Motivation and representational processes in adulthood: The effects of social accountability and information relevance.

Abstract

The role of motivation in determining age differences in social representations was examined. Adults aged 20 to 83 years were given an impression formation task that attempted to manipulate motivation by varying the characteristics of the target and the extent to which participants would be held accountable for their impressions. It was hypothesized that increasing age would be associated with greater selectivity in the use of available cognitive resources to support the construction of accurate representations. Support for this hypothesis was obtained when trait inferences and recall were examined. Specifically, older adults made more accurate trait inferences and recalled more information when the target was similar in age or they were held accountable for their impressions. In contrast, younger adults demonstrated similar levels of accuracy across conditions. The fact that these effects were observed when cognitive resources was controlled suggests a motivational effect that is independent of age differences in cognitive ability.

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“…However, there were no age differences in memory for which statements were true or false, even though that affective information was originally indicated by which speaker said the statement. Hess, Rosenberg, and Waters (2001) reported similar findings on an impression formation task. When the task was made personally relevant (e.g., participants were told that they would share their impressions with another person), older adults were more likely to remember inconsistencies in the behavior of the target they were asked to describe.…”

The Adaptive and Strategic Use of Memory By Older Adults: Evaluative Processing and Value-Directed Remembering

“…Evaluative processing is the mechanism in which value is assigned to information by the rememberer, and this can be influenced by a variety of factors. Most typically it is based on how important the information is for the current goal of the individual, whether this information is consistent or inconsistent with prior knowledge, as well as motivation and anticipated future use of this information (e.g., Hess et al, 2001). The term selectivity refers to focusing on certain items or events that are perceived to be of high value, possibly at the expense of lower value information.…”

“…In general, economists use the term ''strategic'' such that something will yield high returns from limited resources; it may be that older adults also function this way when it comes to memory. Thus, examining memory and aging in context requires knowing how value, and the assignment of value (via evaluative processing), place a premium on the goals and motivation of the rememberer (e.g., Hess, Rosenberg, & Waters, 2001), possibly leading to eYcient memory use in old age.…”

Interplay of Cognitive Efficiency, Cognitive Ability and Motivation

“…Selectivity is determined by personal relevance, meaningfulness of a situation -that is, older adults would allocate more cognitive resources into tasks with more personal meaning. Hess, Rosenberg and Walters [26] used impression formation task to examine ageing-related selectivity. By varying personal relevance of two motivational variables; the context and behavioral information, they influenced the recall of consistent and inconsistent behaviors of older adults.…”