Age-Related Effects on Memory for Social Stimuli: The Role of Valence, Arousal, and Emotional Responses

Abstract

Background Previous research (Hess, Popham, Dennis, & Emery, 2013) suggested that age-based positivity effects in memory were attenuated with social stimuli. We examined the degree to which this generalized across arousal levels associated with social images. We also examined variations in approach and avoidance responses to images, and how these were differentially related to memory in younger versus older adults. Methods In Experiment 1, young (22 – 43 years) and older (65 – 85 years) adults recalled positive and negative social scenes that were high or low in arousal. In Experiment 2, young (20 – 40 years) and older (65 – 83 years) adults viewed and recalled the same scenes under instructions designed to alter arousal, and approach and avoidance ratings for each image were recorded. Results In Experiment 1, age differences in recall were confined to high-arousal, negative images, with young adults exhibiting superior memory relative to older adults. There was no evidence of an age-related positivity effect for low arousal social scenes. This result was replicated in Experiment 2, but distancing instructions minimized the age difference in recall for high-arousal, negative images. Approach and avoidance ratings differentially predicted recall across age groups, with stronger associations in the young. Conclusion The results are consistent with emerging evidence demonstrating that valence-based biases associated with aging (e.g., positivity effect) are specific to the context and stimulus characteristics. Differences in prediction of recall responses from approach and avoidance ratings across age groups suggested that the observed effects in memory reflected differences in responses to the characteristics of stimuli.

Aging and attention: Meaningfulness may be more important than valence.

“…However, some studies from other laboratories did not find the age-related positivity effect (e.g., Grühn, Smith, & Baltes, 2005). Hess, Popham, and Growney (2017) even argued that the positivity effect might occur or not, depending on the context and stimulus characteristics. In response to these mixed findings, Scheibe and Carstensen (2010) emphasize that the emotional goals that older adults prioritize are goals that are emotionally meaningful to them.…”

Spatio-temporal attention toward emotional scenes across adulthood.

“…Consequently, the negativity bias observed in young adults in both high-arousing and low-arousing contexts would be decreased and would shift sometimes toward a positivity bias in older adults in low-arousal context only. However, further studies are needed to precisely evaluate the role of arousal level in emergence of age-related positivity effects since some studies fail to show such an effect (as for instance, Ossenfort et al, 2021, by using an emotional spatial cuing task) or even show an age-related positivity effect rather for high arousal stimuli (as for instance, a memory study conducted by Hess and collaborators using social scenes (i.e., pictures that depicted people; Hess et al, 2017).…”

Age-related positivity effect: Distinct mechanisms for lexical access and episodic memory of emotional words.

“…Indeed, processing high-arousal stimuli should be more costly in terms of cognitive resources than processing low-arousal stimuli (Charles, 2010). To our knowledge, among researchers who have tested the moderating role of arousal on the age-related positivity effect in several cognitive activities (attention: Kappes et al, 2017; episodic memory: Hess et al, 2017; Kensinger, 2008; lexical access: Wurm, 2011), both Hess et al (2017) and Wurm (2011) showed that the age-related positivity effect appears for high-arousal stimuli. In the study by Hess et al (2017), participants viewed social images featuring people.…”

“…To our knowledge, among researchers who have tested the moderating role of arousal on the age-related positivity effect in several cognitive activities (attention: Kappes et al, 2017;episodic memory: Hess et al, 2017;Kensinger, 2008;lexical access: Wurm, 2011), both Hess et al (2017) and Wurm (2011) showed that the age-related positivity effect appears for high-arousal stimuli. In the study by Hess et al (2017), participants viewed social images featuring people. Results indicated that, for high-arousal images only, the negativity bias in free recall present in younger adults was less pronounced in older adults.…”