Cognitive and emotional factors influencing the incorporation of advice into decision-making across the adult lifespan

OBJECTIVES

The present study sought to investigate the influence of advice on decision-making in older age, as well as the potential influence of depressive symptoms and age-related differences in the cognitively demanding emotion regulation on advice-taking.

METHOD

A non-clinical sample (N = 156; 50% female; 47 young: M age = 29.87, SD = 5.58; 54 middle-aged: M age = 50.91, SD = 7.13; 55 older: M age = 72.51, SD = 5.33) completed a judge-advisor task to measure degree of advice-taking, as well as measures of fluid intelligence, depressive symptoms, confidence, perceived advice accuracy, and emotion regulation.

RESULTS

Age did not influence degree of advice-taking. Greater depressive symptoms were associated with more reliance on advice, but only among individuals who identified as emotion regulators. Interestingly, older age was associated with perceiving advice to be less accurate.

DISCUSSION

The study contributes to the sparse literature on advice-taking in older age. Cognitive and emotional factors influence the degree to which advice is incorporated into decision-making in consistent ways across the adult lifespan. A key difference is that older adults take as much advice as younger adults despite perceiving the advice to be less accurate.

Older adults' decision-making following bad advice

There is minimal research investigating the influence of advice on decision-making in older age. The present study investigated the effect of different types of bad advice, relative to no advice, on young and older adults' decision-making in the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Fifty-four older adults and 59 young adults completed the IGT after receiving no advice, or advice to select from disadvantageous deck A (small, high-frequency losses), or disadvantageous deck B (larger, low-frequency losses). Corrugator EMG, memory and fluid intelligence were assessed. Averaged across advice conditions, older adults made more disadvantageous selections than young adults. There were no age-related differences in responding to bad advice, nor in corrugator activity in response to losses (i.e. frowning), or in learning to avoid deck A faster than deck B. Selecting from deck B was associated with reduced education among older adults, and reduced fluid intelligence among young adults. The data suggest that older adults make more disadvantageous decisions than young adults, and this is not exacerbated by bad advice. Both young and older adults are slower at learning to avoid choices resulting in low frequency relative to high-frequency losses, and this may be associated with individual differences in cognitive processing.

Influence of Age and Message Frame on COVID-19 Vaccination Willingness Early in the Pandemic

Objective: This study examined whether age would moderate the association between a brief message frame intervention and COVID-19 vaccine willingness. Methods: Data were collected in Australia between 25 June and 5 July 2021. Participants (N = 187) aged 18-85 years had not yet received a dose of COVID-19 vaccine. After random assignment to a gain- or loss-framed message, participants reported COVID-19 vaccine willingness, general anti-vaccine attitudes, approach and avoidance motivation, and COVID-19 illness risk perception. Results: Message frame did not influence COVID-19 vaccine willingness. However, greater COVID-19 illness risk perception and older age increased the odds of Pfizer vaccine willingness, while lower avoidance motivation increased the odds of AstraZeneca vaccine willingness. Greater anti-vaccine ideology decreased the odds of willingness to receive either of the COVID-19 vaccines. Conclusions: A brief message frame intervention did not influence COVID-19 vaccine willingness across the adult lifespan.

Validating the interpersonal theory of suicide among older adultspre- and peri-COVID-19 pandemic

OBJECTIVES

Global suicide rates are highest among older adults, and especially older men, yet proximal predictors of suicidal ideation in older age remain poorly understood. This study tested the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide in older men and women by investigating whether perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness and/or their interaction are proximal predictors of suicidal ideation before versus during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

The sample (N = 208) included healthy community-dwelling older Australian persons surveyed face-to-face pre-pandemic (n = 102), or online peri-pandemic (n = 106). Depression, social interaction, social satisfaction, thwarted belongingness, and perceived burdensomeness were assessed as predictors of suicidal ideation.

RESULTS

Perceived burdensomeness was a more proximal predictor of suicidal ideation among older adults than depression or thwarted belongingness. Suicidal ideation and perceived burdensomeness were higher in men than women, but sex did not moderate the influence of perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness or social satisfaction on suicidal desire. The interaction between perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness predicted more additional variance in suicidal ideation in the older persons surveyed during the COVID-19 pandemic relative to those surveyed before the pandemic.

CONCLUSION

Suicidal ideation among older persons peri-pandemic is discussed, and recommendations are made for age-specific suicide prevention strategies.

A meta-analysis of the weight of advice in decision-making

The degree to which people take advice, and the factors that influence advice-taking, are of broad interest to laypersons, professionals, and policy-makers. This meta-analysis on 346 effect sizes from 129 independent datasets (N = 17, 296) assessed the weight of advice in the judge-advisor system paradigm, as well as the influence of sample and task characteristics. Information about the advisor(s) that is suggestive of advice quality was the only unique predictor of the overall pooled weight of advice. Individuals adjusted estimates by 32%, 37%, and 48% in response to advisors described in ways that suggest low, neutral, or high quality advice, respectively. This indicates that the benefits of compromise and averaging may be lost if accurate advice is perceived to be low quality, or too much weight is given to inaccurate advice that is perceived to be high quality. When examining the three levels of perceived quality separately, advice-taking was greater for subjective and uncertain estimates, relative to objective estimates, when information about the advisor was neutral in terms of advice quality. Sample characteristics had no effect on advice-taking, thus providing no evidence that age, gender, or individualism influence the weight of advice. The findings contribute to current theoretical debates and provide direction for future research.

Validation of the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory in younger adults

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI) in younger adults. Participants were 212 younger adults age M = 22 (range = 17–53) years. They completed a demographic information questionnaire and self-report measures: the GAI, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder–7 (GAD-7), the Patient Health Questionnaire–9 (PHQ-9), the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ), and the Worry Behaviors Inventory (WBI). Data from the GAI were collected at two time points, one week apart, and data from other self-report measures were collected once via Qualtrics, an online survey platform. The internal consistency and test–retest score reliability of the GAI were excellent. It had good congruent validity with other anxiety measures, limited divergent validity with depression measures, and sound convergent validity with worry measures. The GAI showed good discrimination between probable cases and noncases of generalized anxiety disorder (participants who scored ⩾8 on the GAD-7) and its optimal cutoff score for probable cases of GAD was ⩾12. A unidimensional component structure of the GAI best fit this study’s data. This study has provided preliminary evidence that the GAI is reliable and valid for use in an Australian sample of younger adults.

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Subjective Age and the Association With Cognition, Subjective Well-Being, and Depression

OBJECTIVES

A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to quantify the degree to which subjective age is associated with cognition, subjective well-being, and depression.

METHOD

A systematic search was performed in three electronic social scientific databases, PsycINFO, Scopus, and Web of Science in May 2018. A manual forward and backward citation search of articles meeting the criteria for inclusion, including a mean participant age of 40+ years, was conducted in November 2019. Twenty-four independent data sets were included in the meta-analysis.

RESULTS

Overall, a younger subjective age was related to enhanced subjective well-being and cognitive performance, and reduced depressive symptoms (r = .18). This association was stronger among collectivist (r = .24) than individualist (r = .16) cultures. Mean chronological age across samples (ranging from 55 to 83 years), type of subjective age scoring, and gender did not influence the strength of the overall association. Further analysis revealed that subjective age was individually associated with depressive symptoms (r = .20), subjective well-being (r = .17), and cognition (r = .14), and none had a stronger association with subjective age than the other.

DISCUSSION

The results indicate a small yet significant association between subjective age and important developmental outcomes.

Introduction to the special issue on prosociality in adult development and aging: Advancing theory within a multilevel framework

Prosociality refers to a broad set of behavioral, motivational, cognitive, affective, and social processes that contribute to, and/or are focused on, the welfare of others. This overview summarizes 10 articles included in the special issue on this topic. In discussing this research relative to existing theories, we situate this work within Penner et al.'s (Annual Review of Psychology, 56, 2005, 365-392) multilevel framework that recognizes distinct yet integrated levels of analysis to characterize micro- (i.e., intraindividual), meso- (i.e., interpersonal), and macro- (i.e., sociocultural and organizational contexts) level effects. While there is some evidence for lifespan continuity in prosocial dispositions at the micro level, the influences of long-term learning and socialization processes at the meso and macro levels are likely to be maximized in older age. Aside from formal voluteering, the adult lifespan development of prosociality has only recently received attention, especially with respect to influences beyond the micro level. This special issue encompasses research examining developmental change and stability in prosociality that collectively cuts across levels of analysis to inform theories in both adult development and aging and prosociality more generally. We propose future directions that take an integrative approach to understanding the development of prosociality by considering interactions among micro, meso, and macro levels. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Effects of Age on Emotion Regulation, Emotional Empathy, and Prosocial Behavior

OBJECTIVES

The degree to which older adults experience emotional empathy and show subsequent prosocial behavior versus experience personal distress in response to another's distress remains unclear.

METHOD

Young (n = 40; 17-29 years) and older (n = 39; 61-82 years) adults watched videos of individuals expressing pain or no pain. Pain mimicry was recorded using facial electromyography. Participants were then asked if they would spend the remaining time helping the experimenter. Self-reported tendency to suppress or reappraise emotion was assessed, as well as trait and state emotional empathy and personal distress.

RESULTS

Pain mimicry was associated with reduced trait suppression in older adults. In both age groups, greater emotional empathy, averaged across video condition, was associated with increased helping. In addition, relative to young adults, older adults reported more personal distress and emotional reactivity in response to the videos but were just as willing to help. They also put more effort into helping.

DISCUSSION

These findings contribute to clarification of mixed previous evidence regarding the experience of emotional empathy in young versus older adulthood. We discuss the importance of considering additional subcomponents of empathy such as emotion regulation, while also accounting for the relevance of the empathy induction to each age group.

A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS OF AGE-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN TRUST

This systematic review and meta-analysis quantifies the magnitude and breadth of age-related differences in trust. Thirty-eight independent data sets met criteria for inclusion. Overall, there was a moderate effect of age group on trust (g = 0.22), whereby older adults were more trusting than young adults. Three additional meta-analyses assessed age-related differences in trust in response to varying degrees of trustworthiness. This revealed that older adults were more trusting than young adults in response to neutral (g = 0.31) and negative (g = 0.33), but not positive (g = 0.15), indicators of trustworthiness. The effect of age group on trust in response to positive and neutral cues was moderated by type of trust (financial vs. non-financial) and type of responding (self-report vs. behavioral). Older adults were more trusting than young adults in response to positive and neutral indicators of trustworthiness when trust was expressed non-financially, but not financially. There was also an age-related increase in self-reported, but not behavioral, trust in response to neutral cues. Older adults were more trusting than young adults in response to negative indicators of trustworthiness regardless of the type of trust or type of responding. The reliability of information about trustworthiness (superficial vs. genuine cues) did not moderate any effects of age on trust. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Intact spontaneous emotional expressivity to non-facial but not facial stimuli in schizophrenia: An electromyographic study

Emotional stimuli, such as facial expressions, reliably evoke rapid, spontaneous and covert facial reactions in the perceiver that reflect the affective valence of the observed stimulus. These physiological reactions have been linked to a variety of social cognitive processes known to be disrupted in schizophrenia, such as emotion recognition and affective empathy. Moreover, individuals with schizophrenia exhibit atypical rapid facial reactions when observing emotional expressions. The current study aimed to determine if the disruption in schizophrenia is specific to facial expressions, or instead reflects more generalised emotional or motor impairments in the elicitation of this rapid facial response. Here we quantified activity in the corrugator supercilii and zygomaticus major muscle regions using electromyography while individuals with schizophrenia (n = 24) and controls (n = 21) viewed images of facial and non-facial emotional stimuli. The results indicate that schizophrenia is marked by a disruption in rapid facial responding to facial expressions, but intact responding to non-facial emotional stimuli. This dissociation between the processing of facial and non-facial emotional stimuli points to the need for a greater understanding of the degree to which facial emotion processing impairments contribute to disruptions in mimetic responding in this population.

A role for affectivity in rapid facial mimicry: An electromyographic study

Emotional expressions evoke rapid facial reactions in the perceiver that are consistent with the valence of the observed expression. We aimed to investigate whether this robust facial reaction is purely a motor matching response or instead represents underlying affective processes. Participants' (N = 60) corrugator supercilii and zygomaticus major muscle activity was quantified using facial electromyography (EMG) while they viewed three sets of images; (i) upright happy and angry facial expressions, (ii) inverted happy and angry facial expressions, and (iii) sad and happy eyes and mouth expressions. Participants displayed patterns of EMG responding that were consistent with the affective valence of the emotional expression, as opposed to merely matching the observed stimuli (i.e. a motor matching response). Using a novel methodological approach, these findings provide evidence for the contention that affective processing underlies rapid facial mimicry reactions.

Young Schema Questionnaire - Short Form Version 3 (YSQ-S3): Preliminary validation in older adults

OBJECTIVES

The aim of the current study was to establish the reliability and validity of one of the most used schema questionnaires, Young Schema Questionnaire Short Form Version 3 (YSQ-S3) in older adults.

METHOD

104 participants aged 60-84 years were recruited. They were administered a battery of questionnaires, including the YSQ-S3, Young-Atkinson Mode Inventory (YAMI), Germans (Personality) Screener, the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), The Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI) and the Basic Psychological Needs Scale (BPNS). The YSQ-S3 was completed a second time by 83 participants a median of 12 days later.

RESULTS

Satisfactory internal consistency reliability was found for 13 of the 18 early maladaptive schemas (EMS) of the YSQ-S3. Test-retest reliability was satisfactory for 17 of 18 EMS. Convergent validity was evident from significant correlations between the EMS of the YSQ-S3 and the vulnerable child and angry child schema modes from the YAMI. Congruent validity was evident from correlations of the majority of the EMS with the GDS, the GAI, German's (Personality) Screener and the BPNS measure.

CONCLUSIONS

By and large the YSQ-S3 demonstrates internal and test re-test reliability in as well as congruent and convergent validity, in older adults. This suggests the YSQ-S3 may be of use in work establishing the utility of schema therapy in this population, and that schema therapy with older people warrants further exploration. Notwithstanding this some re-development of some EMS items appears to be required for the YSQ-S3 to be more relevant to older people.

Systematic review and meta-analysis of age-related differences in instructed emotion regulation success

The process model of emotion regulation (ER) is based on stages in the emotion generative process at which regulation may occur. This meta-analysis examines age-related differences in the subjective, behavioral, and physiological outcomes of instructed ER strategies that may be initiated after an emotional event has occurred; attentional deployment, cognitive change, and response modulation. Within-process strategy, stimulus type, and valence were also tested as potential moderators of the effect of age on ER. A systematic search of the literature identified 156 relevant comparisons from 11 studies. Few age-related differences were found. In our analysis of the subjective outcome of response modulation strategies, young adults used expressive enhancement successfully (g = 0.48), but not expressive suppression (g = 0.04). Response modulation strategies had a small positive effect among older adults, and enhancement vs suppression did not moderate this success (g = 0.31 and g = 0.10, respectively). Young adults effectively used response modulation to regulate subjective emotion in response to pictures (g = 0.41) but not films (g = 0.01). Older adults were able to regulate in response to both pictures (g = 0.26) and films (g = 0.11). Interestingly, both age groups effectively used detached reappraisal, but not positive reappraisal to regulate emotional behavior. We conclude that, in line with well-established theories of socioemotional aging, there is a lack of evidence for age differences in the effects of instructed ER strategies, with some moderators suggesting more consistent effectiveness for older compared to younger adults.

Predictors of mental health literacy in older people

OBJECTIVES

Older adults exhibit poorer mental health literacy than younger adults, including less accuracy at identifying symptoms of mental disorders, and endorsing fewer sources of treatment for a mental disorder. The current study's intention was to determine if the executive component of cognition is associated with mental health literacy in older adults, when controlling for other established predictors (sex, age, education, and proximity to someone with a mental disorder).

METHOD

The sample included 85 cognitively healthy adults aged 60 and over. Participants completed the Mini-Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination III, the Trail Making Test, a Phonemic Verbal Fluency Test, and the Mental Health Literacy Scale.

RESULTS

A multiple regression indicated that age and mental health proximity significantly and uniquely predicted total mental health literacy (Age: β = -0.22, t = -2.04, p < 0.05; Proximity: β = 0.31, t = 2.78, p < 0.01). Older age predicted poorer PTSD mental health literacy (β = -0.31, t = -2.90, p < 0.01).

CONCLUSION

In neurologically healthy older adults, level of executive function did not contribute to mental health literacy. Older adults in closer proximity to someone with a mental disorder were more likely to have better mental health literacy, a finding that has the potential to inform mental health education and promotion strategies in this population.

Plasma Thrombin Assay using a Chromogenic Substrate in Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation due to Snake Bite Envenomation

Using the chromogenic substrate, Tos-Gly-Pro-Arg-pNA-HCL (Chromozym TH, Boehringer Mannheim) plasma thrombin was estimated in six cases of envenomation by Australian elapid snakes. All patients manifested findings chracteristic of defibrination due to envenomation by these snakes. Fibrin-fibrinogen degradation products were grossly elevated, as was plasma thrombin in all cases.

Following treatment with antivenene, all abnormal coagulation parameters returned rapidly towards normal by 24 hours and plasma thrombin disappeared.

The effect of attentional bias modification training on food intake in overweight and obese women

This study modified food attentional biases via computerized attentional bias modification training and examined the effects on food intake. Overweight women were randomly allocated to (1) direct attention away from food (“attentional-training”), (2) direct attention at random to food or neutral (“placebo”), or (3) no training (“control”). Individuals then completed a taste test. Those in the attentional-training consumed on average 600 kJ less of total food compared to the placebo. Those in the attentional-training had a reduction in food attentional bias compared to the placebo group, when controlling for executive function. Attentional-training seems to reduce high-calorie intake in overweight women.

The age-related positivity effect in electronic gambling

BACKGROUND

Older adults are increasingly spending time and money playing electronic gambling machines (EGMs). The current study assessed whether the age-related positivity effect influences responding to various EGM outcomes, including wins and losses of equivalent magnitude and frequency. We also explored cognitive mechanisms potentially underpinning the positivity effect.

METHODS

We recorded the skin conductance response (SCR) of healthy older and younger adults while they played for wins, losses, and fake wins (losses disguised as wins). After every win and fake win, participants were forced to choose red or black to either double their win or lose it. They also provided ratings of enjoyment and excitement, estimated number of wins and losses, and completed measures of cognitive function.

RESULTS

Young and older adults demonstrated larger SCRs to wins relative to losses. When these wins and losses were of equivalent magnitude and frequency following a double-or-nothing scenario, only older adults responded more to a win than a loss. There were no age group differences in excitement and enjoyment, but older adults were more accurate than young adults in their recall of wins and losses.

CONCLUSION

During EGM play, young and older adults demonstrate similar patterns on autonomic arousal. However, young adults' responding suggests generalized excitement, whereas older adults respond more to the prospect of financial gain.

Age invariance in rapid facial affective reactions to emotionally valenced stimuli

It has been suggested that an age-related positivity effect may only occur in the context of explicit information processing, but it is unclear whether this bias extends to the processing of rapid facial reactions. In addition, most studies that have looked for evidence of age-related implicit positivity have used attentional (as opposed to sensory) unawareness paradigms, or used broad-based indicators of attentional awareness that do not speak to the nature of the affective response. In the present study, younger and older adults were therefore asked to view non-facial images presented supraliminally (i.e., consciously) as well as outside of sensory awareness (i.e., subliminally) while their facial reactions were indexed using electromyography. The results indicated that both younger and older adults exhibited rapid facial reactions congruent with the emotional valence of non-facial images in both supraliminal and subliminal conditions. Relative to young, older adults did not respond with greater zygomaticus (cheek) activity to positive stimuli or reduced corrugator (brow) activity to negative stimuli in either condition. These data show that rapid facial reactions to emotional stimuli are intact in late adulthood, even in response to stimuli that activate more automatic and implicit forms of emotion processing. However, there is no evidence for any age-related positivity bias in these behavioral responses.

Assisted vaginal delivery in low and middle income countries: an overview

OBJECTIVE

To assess the use of assisted vaginal delivery (AVD) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), highlighting what level of care procedures were performed and identifying systemic barriers to its use.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional health facility assessments.

SETTING

Up to 40 countries in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

POPULATION

Assessments tended to be national in scope and included all hospitals and samples of midlevel facilities in public and private sectors.

METHODS

Descriptive secondary data analysis.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Percentage of facilities where health workers performed AVD in the 3 months prior to the assessment, instrument preference, which health workers performed the procedure, and reasons AVD was not practiced.

RESULTS

Fewer than 20% of facilities in Latin America reported performing AVD in the last 3 months. In sub-Saharan Africa, 53% of 1728 hospitals had performed AVD but only 6% of nearly 10 000 health centres had done so. It was not uncommon to find <1% of institutional births delivered by AVD. Vacuum extraction appears preferred over forceps. Lack of equipment and trained health workers were the most frequent reasons for non-performance.

CONCLUSIONS

The low use of AVD in LMICs is in contrast with many high-income countries, where high caesarean rates are also associated with significant rates of AVD. In many LMICs, rising caesarean rates have not been associated with maintenance of skills and practice of AVD. AVD is underused precisely in countries where pregnant women continue to face hardships accessing emergency obstetric care and where caesarean delivery can be relatively unsafe.

TWEETABLE ABSTRACT

Many LMICs exhibit low use of assisted vaginal delivery where access to EmONC continues to be a hardship.

Deconstructing the nature of episodic foresight deficits associated with chronic opiate use

OBJECTIVES

Episodic foresight refers to the capacity to mentally travel forward in time and has been linked to a wide variety of important functional behaviours. Evidence has recently emerged that chronic opiate use is associated with deficits in this critical capacity and that these difficulties are not simply a secondary consequence of broader cognitive dysfunction. The current study aimed to better understand the circumstances in which chronic opiate users might be expected to have problems with episodic foresight, by addressing whether deficits reflect compromised scene construction, self-projection, or narrative ability.

METHODS

Thirty-five chronic opiate users and 35 demographically matched controls completed an imagination task in which they were instructed to imagine and provide descriptions of an atemporal event, a plausible, self-relevant future event, as well as complete a narrative task. These three imagination conditions systematically varied in their demands on scene construction, self-projection, and narrative ability.

RESULTS

Consistent with prior literature, chronic opiate users exhibited reduced capacity for episodic foresight relative to controls. However, this study was the first to show that these difficulties were independent of capacity for scene construction and narration. Instead, a specific impairment in self-projection into the future appears to contribute to the problems with episodic foresight seen in this clinical group.

CONCLUSIONS

Deficits in self-projection into the future may have important implications in therapeutic environments given that many relapse prevention strategies rely heavily on the ability to project oneself into an unfamiliar future, free of problem substance use.

PRACTITIONER POINTS

A reduced capacity for episodic foresight highlights the importance of refining current relapse prevention protocols that place significant demands for mental time travel into the future. Psychosocial treatments should focus on the attainment of more immediate or short-term goals. It is difficult to delineate the effects of specific substances given long-standing drug use history common to chronic opiate users. Conclusions relating to neurological functioning are speculative given the absence of neuroimaging data.

The relationship between prospective memory and episodic future thinking in younger and older adulthood

Episodic future thinking (EFT), the ability to project into the future to “preexperience” an event, and prospective memory (PM), remembering to perform an intended action, are both examples of future-oriented cognition. Recently it has been suggested that EFT might contribute to PM performance but to date few studies have examined the relationship between these two capacities. The aim of the present study was to investigate the nature and specificity of this relationship, as well as whether it varies with age. Participants were 125 younger and 125 older adults who completed measures of EFT and PM. Significant, positive correlations between EFT and PM were identified in both age groups. Furthermore, EFT ability accounted for significant unique variance in the young adults, suggesting that it may make a specific contribution to PM function. Within the older adult group, EFT did not uniquely contribute to PM, possibly indicating a reduced capacity to utilize EFT, or the use of compensatory strategies. This study is the first to provide systematic evidence for an association between variation in EFT and PM abilities in both younger and older adulthood and shows that the nature of this association varies as a function of age.

Trust and trustworthiness in young and older adults

In a series of 1-shot economic trust games in which participants could make real monetary profits, but also risked losing money, 2 studies compared young and older adults' trust (amount invested with trustees) and trustworthiness (amount returned to investors by trustees). In Study 1, young (n = 35) and older (n = 32) participants acted as investors, and the age of simulated trustees (young, older) was manipulated. In Study 2, young (n = 61) and older (n = 67) participants acted in real life as both investors and trustees. They completed 2 face-to-face trust games with same- and other-age partners, and 3 anonymous trust games with same-, other-, and unknown-age partners. Study 1 found that young and older participants rate older trustees as appearing more trustworthy than young trustees, but neither group invest more with older than young trustees. Rather, older participants were more likely than young participants to invest money averaged across trustee age. In Study 2, there were no age-related differences in trust, but older adults were more trustworthy than young adults in anonymous games with same- and unknown-age partners. It was also found that young adults demonstrate greater reputational concerns than older adults by reciprocating more trust when face-to-face than anonymous. We discuss the complex influences of age on trust game investing and reciprocation, as well as the implications for older adults' wellbeing and financial security.

Age-related similarities and differences in first impressions of trustworthiness

Trust is a particularly under-studied aspect of social relationships in older age. In the current study, young (n = 35) and older adults (n = 35) completed a series of one-shot social economic trust games in which they invested real money with trustees. There were potential gains with each investment and also a risk of losing everything if the trustee was untrustworthy. The reputation and facial appearance of each trustee were manipulated to make them appear more or less trustworthy. Results revealed that young and older adults invest more money with trustees whose facial appearance and reputation indicate that they are trustworthy rather than untrustworthy. However, older adults were more likely than young to invest with trustees who had a reputation for being untrustworthy. We discuss whether age-related differences in responding to negative information may account for an age-related increase in trust, particularly when trusting someone with a reputation for being uncooperative.

Episodic foresight deficits in long-term opiate users

RATIONALE

There is considerable literature showing that opiate use is associated with a range of neurocognitive deficits, including deficits in executive control and episodic memory. However, no study to date has assessed whether these neurocognitive difficulties extend to the ability to mentally time travel into one's personal future. This is a surprising omission given that executive control and episodic memory are considered to be critical for episodic foresight. In addition, opiate-related brain changes have been identified in the neural regions that underlie the capacity for episodic foresight.

OBJECTIVE

In the present study, we assessed how episodic foresight is affected in the context of chronic opiate use, as well as the degree to which any deficits are related to difficulties with executive control and episodic memory.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Forty-eight long-term heroin users enrolled in an opiate substitution program and 48 controls were tested. The results showed that, relative to controls, the clinical group exhibited significant impairment in episodic foresight but not episodic memory (as indexed by an adapted version of the Autobiographical Interview). For executive function, the clinical group was impaired on only one of three measures (Inhibition).

CONCLUSIONS

These data provide important preliminary evidence that episodic foresight might be particularly susceptible to the neurocognitive effects of opiate use, as the difficulties identified were not secondary to more general executive control or episodic memory impairment. Because a number of widely used relapse prevention protocols require the ability to mentally project into the future, these data have potentially important practical implications in relation to the treatment of substance dependence disorders.

Adiposity estimated using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry and body mass index and its association with cognition in elderly adults

OBJECTIVES

To determine whether obesity, estimated according to body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and body fat and abdominal fat assessed using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA), was associated with cognitive performance.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional.

SETTING

Community based.

PARTICIPANTS

Individuals aged 74-94 (N = 406).

MEASUREMENTS

BMI, waist circumference, body fat, and abdominal fat were assessed using DEXA. Cognitive performance was assessed using a comprehensive neuropsychological battery.

RESULTS

When categorized using BMI, overweight individuals had higher global cognitive function and executive function scores than normal-weight individuals. This relationship did not differ according to sex. When categorized according to DEXA, there were no relationships between body fat and cognitive function in the whole group, but women in the middle and highest tertiles of DEXA body fat had better executive function than those in the lowest tertile. Men in the middle tertile of DEXA body fat had significantly better executive function and memory than those in the lowest tertile. BMI had greater power to predict executive function than DEXA body fat. No significant associations were found between cognition and estimates of abdominal adiposity.

CONCLUSION

This study found an association between being overweight and better executive function in elderly adults; this association was stronger for the simpler BMI than the more-elaborate DEXA measures.

Future thinking improves prospective memory performance and plan enactment in older adults

Efficient intention formation might improve prospective memory by reducing the need for resource-demanding strategic processes during the delayed performance interval. The present study set out to test this assumption and provides the first empirical assessment of whether imagining a future action improves prospective memory performance equivalently at different stages of the adult lifespan. Thus, younger ( n = 40) and older ( n = 40) adults were asked to complete the Dresden Breakfast Task, which required them to prepare breakfast in accordance with a set of rules and time restrictions. All participants began by generating a plan for later enactment; however, after making this plan, half of the participants were required to imagine themselves completing the task in the future (future thinking condition), while the other half received standard instructions (control condition). As expected, overall younger adults outperformed older adults. Moreover, both older and younger adults benefited equally from future thinking instructions, as reflected in a higher proportion of prospective memory responses and more accurate plan execution. Thus, for both younger and older adults, imagining the specific visual–spatial context in which an intention will later be executed may serve as an easy-to-implement strategy that enhances prospective memory function in everyday life.

Age differences in conscious versus subconscious social perception: the influence of face age and valence on gaze following

Gaze following is the primary means of establishing joint attention with others and is subject to age-related decline. In addition, young but not older adults experience an own-age bias in gaze following. The current research assessed the effects of subconscious processing on these age-related differences. Participants responded to targets that were either congruent or incongruent with the direction of gaze displayed in supraliminal and subliminal images of young and older faces. These faces displayed either neutral (Study 1) or happy and fearful (Study 2) expressions. In Studies 1 and 2, both age groups demonstrated gaze-directed attention by responding faster to targets that were congruent as opposed to incongruent with gaze-cues. In Study 1, subliminal stimuli did not attenuate the age-related decline in gaze-cuing, but did result in an own-age bias among older participants. In Study 2, gaze-cuing was reduced for older relative to young adults in response to supraliminal stimuli, and this could not be attributed to reduced visual acuity or age group differences in the perceived emotional intensity of the gaze-cue faces. Moreover, there were no age differences in gaze-cuing when responding to subliminal faces that were emotionally arousing. In addition, older adults demonstrated an own-age bias for both conscious and subconscious gaze-cuing when faces expressed happiness but not fear. We discuss growing evidence for age-related preservation of subconscious relative to conscious social perception, as well as an interaction between face age and valence in social perception.

Examining the time course of young and older adults' mimicry of enjoyment and nonenjoyment smiles

Electromyographic (EMG) research suggests that implicit mimicry of happy facial expressions remains intact with age. However, age-related differences in EMG responses to enjoyment and nonenjoyment smiles have not been explored. The present study assessed younger and older adults' orbicularis oculi (O.oculi; eye) and zygomaticus major (Z.major; cheek) reactions to images of individuals displaying enjoyment and nonenjoyment smiles. Both age groups mimicked displays of enjoyment smiles, and there were no age differences in O.oculi and Z.major activity to these expressions. However, compared with younger participants, older adults showed extended O.oculi activity to nonenjoyment smiles. In an explicit ratings task, older adults were also more likely than younger participants to attribute feelings of happiness to individuals displaying both nonenjoyment and enjoyment smiles. However, participants' ratings of the happiness expressed in images of enjoyment and nonenjoyment smiles were independent of their O.oculi responding to these expressions, suggesting that mimicry and emotion recognition may reflect separate processes. Potential mechanisms underlying these findings, as well as implications for social affiliation in older adulthood, are considered.

Exploring own-age biases in deception detection

The present study explored own-age biases in deception detection, investigating whether individuals were more likely to trust those in their own-age group. Younger and older participants were asked to detect deceit from videos of younger and older speakers, rating their confidence in each decision. Older participants showed an own-age bias: they were more likely to think that deceptive speakers of their own age, relative to younger speakers, were telling the truth. Older participants were also more confident in their judgements of own-age, relative to other-age, speakers. There were no own-age biases for younger participants. In a subsequent (apparently unrelated) task, participants were asked to rate the trustworthiness of the speakers. Both age groups of participants trusted younger speakers who had previously told the truth more compared to those who had lied. This effect was not found for older speakers. These findings are considered in relation to the in-group/out-group model of social cognition and common stereotypical beliefs held about younger and older adults.

Older adults have greater difficulty imagining future rather than atemporal experiences

Episodic future thinking refers to mentally traveling forward in time to preexperience an event, and emerging research suggests that this is more difficult for older adults. The current study was designed to better understand the effect of aging on separate component processes of age differences in episodic future thinking. Young (n = 24) and older (n = 25) adults were asked to construct a) atemporal scenarios, b) future scenarios, and c) a narrative that involved navigation. Each of these conditions assesses the capacity to construct and describe a scene, but only the future scenario requires a subjective sense of self in time (autonoetic consciousness). The composite measure of performance showed that relative to young adults, older adults have substantially reduced capacity for all three types of construction, suggesting that age-related difficulty imagining future episodic events may reflect a more general cognitive decline with age. In addition, older adults were worse at imagining future experiences than atemporal experiences, indicating limited capacity for autonoetic consciousness. Further, this difference between imagining atemporal and future experiences was not as evident among younger adults. These deficits in episodic future thinking have implications for the daily lives of older adults in terms of anticipating and planning for the future.

Age-related differences in social economic decision making: the ultimatum game

OBJECTIVES

Despite recognition of the increasing influence of emotion on decision making with age, there are few studies that have assessed older adults' financial choices in a socioemotional context. Thus, social economic decision making between same- versus other-aged partners was assessed.

METHOD

Young (n = 35) and older (n = 34) adults participated in two Ultimatum Games. In the first, they proposed divisions of money between themselves and future young and older participants. In the second, they accepted or rejected fair and unfair divisions of money proposed by past young and older participants. Lastly, participants reported their anger in response to the offers that were proposed to them in the second game.

RESULTS

In the first game, older participants divided the money more generously than did young participants. In the second game, young, but not older, participants rejected more unfair offers proposed by young relative to older adults. However, both participant age groups reported being angrier at unfair offers proposed by young adults compared with when receiving the same offer from an older adult.

DISCUSSION

These findings are discussed in the context of evidence for improved anger regulation and increased prosocial behavior with age.

Right frontal cortical lesions disrupt anger mimicry

The current study investigates the neural substrates of facial expression mimicry by assessing individuals with right and left lateralised frontal cortical lesions. Electromyography was used to measure spontaneous changes in electrical activity over the corrugator supercilii (brow) and zygomaticus major (cheek) muscle regions in response to happy and angry facial expressions. Individuals with right (n=4) and left (n=5) frontal cortical lesions and demographically matched controls (n=9) were compared. It was shown that while all three groups mimic happy facial expressions, only controls and individuals with left frontal lesions mimic angry expressions. These data are consistent with evidence for right frontal cortical specialisation for the processing of anger.

Dismantling the “age–prospective memory paradox”: The classic laboratory paradigm simulated in a naturalistic setting

Previous research has identified “the age–prospective memory paradox”—that adult ageing results in reliably poorer performance on laboratory-based tasks of prospective memory (PM), but improved performance on such tasks carried out in real-life settings. We hypothesized that even in their everyday environment, older adults might be worse at PM tasks that are triggered during an experimenter-generated ongoing activity. The present study used a task that captured the key features of the classic laboratory paradigm, but which was completed in a setting that met key criteria to be considered naturalistic. In their everyday setting, participants’ PM was assessed, with the cue to remember occurring either (a) during their day-to-day activities, or (b) during an experimenter-generated ongoing task. The results confirmed previous naturalistic findings, in showing that older adults ( n = 28) exhibited better PM than their younger counterparts ( n = 65) when prompted during their everyday activities. However, older adults were also then subsequently less likely to show effective PM during experimenter-generated ongoing activity. Reproducing the paradox within a single dataset, these data indicate that older adults can effectively act on intentions during everyday activities, but have difficulty in prospective remembering during experimenter-generated ongoing tasks.

Promoting accountability in obstetric care: use of criteria-based audit in Viet Nam

Audits can improve clinical and managerial practices, enhance the rational use of limited resources, and improve staff morale and motivation. Staff at five hospitals in Thanh Hoa and Quang Tri provinces (Viet Nam) used criteria-based audit (CBA) as a tool to improve the quality of emergency obstetric and newborn care. CBA compares current practice with standards based on the best available evidence and the local context. The audit cycle begins with a known problem, proceeds with an initial assessment and data collection, analysis of those data, formulation and implementation of an action plan, and a re-evaluation of the topic initially assessed. Teams found that clinical protocols for treating major obstetric complications were not followed, although, national guidelines had been issued in 2002. In an audit of facility organisation, staff addressed obstacles to the timely treatment of obstetric emergencies during off hours. In each audit, teams devised mechanisms to correct problems that resulted in significant improvements when the audit cycle was repeated. CBA improved adherence to national guidelines, improved record-keeping, heightened teamwork, and showed staff that they could identify and solve many of their own problems.

Socioemotional deficits associated with obsessive-compulsive symptomatology

Increasing emphasis has been placed on the role of socioemotional functioning in models of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The present study investigated whether OCD symptoms were associated with capacity for theory of mind (ToM) and basic affect recognition. Non-clinical volunteers (N=204) completed self report measures of OCD and general psychopathology, in addition to behavioral measures of ToM and affect recognition. The results indicated that higher OCD symptoms were associated with reduced ToM, as well as reduced accuracy decoding the specific emotion of disgust. Importantly, these relationships could not be attributed to other, more general features of psychopathology. The findings of the current study therefore further our understanding of how the processing and interpretation of social and emotional information is affected in the context of OCD symptomatology, and are discussed in relation to neuropsychological models of OCD.

Separating component processes of theory of mind in schizophrenia

OBJECTIVE

It has been argued that in order to take the perspective of another the 'default' self-perspective must first be inhibited. Thus, executive function failures (and specifically, reduced inhibitory control of the self-perspective) may contribute to the theory of mind (ToM) difficulties that have been observed in schizophrenia.

METHOD

Participants with schizophrenia (N=28) and demographically matched controls (N=30) were administered a behavioural measure of ToM that directly manipulates inhibitory demands by involving either high- or low-levels of self-perspective inhibition.

RESULTS

Relative to controls, participants with schizophrenia demonstrated impaired ToM, but did not have particular difficulty on the task that placed high demands on self-perspective inhibition.

CONCLUSION

Disruption of other-perspective taking, rather than self-perspective inhibition, appears to be the more important determinant of ToM impairment in schizophrenia. This finding is discussed in relation to competing perspectives of ToM.

Empathy, social functioning and schizotypy

Whilst affective empathy is concerned with one's emotional response to the affective state of another, cognitive empathy refers to one's understanding of another's mental state, and deficits in both are believed to contribute to the social behavioral abnormalities associated with schizophrenia. The present study aimed to test whether individual differences in normally distributed schizotypal personality traits are related to cognitive and affective empathy, and whether any observed association between schizotypy and empathy mediates the relationship between schizotypy and (reduced) social functioning. Non-clinical volunteers (N=223) completed measures of schizotypal personality, cognitive and affective empathy, social functioning and negative affect. The results indicated that higher schizotypy was associated with reduced empathy, poorer social functioning and increased negative affect. Of the specific schizotypal dimensions (positive, negative and disorganized), only negative schizotypy was significantly associated with social functioning, and this relationship persisted even after controlling for negative affect. Further, affective empathy functioned as a partial mediator in this relationship. These data show that the relationship between negative schizotypy and social functioning is at least partially attributable to deficits in affective empathy.

Empathy and social functioning in late adulthood

OBJECTIVES

Both cognitive and affective empathy are regarded as essential prerequisites for successful social functioning, and recent studies have suggested that cognitive, but not affective, empathy may be adversely affected as a consequence of normal adult aging. This decline in cognitive empathy is of concern, as older adults are particularly susceptible to the negative physical and mental health consequences of loneliness and social isolation.

METHOD

The present study compared younger (N = 80) and older (N = 49) adults on measures of cognitive empathy, affective empathy, and social functioning.

RESULTS

Whilst older adults' self-reported and performance-based cognitive empathy was significantly reduced relative to younger adults, there were no age-related differences in affective empathy. Older adults also reported involvement in significantly fewer social activities than younger adults, and cognitive empathy functioned as a partial mediator of this relationship.

CONCLUSION

These findings are consistent with theoretical models that regard cognitive empathy as an essential prerequisite for good interpersonal functioning. However, the cross-sectional nature of the study leaves open the question of causality for future studies.