-
Human cognitive abilities exhibit positive interrelationships that can be represented by a latent general intelligence factor (g). Differentiation hypotheses propose that there are systematic interindividual differences in the strength of g, specifically along the dimensions of ability level (ability differentiation) and age (age differentiation). Despite the potential implications for cognitive theory and assessment, the available evidence on the matter is inconclusive. We present comprehensive analyses of differentiation effects across the lifespan, drawing on the meta-analytic integration of nonlinear factor analyses with German standardization samples (N = 4,129) of the most widely used intelligence tests worldwide (i.e., the Wechsler tests). Results support ability differentiation at all ages, with particularly large effect sizes in young adults, and suggest a complex pattern of age differentiation and dedifferentiation across the lifespan. These findings challenge the uniformity of g, highlighting the need to account for differentiation effects in cognitive theories and assessment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
-
Prosociality tends to increase with age, but whether older adults (OA) are more willing than younger adults (YA) to extend their prosocial behaviors beyond close social circles remains a topic of debate. This study aimed to address this controversy and explore the underlying mechanisms of age-related differences in prosociality through the lens of social discounting and gain-and-loss framing. One hundred twenty-three younger adults and 135 older adults participated in a social discounting task (measuring prosocial tendencies toward various social relationships) with various framings (self-oriented framing, other-oriented framing, and control condition). Compared to younger adults, older adults exhibited higher overall prosociality and treated socially close and distant others more evenly, indicating lower levels of selectivity in prosociality. Notably, the interaction effect between age and framing revealed that other-oriented framing amplified the prosocial tendencies of older adults, particularly toward socially distant others but not younger adults. These findings suggest other-oriented framing specifically reduced older adults’ selectivity in prosociality, highlighting their prioritization of others’ welfare and aversion to others’ losses. This supports the notion that older adults’ prosociality may be driven by other-oriented motivation rather than self-interest. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
-
The present study investigates whether electroencephalogram activity reflects age-related memory changes during encoding. We recorded scalp electroencephalogram in 151 young adults (aged 18–30) and 37 older adults (aged 60–85) as they memorized lists of words. Participants studied the word lists either under full attention or while performing a secondary task that required them to make semantic judgments about each word. Although the secondary task reduced recall among all participants, differences in recall performance between the age groups were smaller when participants performed a secondary task at encoding. Older adults also exhibited distinct neural subsequent memory effects, characterized by less negativity in the alpha frequencies compared to young adults. Multivariate classifiers trained on neural features successfully predicted subsequent memory at the trial level in both young and older adults, and captured the differential effects of task demands on memory performance between young and older adults. The findings indicate that neural biomarkers of successful memory vary with both cognitive aging and task demands. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
-
Older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) have relatively poor emotional well-being, but little is known about their emotion regulation (ER) processes. In the present study, we investigate whether individuals of varying age and cognitive status might benefit emotionally from specific ER strategy selection instructions. Young adults (aged 21–34, n = 66), cognitively normal older adults (CN; aged 70–84, n = 90), and older adults with MCI (aged 70–84, n = 60) completed a laboratory ER task involving high-arousal negative film clips. They were instructed to (a) regulate using any ER strategy and then (b) regulate using a specific ER strategy, depending on the randomly assigned condition: cognitive distraction or detached reappraisal. Participants were video recorded while viewing the film clips and reported on their strategy use, experience of emotion, and perceived ER success. We examined three indicators of ER success: emotional experience, emotional expression, and perceived ER success. Generally, older adults with MCI did not differ greatly from young adults and CN older adults in how successfully they regulated negative emotions in this controlled context. Older adults with MCI expressed less of the target emotion being regulated when instructed to use a specific strategy compared to when instructed to spontaneously select any strategy. Additionally, older adults with MCI demonstrated benefits associated with distraction instructions over reappraisal instructions in terms of reduced experience of the target emotion and greater perceived success. Findings partially support the idea that cognitively impaired older adults may benefit from instructional support, especially encouragement to use attentional deployment strategies, when regulating high-arousal negative emotions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
-
The article explores personal values among older adults in relation to their “offspring status.” Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development and Schwartz’s theory of human values suggest a positive relationship between having offspring and prosocial values. We tested this hypothesis by comparing older adults who have none, one, or two generations of descendants: childless (with no descendants), grandchildless (with adult children and no grandchildren), and grandparents. We conducted a hierarchical multilevel regression analysis using data from Round 9 of the European Social Survey on a subsample of 12,713 respondents older than 65 from 29 European countries. Our model predicted preferences for four of the Schwartz higher order value types (Self-Transcendence, Self-Enhancement, Openness to Change, and Conservation) among the three categories of older adults based on their offspring status, controlling for individual-level (gender, education level, general health) and macro-level variables (Human Development Index). All but Openness to Change values are significantly predicted by older adults’ offspring status. Having grandchildren is positively associated with Self-Transcendence and Conservation values (socially oriented values) and negatively with Self-Enhancement (values with self-oriented focus). The article discusses the theoretical implications of the obtained findings, focusing on plausible mechanisms connecting the offspring status and value orientations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
-
The Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST) posits that older and younger adults have different life goals due to differences in perceived remaining lifetime. Younger adults focus more on future-oriented knowledge exploration and forming new friendships, while older adults prioritize present-focused emotional regulation and maintaining close relationships. While previous research has found these age differences manifest in autobiographical textual expressions, their presence in verbal communication remains unexplored. We recruited 36 older adults and 36 younger adults to form 12 younger adults–younger adults dyads, 12 older adults–older adults dyads, and 12 younger adults–older adults dyads engaging in three conversational scenarios. Analysis of communication transcripts using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count revealed that in intragenerational communication, older adults used more present-focused and family-related words, and fewer future-focused, negative emotion, and knowledge acquisition words compared to younger adults, aligning with SST predictions. However, in intergenerational communication, younger and older adults showed similar patterns in future-focused, cognitive, and family-related language use. This suggests that participants adjusted their goal orientations to accommodate each other, mitigating the age differences proposed by SST and partially supporting the Interpersonal Cognitive Consistency Model. These findings indicate that while SST explains semantic expressions in intragenerational communication, group dynamics toward verbal consistency play a more vital role in intergenerational communication. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
-
While there is strong evidence that younger adults use contextual information to generate semantic predictions, findings from older adults are less clear. Age affects cognition in a variety of different ways that may impact prediction mechanisms; while the efficiency of memory systems and processing speed decrease, life experience leads to complementary increases in vocabulary size, real-world knowledge, and even inhibitory control. Using the visual world paradigm, we tested prediction in younger (n = 30, between 18 and 35 years of age) and older adults (n = 30, between 53 and 78 years of age). Importantly, we differentiated early stage predictions based on simple spreading activation from the more resource-intensive tailoring of predictions when additional constraining information is provided. We found that older adults were slower than younger adults in generating early stage predictions but then quicker than younger adults to tailor those predictions given additional information. This suggests that while age may lead to delays in first activating relevant lexical items when listening to speech, increased linguistic experience nonetheless increases the efficiency with which contextual information is used. These findings are consistent with reports of age having positive as well as negative impacts on cognition and suggest conflation of different stages of prediction as a basis for the inconsistency in the aging-related literature to date. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
View
Mon, 13 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT