Aging and repeated thought suppression success

Aging and the prevalence of 'ironic' action errors under avoidant instruction

Action errors can put older adults at risk of injury. Our study is the first to investigate whether older adults are more prone than younger adults to making 'ironic' motor errors (i.e., actions they have been instructed not to perform), or over-compensatory motor errors (e.g., moving more to the right when instructed not to move to the left). We also investigated whether error patterns change under cognitive load, and assessed whether age effects in the ability to inhibit a prohibited action are comparable to the age decrements found in the ability to inhibit a natural perception-action coupling in the Simon task. Sixty-four older (Mean = 70.64 years, SD = 5.81) and 39 younger (Mean = 28.74 years, SD = 16.39) adults completed an avoidant instruction line-drawing task (with and without cognitive load), and the Simon task. Older adults showed significantly slower inhibition times than younger adults on the Simon task, as expected, and in line with previous research. Surprisingly, however, older adults outperformed younger adults on the avoidant instruction task, producing fewer ironic and over-compensatory errors, and they performed similarly to the younger adults under cognitive load. Age-related decrements on the Simon but not the avoidant instruction task suggests that the two different types of motor tasks involve different subtypes of inhibition which likely recruit independent cognitive processes and neural circuitry in older age. It is speculated that the older adults' superior ability to inhibit a prohibited action could be the result of age-related changes in distractibility.

Towards a new methodological approach: A novel paradigm for covertly inducing and sampling different forms of spontaneous cognition

A wide range of cognitions is generated involuntarily in the human mind daily. We developed a paradigm, which covertly induces and samples spontaneous cognitions in the visual and auditory modalities, focusing on 3 key characteristics: spontaneity, repetition, and emotional valence. Sixty participants watched two visual clips while listening to music and assessed their characteristics. Post-induction, participants closed their eyes for 5 min and then completed a questionnaire, which indirectly samples different forms of spontaneous cognition. Induction was effective in all categories. Results indicated that different forms of spontaneous musical cognitions are experienced as longer in duration and less negative in emotional valence compared to visual cognitions. The findings are discussed in relation to spontaneous cognition methodology and experiences in different modalities. Spontaneous cognitions are multifaceted and not unitary constructs as previously considered and studied, and as such the novel induction and sampling paradigm presents a promising line of research.

Mindfulness and emotion regulation in older and young adults

OBJECTIVES

Research shows that dispositional mindfulness is associated with metrics of overall well-being, with enhanced emotion regulation potentially underlying these salutary effects. However, the role of regulation strategy use remains poorly understood. In this study, we examined age-variant associations between dispositional mindfulness, emotion regulation strategies, and emotion dysregulation.

METHOD

Self-report data were collected from 50 older and 50 young adults on mindfulness, emotion dysregulation, and recent strategy use. For the current study, we examined if cognitive reappraisal, experiential suppression, and thought avoidance use mediated the association between mindfulness and emotion dysregulation.

RESULTS

Thought avoidance, but not reappraisal or suppression strategies, partially mediated the association between mindfulness and emotion dysregulation. Age group moderated the observed mediation, such that for young adults, lower mindfulness was associated with greater use of thought avoidance, and in turn with greater emotion dysregulation (e.g., difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior in the face of strong emotions).

CONCLUSION

The current cross-sectional study suggests that reduced avoidance of thoughts may partially explain the relationship between trait mindfulness and enhanced emotion regulation, with this mediational pathway being stronger for young compared with older adults.

A longitudinal investigation of repressive coping and ageing

OBJECTIVES

Two studies investigated the possibility that repressive coping is more prevalent in older adults and that this represents a developmental progression rather than a cohort effect. Study 1 examined repressive coping and mental health cross-sectionally in young and old adults. Study 2 examined whether there was a developmental progression of repressive coping prevalence rates in a longitudinal sample of older adults.

METHOD

Study 1 compared younger adults (mean age 27.6 years) with older adults (mean age 74.2 years) on inventories of mental health and well-being and examined the prevalence of repressive coping in both samples. Study 2 re-tested a sample of older adults previously reported following an interval of 7 years.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

Study 1 - in line with previous research older adults demonstrated greater psychological well-being and had a higher prevalence of repressive coping than younger adults (at 30% vs. 12% respectively). Study 2 - the data indicated that the prevalence of repressive coping rose from 41% at the first time of testing (2002) to 56.4% at the second testing interval (2009). These results suggest that repressive coping may increase across the lifespan in certain individuals and continue to increase throughout older adulthood. Furthermore, this increase in repressive coping with age appears to result in better well-being in those older adults who become repressive copers.

From mind wandering to involuntary retrieval: Age-related differences in spontaneous cognitive processes

The majority of studies that have investigated the effects of healthy aging on cognition have focused on age-related differences in voluntary and deliberately engaged cognitive processes. Yet many forms of cognition occur spontaneously, without any deliberate attempt at engaging them. In this article we review studies that have assessed age-related differences in four such types of spontaneous thought processes: mind-wandering, involuntary autobiographical memory, intrusive thoughts, and spontaneous prospective memory retrieval. These studies suggest that older adults exhibit a reduction in frequency of both mind-wandering and involuntary autobiographical memory, whereas findings regarding intrusive thoughts have been more mixed. Additionally, there is some preliminary evidence that spontaneous prospective memory retrieval may be relatively preserved in aging. We consider the roles of age-related differences in cognitive resources, motivation, current concerns and emotional regulation in accounting for these findings. We also consider age-related differences in the neural correlates of spontaneous cognitive processes.

The frequency of involuntary autobiographical memories and future thoughts in relation to daydreaming, emotional distress, and age

We introduce a new scale, the Involuntary Autobiographical Memory Inventory (IAMI), for measuring the frequency of involuntary autobiographical memories and involuntary future thoughts. Using the scale in relation to other psychometric and demographic measures provided three important, novel findings. First, the frequency of involuntary and voluntary memories and future thoughts are similarly related to general measures of emotional distress. This challenges the idea that the involuntary mode is uniquely associated with emotional distress. Second, the frequency of involuntary autobiographical remembering does not decline with age, whereas measures of daydreaming, suppression of unwanted thoughts and dissociative experiences all do. Thus, involuntary autobiographical remembering relates differently to aging than daydreaming and other forms of spontaneous and uncontrollable thoughts. Third, unlike involuntary autobiographical remembering, the frequency of future thoughts does decrease with age. This finding underscores the need for examining past and future mental time travel in relation to aging and life span development.

Perioperative comprehensive supportive care interventions for chinese patients with esophageal carcinoma: a prospective study

OBJECTIVE

To assess the effects of perioperative comprehensive supportive care interventions on outcome of Chinese esophageal cancer patients in a prospective study.

METHODS

60 patients with primary esophageal carcinoma were randomized into an intervention group (IG, n=31) and a control group (CG, n=29). The Chinese version of symptom checklist-90 (SCL-90) was adopted to assess their psychological status. The interventions, including health education, psychological support, stress management, coping strategies and behavior training, were carried out in 3 phases (preoperative, postoperative I and postoperative II), and psychological effects were thereafter evaluated accordingly before surgery, and 1 week, 4 weeks and 24 weeks post-surgery. Medical costs were estimated at discharge. Survival of patients was estimated each year post-surgery. General health status and satisfaction-with-hospital were surveyed by a follow-up questionnaire 4 years post-surgery.

RESULTS

All the subjects demonstrated higher scores in the preoperative phase than the normal range of Chinese population concerning 7 psychological domains including somatization, obsessive-compulsive, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety and paranoid ideation. Although no significant difference was observed between the two groups at admission, the scores of IG, which tended to decrease at a faster rate, were generally lower than those of CG at weeks 1, 4 and 24 post-surgery. The length of hospital stay and medical costs of IG were significantly less than those of CG and satisfaction-with-hospital was better. However, there was no significant difference in 4-year survival or health status between two groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Appropriate perioperative comprehensive supportive care interventions help to improve the psychological state of Chinese patients with esophageal carcinoma, to reduce health care costs and to promote satisfaction of patients and their families with hospital.

A web-based examination of experiences with intrusive thoughts across the adult lifespan

OBJECTIVES

Intrusive thoughts and images are common across the adult lifespan, but vary in their consequences. Understanding age-related experiences with intrusive thoughts is important for identifying risk and protective factors for intrusive thought problems across the adult lifespan. This study characterized age trajectories for six aspects of experiences with intrusive thoughts using Internet data collection.

METHOD

Participants (N = 1427; ages 18-87) were randomly assigned to suppress (i.e. keep out of mind) or monitor an intrusive thought for one minute, and then later to monitor the thought for a second minute. Participants tracked thought recurrences during each thinking period, then reported their positive and negative affects following each thinking period, as well as their effort expended in suppressing the thought and perceived difficulty controlling the intrusive thought. Multilevel modeling and generalized estimating equations modeled the continuous relationships between age and each dependent variable.

RESULTS

As expected, older age was associated with less decline in positive affect while engaging with an intrusive thought. Interestingly, older age was also associated with a sharper rise and fall of negative affect. Suppression effort increased linearly with age (though perceived difficulty did not). Finally, no age differences were found in either the frequency or duration of the thought's recurrence, adding to previous evidence that older adults function similarly to younger adults in their control of intrusive thoughts, despite certain age-related declines in cognitive functioning.

CONCLUSION

These findings suggest a dissociation between age-related changes in emotional versus cognitive characteristics of engaging with intrusive thoughts.