ABSTRACT

The goal of our research was to investigate whether older adults show a source memory enhancement for emotionally valenced sources. Additionally, building on research on the socioemotional selectivity theory and the age-related positivity effect, we tested whether older adults show a larger enhancement for positive compared to negative (and neutral) sources than younger adults. In Experiment 1 (n_old = 25, n_young = 27), we used one positive, one negative, and one neutral picture to manipulate source valence (many-to-one mapping of items to sources), whereas, in Experiment 2 (n_old = 62, n_young = 62), we used multiple pictures per source valence category (one-to-one mapping of items to sources) to counteract potential habituation effects. In both experiments, sources had medium and matching arousal levels. Items were neutral words superimposed on the source pictures. To support an implicit, natural information processing, participants rated the words in terms of pleasantness. We analyzed memory data with a multinomial processing tree model to disentangle memory processes from guessing bias. Across both experiments, an age-related positivity effect occurred in participants’ pleasantness ratings. This effect, however, did not carry over to older adults’ source memory. That is, in source memory, we found a general emotionality effect for younger but not for older adults and no age-related positivity effect. We propose that due to older adults’ pronounced difficulties in remembering the item-to-source link (i.e., associative deficit), even a greater focus on an inherently emotional source might be insufficient to boost source memory.

摘要

我们研究的目的是调查老年人是否表现出对情绪效价来源的来源记忆增强。此外，基于社会情绪选择性理论和与年龄相关的积极效应的研究，我们测试了老年人与消极（和中性）来源相比是否比年轻人表现出更大的积极增强。在实验 1（n _old  = 25，n _young  = 27）中，我们使用一张正图、一张负图和一张中性图片来操纵源效价（项目到源的多对一映射），而在实验 2 中（n _old  = 62，n _young  = 62），我们对每个源价类别使用多张图片（项目到源的一对一映射）来抵消潜在的习惯效应。在这两个实验中，来源具有中等且匹配的唤醒水平。项目是叠加在源图片上的中性词。为了支持隐式、自然的信息处理，参与者根据愉悦程度对单词进行评分。我们使用多项处理树模型分析内存数据，以消除内存过程的猜测偏差。在这两项实验中，参与者的愉悦度评分都出现了与年龄相关的积极效应。然而，这种效应并没有延续到老年人的源记忆中。也就是说，在源记忆中，我们发现年轻人有一般情绪效应，但老年人没有，并且没有与年龄相关的积极效应。我们认为，由于老年人在记住项目与来源的联系方面存在明显困难（即联想缺陷），因此即使更多地关注固有的情感来源也可能不足以增强来源记忆。