Abstract
The dual mechanisms of control framework proposes that age-related declines in cognitive control are due to deficits with continuous goal maintenance (proactive control). Older adults default instead to another form of control (reactive control). In contrast to these declines, older adults demonstrate preserved emotional processing. According to the socioemotional selectivity theory, perceived time constraints related to advancing age results in emotional regulation goals in which older adults prioritize positive well-being or mood. To achieve this, they devote more cognitive resources and pay greater attention to positive versus negative information (“positivity effects”) than younger adults. Research on the interactions between cognitive control and emotion is increasing but work focused on the interactions in older adults is limited. Thus, it is unknown how older adults' emotional goals may influence their goal maintenance deficits. This study manipulated mood and emotional face stimuli to examine whether these factors affect age differences in cognitive control between younger (ages 18-30) and older adults (ages 65+). Experiment 1 induced neutral or negative moods prior to a cognitive control task (the standard letter AX-CPT task). Results indicated typical patterns of proactive control in younger adults and reactive control in older adults that did not vary substantially by mood. Experiment 2 examined the effects of neutral, negative, and positive mood inductions on a less cognitively demanding version of the AX-CPT (with face cues as contextual information). Results showed evidence of enhanced proactive control in older adults that was comparable to that of younger adults across all mood conditions, although this was limited to response time data. Additionally, there was evidence of small mood effects on cognitive control. Finally, Experiment 3 examined the effect of positive, negative, and neutral contextual information (face cues) on older adults' cognitive control performance using a different variant of the AX-CPT (face AX-CPT). Results indicated strong engagement in reactive control that did not vary by the emotionality of the contextual information. Together, the results of this study suggest that older adults’ proactive control patterns are affected by the task demands of the AX-CPT, but there is less evidence of mood or emotional stimuli effects.
Highlights
Three conclusions can be made based on the dual mechanisms of control (DMC) framework and the review of its predictions and supporting research: (1) there is evidence of two control modes – one characterized by continuous maintenance of task goals and another that relies on reactivation of task goals when needed; (2) older adults’ cognitive control deficits appear to be specific to decreased engagement of proactive control, presumably due to agerelated limitations on processing resources; and (3) shifts between the two control modes are amenable to external factors, such as task strategy training, reduced cognitive demands of the task, and emotional manipulations
An open question remains: could emotional manipulations – similar to those that have been conducted with younger adults – influence patterns of reactive and proactive control in older adults? If so, would the effects differ in the two age groups? A plethora of studies has suggested that younger and older adults have different motivational inclinations that result in divergent emotional goals and preferences
According to the socioemotional selectivity theory (SST), older adults prioritize emotional versus knowledge/information goals due to motivations to achieve emotional well-being; (2) these motivations often lead to enhanced processing of positive and/or diminished processing of negative versus neutral material
Summary
Demographic (e.g., age, gender, years of education) and health information (e.g., history of neurological or psychological disorders, medications) were collected on a background information questionnaire. Several tests were administered to screen for dementia-related symptoms and to assess for individual and group differences on measures of visuospatial short-term memory, speed of processing, vocabulary, attention, and task-switching. The SBT (Katzman et al, 1983) is a 6-item test that checks for dementia-related cognitive impairments in orientation, memory, and concentration. The questions are administered orally and participants’ responses are recorded by the experimenter
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