated steep declines in well-being with impending death, with some 8% of the between-person differences in both level and decline of well-being reflecting between-county differences. Exploratory analyses revealed that individuals living and dying in less affluent counties reported lower late-life well-being, controlling for key individual predictors, includi... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145504 Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145504 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145499&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FOs51O8GG6JI%2F606 This study examined trajectories of cognitive change in psychometrically matched measures of episodic memory, semantic memory, and executive function in an ethnically, demographically, and cognitively diverse sample of older persons. Individual rates of change showed considerable heterogeneity in each domain. Baseline clinical diagnosis predicted differential change in semantic memory and executive function, dementia > mild cognitive impairment (MCI) > normal, but average decline in verbal episodic memory was similar across all 3 diagnostic groups. There was substantial overlap of distributions of cognitive change across baseline diagnostic groups for all 3 measures. Cognitive change was strongly related to change in clinical diagnosis. Rapid and similar change was present for all 3 cognit... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145499 Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145499 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4145495&cid=s_28399_18_f&fid=28399&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fapa-journals-pag%2F%7E3%2FNxTcVbrU_zw%2F569 Recent research has revealed an age-related reduction in errors in a sustained attention task, suggesting that sustained attention abilities improve with age. Such results seem paradoxical in light of the well-documented age-related declines in cognitive performance. In the present study, performance on the sustained attention to response task (SART) was assessed in a supplemented archival sample of 638 individuals between 14 and 77 years old. SART errors and response speed appeared to decline in a linear fashion as a function of age throughout the age span studied. In contrast, other measures of sustained attention (reaction time coefficient of variation), anticipation, and omissions) showed a decrease early in life and then remained unchanged for the rest of the life span. Thus, sustaine... Psychology and Aging journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4145495 Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4145495