Determining Whether Older Adults Use Similar Strategies to Young Adults in Theory of Mind Tasks

Abstract

Objective Theory of mind – the ability to infer others’ mental states – declines over the lifespan, potentially due to cognitive decline. However, it is unclear whether deficits emerge because older adults use the same strategies as young adults, albeit less effectively, or use different or no strategies. The current study compared the similarity of older adults’ theory of mind errors to young adults’ and a random model. Methods 120 older adults (MAge = 74.68 years; 64 female) and 111 young adults (MAge = 19.1; 61 female) completed a novel theory of mind task (clips from an episode of the sitcom The Office®), and a standard measure of cognitive function (Logical Memory II). Monte Carlo resampling estimated the likelihood that older adults’ error patterns were more similar to young adults’ or a random distribution. Results Age deficits emerged on the theory of mind task. Poorer performance was associated with less similarity to young adults’ response patterns. Overall, older adults’ response patterns were ~2.7 million times more likely to match young adults’ than a random model. Critically, one-fourth of older adults’ errors were more similar to the random distribution. Poorer memory ability contributed to this relationship. Discussion Age deficits in theory of mind performance may be driven by a subset of older adults and be related to disparities in strategy use. A certain amount of cognitive ability may be necessary for older adults to engage similar strategies to young adults’ during theory of mind.

Social and general cognition are uniquely associated with social connectedness in later life.

“…The fact that dynamic theory of mind measures were related to social bridging potential is also consistent with prior work suggesting that using dynamic measures may better capture how older adults engage theory of mind in real-world scenarios (Grainger et al, 2019; A. C. Krendl et al, 2022, in press; Laillier et al, 2019). One potential explanation for this relationship might be that the dynamic stimuli in the present study were based on an ongoing narrative.…”

“…Prior work has used similar iterations of the task, though critically without the faux pas questions (A. C. Krendl et al, 2022, in press). At the end of the task, participants were asked if they had ever seen The Office before (response options: yes or no) and, if so, how familiar they were with the series.…”

New Directions for Studying the Aging Social-Cognitive Brain

“…However, affective ToM appears relatively more preserved in aging than cognitive ToM [4]. Further, poorer performance in ToM tasks among older compared to younger adults may be due to differences in cognitive strategy use, especially when understanding emotions and detecting deception are involved [24].…”

Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Muscular Strength Do Not Predict Social Cognitive Capacity in Older Age

“…An extensive literature now shows that older age is associated with declines in social cognitive function ( Grainger et al, 2023a ; Henry et al, 2023 ), with the most robust age effects documented for emotion perception and theory of mind (ToM). Indeed, relative to their younger counterparts, older adults often show difficulties recognizing facial emotions (i.e., emotion perception; Grainger et al, 2017 ; Hayes et al, 2020 ; Isaacowitz et al, 2007 ) and understanding the mental states of others (i.e., ToM, Grainger et al, 2019 ; Henry et al, 2013 ; Krendl et al, 2023 ).…”