Two studies examined the effects of implicit and explicit priming of aging stereotypes. Implicit primes had a significant effect on older adults' memory, with positive primes associated with greater recall than negative primes. With explicit primes, older adults were able to counteract the impact of negative stereotypes when the cues were relatively subtle, but blatant stereotype primes suppressed performance regardless of prime type. No priming effects under either presentation condition were obtained for younger adults, indicating that the observed implicit effects are specific to those for whom the stereotype is self-relevant. Findings emphasize the importance of social-situational factors in determining older adults' memory performance and contribute to the delineation of situations under which stereotypes are most influential.

Recent research has suggested that negative stereotypes about aging may have a detrimental influence on older adults' memory performance. This study sought to determine whether stereotype-based influences were moderated by age, education, and concerns about being stigmatized. Possible mechanisms underlying these influences on memory performance were also explored. The memory performance of adults aged 60 to 70 years and 71 to 82 years was examined under conditions designed to induce or eliminate stereotype threat. Threat was found to have a greater impact on performance in the young-old than in the old-old group, whereas the opposite was observed for the effects of stigma consciousness. In both cases, the effects were strongest for those with higher levels of education. Further analyses found little evidence in support of the mediating roles of affective responses or working memory. The only evidence of mediation was found with respect to recall predictions, suggesting a motivational basis of threat effects on performance. These findings highlight the specificity of stereotype threat effects in later adults as well as possible mechanisms underlying such effects. KeywordsAging; stereotype threat; memory; affect; stigma consciousness Aging-related stereotypes have always been of interest in the field of gerontology. Relatively recently, however, attention has shifted from what might be characterized as externally driven forces associated with stereotypes (e.g., the effects of being treated in a stereotype-consistent fashion) to more internally based factors (e.g., the impact of self knowledge of aging-related stereotypes) (Hertzog & Hultsch, 2000;Hess, 2006). In the study of memory, a traditional emphasis has been on how aging stereotypes might affect performance through their impact on one's beliefs (e.g., control, self-efficacy) and the subsequent influence of these beliefs on memory-related behaviors, and vice versa (e.g., Lachman, 2000). More recently, the emphasis has shifted slightly to understanding what might be thought of as more direct influences of stereotypes without specific reference to intervening alterations in beliefs.The direct influence of stereotypes on memory has been studied in two ways. The first involves implicit (i.e., without the individual's awareness) priming of both positive and negative aging stereotypes. Although results from this body of research have been somewhat mixed (e.g., Stein, Blanchard-Fields, & Hertzog, 2002), there is evidence that older adults remember less and age differences in performance are exacerbated when negative rather than neutral or positive aging stereotypes are activated (Hess, Hinson, & Statham, 2004;Levy, 1996 suggests that older adults' memory performance may be unknowingly affected by subtle cues in the environment that are associated with and activate aging-related schemas.A second line of research involves more explicit activation of stereotypes, in which individuals are aware of relevant cues. Most of this research has been conducted using the...

Adults 24-86 years of age read positive or negative information about aging and memory prior to a memory test. The impact of this information on recall performance varied with age. Performance in the youngest and oldest participants was minimally affected by stereotype activation. Adults in their 60s exhibited weak effects consistent with the operation of stereotype threat, whereas middle-age adults exhibited a contrast effect in memory performance, suggestive of stereotype lift. Beliefs about aging and memory were also affected by stereotypic information, and older adults' changed beliefs were more important in predicting performance than was exposure to stereotype-based information alone.

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