Activity that places demands on cognitive resources has positive effects on cognitive health in old age. To further understand determinants of age-group differences in participation, we examined how negative aging stereotypes and responses associated with a cognitively challenging activity influenced future willingness to engage in that activity. Sixty-nine young (20-40 years) and 80 older (63-84 years) adults performed a letter-number sequencing (LNS) task at different levels of demand for 15 min, during which systolic blood pressure responses-a measure of effort mobilization-and subjective perceptions of task demands were assessed. Approximately half the participants were primed with a negative aging stereotype prior to this task. Following the LNS task, participants completed an effort-discounting task, with resulting subjective values indicating their willingness to perform the task at each level of demand. As expected, both subjective and objective indicators of cognitive demands as well as performance were associated with future willingness to engage in a difficult task, with these effects being significantly greater for older adults. In addition, although stereotype activation influenced older adults' engagement levels in the LNS task, it did not moderate willingness. Together, the results indicate that, relative to younger adults, older adults' decisions to engage in cognitively challenging activities are disproportionately affected by their subjective perceptions of demands. Interestingly, actual engagement with the task and associated success result in reduced perceptions of difficulty and greater willingness to engage. Thus, overcoming faulty and discouraging task perceptions may promote older adults' engagement in demanding but potentially beneficial activities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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青年和老年人参与的预测因素：特定活动经验的作用。

对认知资源提出要求的活动对老年人的认知健康有积极影响。为了进一步了解年龄组参与差异的决定因素，我们研究了与认知挑战活动相关的消极衰老刻板印象和反应如何影响未来参与该活动的意愿。69 名年轻人（20-40 岁）和 80 名老年人（63-84 岁）在 15 分钟的不同需求水平下执行了字母数字排序 (LNS) 任务，在此期间收缩压反应 - 一种努力的衡量标准对任务要求的动员和主观感知进行了评估。在这项任务之前，大约一半的参与者被赋予了消极的衰老刻板印象。在 LNS 任务之后，参与者完成了一项努力折扣任务，由此产生的主观价值表明他们愿意在每个需求水平上执行任务。正如预期的那样，认知需求和表现的主观和客观指标都与未来从事艰巨任务的意愿有关，这些影响对老年人来说要大得多。此外，虽然刻板印象激活会影响老年人在 LNS 任务中的参与水平，但它并没有缓和意愿。总之，结果表明，相对于年轻人，老年人参与认知挑战活动的决定不成比例地受到他们对需求的主观感知的影响。有趣的是，对任务的实际参与和相关的成功会降低对困难的感知和更大的参与意愿。因此，克服错误和令人沮丧的任务认知可能会促进老年人参与要求高但可能有益的活动。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）。