Background

Previous studies on the effect of healthy aging on Theory of Mind (ToM) have produced mixed results. A possible explanation may be that different ToM components and types of inference have not systematically been considered. This study examined the effect of aging on ToM by assessing both first and second order cognitive and affective components within a single task.

Methods

We compared performance of young (M = 18.3y) and older adults (M = 61.0y) on the Yoni task. This task allows for a within-subject assessment of both first and second order cognitive and affective ToM.

Results

We observed that older adults had longer reaction times than young adults across cognitive and affective first order items. For second order items, this age difference was larger for affective than cognitive items. Results showed no indications that these findings could be explained by age differences in speed/accuracy trade-offs.

Conclusion

Our findings suggest that decision processes underlying ToM are slower in older adults on both first and second order inferences, but that age differences in these processes between cognitive and affective ToM are selective to second order inferences. We propose that the observed age differences may be associated with cortical and mental changes that occur with aging.

中文翻译：

---

健康老龄化的认知和情感理论。

背景

先前有关健康衰老对心理理论（ToM）的影响的研究得出了不同的结果。可能的解释可能是尚未系统地考虑不同的ToM组件和推断类型。这项研究通过评估单个任务中的一阶和二阶认知和情感成分，研究了衰老对ToM的影响。

方法

我们比较了Yoni任务上的年轻人（M = 18.3y）和老年人（M = 61.0y）的表现。该任务允许对一阶和二阶认知和情感ToM进行受试者内部评估。

结果

我们观察到，在认知和情感一阶项目中，老年人比年轻人具有更长的反应时间。对于二阶项目，这种年龄差异对情感项目的影响要大于对认知项目的年龄差异。结果表明没有迹象表明这些发现可以用速度/精度折衷的年龄差异来解释。

结论

我们的发现表明，基于一阶和二阶推论，老年人的ToM决策过程较慢，但认知和情感ToM之间在这些过程中的年龄差异对二阶推论具有选择性。我们建议观察到的年龄差异可能与衰老过程中发生的皮层和精神变化有关。