Search

Objectives With advancing age, older drivers experience greater fatal crash risks due to age-related declines in cognitive and physical capabilities. Being informed of the age-related increased risks could help older drivers form compensatory strategies and determine when to seek further help to stay on the road safely for longer. Using a self-report assessment tool, the Attentional Failure during Driving Questionnaire (AFDQ), we examined older drivers’ experience of various attentional failures during daily driving and how the measures could predict their crash risks. Methods We used a new methodological approach distinguishing the occurrences of attentional failures during driving and the frequency of those occurrences. The individuals’ AFDQ occurrence and frequency scores were compared with prior driving outcomes and simulated driving performance. Results Unlike middle-aged drivers, frequency rather than occurrence of attentional failures was a significant predictor of prior traffic violations and crashes among older drivers. Also, attentional failures, but not chronological age, predicted older drivers’ crash risks. AFDQ frequency was also associated with older drivers’ poorer performance in simulated driving. Discussion The findings suggest that the self-report assessment for attention-related driving failures can predict older drivers’ crash risks. Furthermore, the two-part approach of AFDQ provides an opportunity to do a more comprehensive investigation of the associations between attentional declines and crash risks among older drivers.

There have been suggestions that the measure of future time perspective shows a two-factor structure. However, the two-factor structure coincides with positively- and negatively-framed items potentially indicating a method factor rather than a content factor. By using reversed-scored items in an adult sample (N = 1421, aged 19 to 79, M = 39.1, SD = 11.1), we found evidence that the two-factor structure is mainly due to the framing of the items representing method factors rather than representing separate content factors. Item framing might be more important in aging-related research than expected.

The development of lists of emotional stimuli has fostered our understanding about emotional processes by facilitating the selection of appropriate stimuli for experimental settings and comparison across experimental settings. To assist in the decision-making process of experimental work, we propose the emotion matrix as a simplified way of comparing different types of stimuli on their ecological validity, temporal resolution, controllability, complexity, and emotional intensity. Based on these five characteristics in the emotion matrix, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using words, images, faces, or film clips in emotion research. By doing so, we present some of the major available lists of words, images, faces, and film clips and we describe major characteristics of these sets.

Background and Objectives As informal caregiving becomes prevalent, its consequences for caregivers’ cognitive and socioemotional functioning gain more importance for society. There are inconsistent findings regarding the direction of the impact of caregiving—whether caregiving maintains or compromises functioning—and the impact of time—whether the effects accumulate or are stable. In this study, we elucidated 3 time effects of caregiving—concurrent, cumulative, and lagged effects—on cognitive and socioemotional functioning. Research Design and Methods We used data from Wave 1 (2002–2003) to Wave 8 (2016–2017) in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and latent growth curve models with the time-varying predictor to investigate 3 time effects of caregiving on cognitive function (memory and executive function) and well-being (life satisfaction and quality of life). Results Over and beyond age effects, current caregiving (concurrent effect) was related to worse well-being and better delayed recall. Little robust cumulative effect was found on cognition and well-being. In addition, there were significant and differential lagged effects of caregiving after controlling for concurrent and cumulative effects; that is, caregiving was related to worse well-being and better memory functioning 2–4 years later. Discussion and Implications The differential concurrent and lagged effects of caregiving on cognitive and socioemotional functioning suggest separate mechanisms for different domains of functioning. The nonsignificant cumulative effects but significant lagged effects imply that even one-time caregiving has long-term (2–4 years) consequences for the caregiver’s future functioning, and the mechanism of long-term caregiving effects may be more qualitative than quantitative.

Abstract. We investigated the effects of time horizon and age on the socioemotional motives underlying individual’s bucket-list goals. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three time-horizon conditions to make a bucket list: (1) an open-ended time horizon (Study 1 & 2), (2) a 6-month horizon (i.e., “Imagine you have 6 months to live”; Study 1 & 2), and (3) a 1-week horizon (Study 2). Goal motives were coded based on socioemotional selectivity theory and psychosocial development theory. Results indicated that time horizon and age produced unique effects on bucket-list goal motives. Extending past findings on people’s motives considering the end of life, the findings suggest that different time horizons and life stages trigger different motives.

We investigated how moral judgments were influenced by (a) the age and gender of the moral perpetrator and victim, (b) the moral judge’s benevolent ageism and benevolent sexism, and (c) the moral judge’s gender. By systematically manipulating the age and gender of the perpetrators and victims in moral scenarios, participants in two studies made judgments about the moral transgressions. We found that (a) people made more negative judgments when the victims were old or female rather than young or male, (b) benevolent ageism influenced people’s judgments about young versus old perpetrators, and (c) people had differential moral expectations of perpetrators who belonged to their same-gender group versus opposite-gender group. The findings suggest that age and gender stereotypes are so salient to bias people’s moral judgments even when the transgression is undoubtedly intentional and hostile.

Objectives: As an inevitable part of daily life, solitude has both positive and negative consequences which are moderated by one’s motivation for solitude. Self-determined motivation correlates with few psychological risks, whereas other-determined motivation correlates with higher risks (e.g., loneliness, depression, lower well-being). However, little is known about the antecedents of different motivations for solitude. The purpose of this study is to investigate the antecedents of motivation for solitude in a sample with younger, middle-aged, and older adults. Methods: We recruited 468 participants from Amazon Mechanical Turk and Introduction to Psychology class (age range: 17-70, M = 30.7, 50.4 % females). Preference and motivation for solitude were measured with the Preference for Solitude Scale and Motivation for Solitude Scale-Short Form. Age, sex, marital status, education level, living arrangement, instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), civic engagement, social contact frequency, introversion, and empathy were measured as antecedents. Results: People with older age, higher empathy for fictional characters, lower personal distress, higher introversion, and females tended to have higher general preference for solitude. People with higher empathy for fictional characters tended to have higher self-determined motivation. People with higher empathy for fictional characters, lower empathic concern, higher personal distress, higher IADLs, and higher introversion were more likely to have higher other-determined motivation. Discussion: A person with an introverted personality, functional limitation, more negative empathic reactions towards others are likely to have maladaptive motivation for solitude and may need intervention. Future research should further investigate other antecedents for self-determined motivation.

Research in the socio-emotional domain may require words for experimental settings rated on emotionally and socially relevant word characteristics (e.g., valence and desirability). In addition, cognitively relevant word characteristics (e.g., imagery) are important for research in the interface of emotion and cognition (e.g., emotional memory). To provide researchers with a corresponding word pool, the database of English EMOtional TErms (EMOTE) provides subjective ratings for 1287 nouns and 985 adjectives. Nouns and adjectives were rated on valence, arousal, emotionality, concreteness, imagery, familiarity, and clarity of meaning. In addition, adjectives were rated on control, desirability, and likeableness. EMOTE norms provide an easily accessible word pool for research in the socio-emotional domain. To illustrate the usefulness of this database, norms were linked to memorability scores from a word recognition task for EMOTE nouns. The database as well as future directions are discussed.

Individuals’ reaction tendencies in emotional situations may influence their social relationships. In two studies, we examined whether perceived similarity in emotional reaction tendencies between the self and a close other was associated with individuals’ emotional well-being. Participants rated how the self and a close other (mother in Study 1; a self-nominated close other in Study 2) would react in various situations. Individuals who perceived greater similarity between the self and the close other reported more positive affect, less negative affect, lower perceived stress, and higher life satisfaction than those who perceived less self–other similarity. Furthermore, stress exposure moderated the effects of self–other similarity on perceived stress. In summary, greater perceived similarity with one’s close others seems beneficial for social–emotional adaptation.

Older adults tend to perform more poorly than younger adults on emotional expression identification tasks. The goal of the present study was to test a processing mechanism that might explain these differences in emotion recognition – specifically, age-related variation in the utilization of specific visual cues. Seventeen younger and 17 older adults completed a reverse correlation emotion categorization task (Bubbles paradigm), consisting of a large number of trials in each of which only part of the visual information used to convey an emotional facial expression was revealed to participants. The task allowed us to pinpoint the visual features each group used systematically to correctly recognize the emotional expressions shown. To address the possibility that faces of different age groups are differently processed by younger and older adults, we included younger, middle-aged, and older adult face models displaying happy, fearful, angry, disgusted, and sad facial expressions. Our results reveal strong similarity in the utilization of visual information by younger and older adult participants in decoding the emotional expressions from faces across ages – particularly for happy and fear emotions. These findings suggest that age-related differences in strategic information use are unlikely to contribute to the decline of facial expression recognition skills observed in later life.

The International Affective Picture System (IAPS) has been widely used in aging-oriented research on emotion. However, no ratings for older adults are available. The aim of the present study was to close this gap by providing ratings of valence and arousal for 504 IAPS pictures by 53 young and 53 older adults. Both age groups rated positive pictures as less arousing, resulting in a stronger linear association between valence and arousal, than has been found in previous studies. This association was even stronger in older than in young adults. Older adults perceived negative pictures as more negative and more arousing and positive pictures as more positive and less arousing than young adults did. This might indicate a dedifferentiation of emotional processing in old age. On the basis of a picture recognition task, we also report memorability scores for individual pictures and how they relate to valence and arousal ratings. Data for all the pictures are archived at www.psychonomic.org/archive/.

Being socially engaged is theorized to diminish age-related declines in emotional functioning. However, unique facets of social engagement may differentially impact functioning in older adulthood. In particular, social participation (SP) might be more beneficial than social support (SS) in buffering declines. The goal of this study was to examine whether interindividual differences in SP and SS influenced intraindividual change in Psychological Well-Being (PWB). The impact of SS and SP on change in PWB was investigated in two samples from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study spanning 19 years (1992–2011): graduate respondents and their siblings. Using latent growth curve models, small declines in PWB were found. Individuals high in SP demonstrated a less steep decline in PWB across the three time points than individuals low in SP. SS, however, did not buffer declines in PWB. Developmental implications of the age-related trajectory of PWB and the relationship with social engagement are discussed.

Previous research found that the perception of a limited remaining lifetime is related to goal setting, social network composition, attitudes, and behavior. However, to better understand those findings, it is important to know if this subjective perception of being close to death corresponds with the time a person actually survives. The aim of the present study was to examine the predictive and time–dynamic relationship between subjective and objective nearness to death using 16-year longitudinal data from the Berlin Aging Study (Baltes and Mayer 1999; N = 516 older adults between 70 and 104 years). Older adults who felt close to death at the first measurement occasion were more likely to die over the following 16 years than persons who did not report feeling close to dying. Results of multilevel analyses revealed that there was a time–dynamic relationship such that subjective nearness to death increased as a function of objective nearness to death. Our results indicate that very old adults seem to have quite accurate perceptions of their nearness to death.

Montepare suggested the use of a self-correcting approach to multiple-choice tests: Students first take the exam as usual, but are allowed to hand in a self-corrected version afterwards. The idea of this approach is that the additional interaction with the material may foster further learning. To examine whether such an approach actually improves learning, we compared two large sections in psychology: one section used traditional exams and the other section used self-correcting midterm exams. Indeed, compared to the traditional approach, students using the self-correcting approach performed better on the final exam. Moreover, students who self-corrected more items performed better on the final exam above and beyond students’ original performance. As a tool to foster students’ engagement and learning, the self-correcting approach might be especially useful in large classroom settings.

Emotional complexity has been regarded as one correlate of adaptive emotion regulation in adulthood. One novel and potentially valuable approach to operationalizing emotional complexity is to use reports of emotions obtained repeatedly in real time, which can generate a number of potential time-based indicators of emotional complexity. It is not known, however, how these indicators relate to each other, to other measures of affective complexity, such as those derived from a cognitive-developmental view of emotional complexity, or to measures of adaptive functioning, such as well-being. A sample of 109 adults, aged 23 to 90 years, participated in an experience-sampling study and reported their negative and positive affect five times a day for one week. Based on these reports, we calculated nine different time-based indicators potentially reflecting emotional complexity. Analyses showed three major findings: First, the indicators showed a diverse pattern of interrelations suggestive of four distinct components of emotional complexity. Second, age was generally not related to time-based indicators of emotional complexity; however, older adults showed overall low variability in negative affect. Third, time-based indicators of emotional complexity were either unrelated or inversely related to measures of adaptive functioning; that is, these measures tended to predict a less adaptive profile, such as lower subjective and psychological well-being. In sum, time-based indicators of emotional complexity displayed a more complex and less beneficial picture than originally thought. In particular, variability in negative affect seems to indicate suboptimal adjustments. Future research would benefit from collecting empirical data for the interrelations and correlates of time-based indicators of emotional complexity in different contexts.

The field of emotion understanding is replete with measures, yet lacks an integrated conceptual organizing structure. To identify and organize skills associated with the recognition and knowledge of emotions, and to highlight the focus of emotion understanding as localized in the self, in specific others, and in generalized others, we introduce the conceptual framework of Emotion Understanding in Recognition and Knowledge Abilities (EUReKA). We then categorize 56 existing methods of emotion understanding within this framework to highlight current gaps and future opportunities in assessing emotion understanding across the lifespan. We hope the EUReKA model provides a systematic and integrated framework for conceptualizing and measuring emotion understanding for future research.

OBJECTIVE We investigated linear and quadratic effects of age on self-reported empathy in three large cross-sectional samples of American adults aged 18-90 years. METHOD Participants completed subscales of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1983), allowing us to independently assess an emotional component of empathy ("empathic concern") and a cognitive component of empathy ("perspective taking") across the adult life span. RESULTS For both measures and in all three samples, we found evidence for an inverse-U-shaped pattern across age: Middle-aged adults reported higher empathy than both young adults and older adults. We also found a consistent gender difference: Women reported more empathy than men. We did not find systematic differences by ethnicity. However, neither gender nor ethnicity interacted with age effects. DISCUSSION We discuss the inverse-U-shaped age pattern, in terms of aging versus cohort influences, and how it complements and extends the existing literature on empathy and age.

A bucket list refers to goals people pursue when they realize the fragility and finitude of life. We investigated the effects of time horizon and age on the socio-emotional motives underlying bucket list goals. We randomly assigned 541 adults (24–75 years old) to either an open-ended or a six-month horizon (i.e., “imagine you have six months to live”) to make a bucket list. Goal motives were coded based on socioemotional selectivity theory and Erikson’s psychosocial development theory. We found more prominent age differences in bucket list goal motives under the 6-month horizon than the open-ended time horizon. Under the constrained time horizon, older age predicted stronger motivations of emotional satisfaction, inner peace and ego-transcendence but weaker motivation of self-sufficiency. Findings suggest that although age and time horizon are usually correlated, they exert unique effects on motivations when people approach endings.

Research on emotional functioning in adulthood has focused primarily on positive and negative affect rather than on discrete emotions. To close this gap, 948 adults aged 18–78 years reported their affect on a German version of the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule – Extended (PANAS-X). Besides positive and negative affect, the scale assessed discrete negative affects (fear, hostility, guilt, sadness), discrete positive affects (joviality, self-assurance, attentiveness), and other affective states (shyness, fatigue, serenity, surprise). Findings showed divergent shapes across the adult lifespan documenting multidimensionality and multidirectionality. Personality factors explained a large portion of interindividual differences in discrete affects; however, after controlling for sociodemographic and personality factors, age showed still significant associations to some but not all discrete affects.

Using the heterogeneity-homogeneity list paradigm, the authors investigated 48 young adults' (20-30 years) and 48 older adults' (65-75 years) recognition memory for emotional pictures. The authors obtained no evidence for a positivity bias in older adults' memory: Age differences were primarily driven by older adults' diminished ability to remember negative pictures. The authors further found a strong effect of list types: Pictures, particularly neutral ones, were better recognized in homogeneous (blocked) lists than in heterogeneous (mixed) ones. Results confirm those of a previous study by D. Gruhn, J. Smith, and P. B. Baltes (2005) that used a different type of to-be-remembered material, that is, pictures instead of words.

Although a limited future time perspective (FTP) has been theorized to be the underlying mechanism of positive emotional functioning later in life, there is scant empirical evidence for this position. Using an integrative data-analytic approach, we investigated the predictive value of FTP, age, and subjective health in explaining emotional functioning in a sample of 2,504 adults (17 to 87 years, M = 35.5, SD = 14.2). Although older adults reported a more limited FTP than younger adults, age and a limited FTP had opposite effects in predicting subjective well-being, affect, positive emotions, empathy, and attitudes toward emotions. That is, old age was linked to a more adaptive emotional profile, whereas a limited FTP was linked to a more maladaptive emotional profile. This was the case even after controlling for health-related aspects. The findings question the usage of FTP as an explanatory variable for observed age differences in emotional functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record

Some authors argue for a memory advantage of older adults for positively toned material. To investigate the contribution of selective processing to a positivity effect, the authors investigated young (n = 72, aged 18 to 31) and older (n = 72, aged 64 to 75) adults' memory for emotionally toned words using a multitrial paradigm that compares performance for heterogeneous (mixed valence) and homogeneous (single valence) lists. Regarding the age comparison, there was no evidence for an aging bias favoring positive material. Moreover, older adults' memory was less affected by emotion-based processing prioritization. Although there was no support for age-specific processing biases in memory for emotionally toned words, the findings are consistent with proposals that negative information receives processing priority in some contexts. Possible limits to the generalizability of the present findings (e.g., to nonverbal material) are discussed.

Objectives. Social rejection is a ne social experience individuals of all ages may encounter in everyday life. It is unclear whether social rejection affects older adults more or less than younger adults. This study investigated age differences in reactions following a direct rejection and the moderating effects of cognitive resources and appraisals. Method. Eighty-three younger (18–26 years) and 53 older (60–86 years) adults engaged in an online interview during which they were either accepted or rejected seemingly by another participant. We examined participants’ self-reported mood before and after the interview as well as verbal self-complexity. Results. Older adults reported greater increases in hurt feelings follo wing rejection than younger adults. The age difference was further moderated by cognitive resources and appraisals. Among older rejected adults, those who were poorer in processing speed and those who appraised the rejection more negatively felt more hurt feelings. Older rejected adults were also rated lower in self-complexity than older accepted adults, whereas younger rejected adults and accepted adults did not differ. Discussion. The findings are lar gely consistent with life-span developmental theories and highlight the importance of cognitive processes when examining age differences in experiencing social rejection.

This study examined longitudinal changes in coping and defense mechanisms in an age- and gender-stratified sample of 392 European-American adults. Nonlinear age-related changes were found for the coping mechanisms of sublimation and suppression and the defense mechanisms of intellectualization, doubt, displacement, and regression. The change trajectories for sublimation and suppression showed that their use increased from adolescence to late middle age and early old age, and remained mostly stable into late old age. The change trajectory for intellectualization showed that the use of this defense mechanism increased from adolescence to middle age, remained stable until late midlife, and started to decline thereafter. The defense mechanisms of doubt, displacement, and regression showed decreases from adolescence until early old age, with increases occurring again after the age of 65. Linear age-related decreases were found for the coping mechanism of ego regression and the defense mechanisms of isolation and rationalization. Gender and socioeconomic status were associated with the mean levels of several coping and defense mechanisms, but did not moderate age-related changes. Increases in ego level were associated with increased use of the defense mechanism intellectualization and decreased use of the defense mechanisms of doubt and displacement. Overall, these findings in a European-American sample suggest that most individuals showed development in the direction of more adaptive and less maladaptive coping and defense strategies from adolescence until late middle age or early old age. However, in late old age this development was reversed, presenting potential challenges to the adaptive capacity of older adults.

International audience; The goal of this study was to validate a French version of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), a self-report questionnaire comprised of four subscales assessing affective (empathic concern and personal distress) and cognitive (fantasy and perspective taking) components of empathy. To accomplish this, 322 adults (18 to 89 years) completed the French version of the IRI (F-IRI). A confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the four-factor structure of the original IRI. The F-IRI showed good scale score reliability, test–retest reliability, and convergent validity, tested with the French version of the Empathy Quotient. These findings confirmed the reliability and validity of the F-IRI and suggest that the F-IRI is a useful instrument to measure self-reported empathy. In addition, we observed sex and age differences consistent with findings in the literature. Women reported higher scores in empathic concern and fantasy than men. Older adults reported less personal distress and less fantasy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved). (journal abstract)

The impact of task complexity on information search strategy and decision quality was examined in a sample of 135 young, middle-aged, and older adults. We were particularly interested in the competing roles of fluid cognitive ability and domain knowledge and experience, with the former being a negative influence and the latter being a positive influence on older adults' performance. Participants utilized 2 decision matrices, which varied in complexity, regarding a consumer purchase. Using process tracing software and an algorithm developed to assess decision strategy, we recorded search behavior, strategy selection, and final decision. Contrary to expectations, older adults were not more likely than the younger age groups to engage in information-minimizing search behaviors in response to increases in task complexity. Similarly, adults of all ages used comparable decision strategies and adapted their strategies to the demands of the task. We also examined decision outcomes in relation to participants' preferences. Overall, it seems that older adults utilize simpler sets of information primarily reflecting the most valued attributes in making their choice. The results of this study suggest that older adults are adaptive in their approach to decision making and that this ability may benefit from accrued knowledge and experience.

International audience; Introduction and objectiveAttributes are used by young, middle-aged, and older adults to describe persons in everyday life. The current study asks whether attributes are perceived similarly by different age groups: for example, some attributes could be perceived as more positive or more negative in old age than in young adulthood.MethodTo address this question, we investigated age-related differences in emotional evaluations of French adjectives. Young, middle-aged, and older adults judged 835 French adjectives on valence, arousal, and imagery.ResultsAge groups agreed highly on the relative rank order but showed mean differences for a substantial number of attributes, especially for arousal and imagery ratings. Associations between dimensions differed as well between age groups: valence and arousal were negatively correlated and this correlation was stronger in older than in younger age groups.ConclusionThe present study provided new evidence that the perception of emotionally toned material is affected by age. Several explanations to these age-related differences are discussed.; Les attributs sont utilisés par les adultes jeunes ou âgés pour décrire les personnes rencontrées dans la vie quotidienne. La question est alors de savoir si ces attributs sont perçus de façon similaire par ces différents groupes d'âge: par exemple, certains attributs peuvent être perçus comme plus positifs ou plus négatifs chez les personnes âgées que chez les jeunes adultes. Pour répondre à cette question, nous avons étudié les différences liées à l'âge dans les évaluations émotionnelles d'adjectifs français. De jeunes adultes, des adultes d'âge moyen et des adultes âgés ont évalué la valence, le niveau d'excitation et la valeur d'imagerie de 835 adjectifs français. Les résultats indiquent que les groupes d'âge s'accordent sur le classement relatif, mais mettent aussi en évidence des différences pour un grand nombre d'attributs, en particulier pour les évaluations du niveau d'excitation et de la valeur d'imagerie. Les associations entre les dimensions diffèrent aussi entre les groupes d'âge: valence et niveau d'excitation sont négativement corrélés et cette corrélation est plus forte chez les âgés que chez les groupes d'âge plus jeunes. Les résultats de cette étude apportent donc de nouvelles preuves empiriques des différences liées à l'âge dans la perception de matériel émotionnel qui sont ensuite discutées. (French)

The authors investigated normative beliefs about personality development. Young, middle-aged, and older adults indicated the age-relevance of 835 French adjectives by specifying person characteristics as typical for any age decade from 0 to 99 years. With this paradigm, the authors determined age-relevance (How typical is a characteristic for a given age decade?). Most characteristics were ascribed to young adulthood. The pattern differed across the lifespan, however, for positive and negative person characteristics as well as for physical, cognitive, and personal/expressive characteristics. Whereas the total number of ascribed positive characteristics peaked in young adulthood and declined thereafter, the number of ascribed negative person characteristics peaked during adolescence, remained fairly low during middle adulthood, and increased slightly in old age (70+ years). As a consequence, the most positive profile was ascribed to young olds (60 to 69 years), whereas the most negative personality profiles were ascribed to the oldest age groups (70+ years) and to adolescence (10 to 19 years). The negative profiles are primarily due to more negative physical characteristics ascribed to older adults and more negative cognitive characteristics ascribed to adolescence.

In this chapter, we propose an equilibrium theory of emotion-cognition relations spanning the life span from birth to late life. The theory adopts a neo-Piagetian view of emotions as developing from simple automated patterns into more complex characterized structures. More complex cognitive-emotional schemas provide more powerful mechanisms of homeostasis by widening the range of equilibrium and raising thresholds of sustainable tension. In the model, level and range of emotional functioning depend on individual characteristics, such as cognitive and socio-emotional resources, and situational characteristics, such as required effort and emotional activation. Over the life span, complexity of emotion-cognition schemas progress with increasingly effective emotion regulation well into middle and late life. Eventually, however, cognitive-emotional complexity regresses into old age due to biological constraints. Keywords: emotions; cognition; Piaget; regulation; equilibration

This study examined change in self-reported empathy in a four-wave longitudinal study spanning 12 years (1992-2004) and the association between empathy and other measures, including daily reports of relationship experiences. Participants initially ranged in age from 10 years to 87 years. Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of age with empathy revealed divergent patterns. Whereas cross-sectional analyses suggested that older adults scored lower in empathy than younger adults, longitudinal analyses showed no age-related decline in empathy. This combined pattern suggests that the cross-sectional age-differences reflect a cohort rather than an age effect, with older cohorts reporting lower levels of empathy than younger ones. Independent of age, empathy was associated with a positive well-being (e.g., life satisfaction) and interaction profile (e.g., positive relations with others). In addition, a subsample of participants (n = 114) conducted experience-sampling about social interactions for a week. People with high self-reported empathy perceived their interactions as more meaningful, felt more positive in these interactions, and thought that their interaction partner felt also more positive. Thus, self-reported empathy was meaningfully associated with adults' actual social interactions.

We describe the Age-Dependent Evaluations of German Adjectives (AGE). This database contains ratings for 200 German adjectives by young and older adults (general word-rating study) and graduate students (self-other relevance study). Words were rated on emotion-relevant (valence, arousal, and control) and memory-relevant (imagery) characteristics. In addition, adjectives were evaluated for self-relevance (Does this attribute describe you?), age relevance (Is this attribute typical for young or for older adults?), and self-other relevance (Is this attribute more relevant for the possessor or for other persons?). These ratings are included in the AGE database as a resource tool for experiments on word material. Our comparisons of young and older adults’ evaluations revealed similarities but also significant mean-level differences for a large number of adjectives, especially on the valence dimension. This highlights the importance of age in the perception of emotional words. Data for all the words are archived at www.psychonomic.org/archive/.

The ability to accurately determine the emotional state of others is critical for successful social functioning. However older adults can demonstrate selective difficulties in identifying negative emotions from faces while the ability to identify positive emotional faces is preserved. In younger adults the categorization of facial expressions of emotion has been shown to rely on the processing of specific subsets of visual information (e.g. broadly smiling mouth in happiness, wide open eyes in fear)1,2. However it remains unclear whether healthy older adults process the same specific visual cues as younger adults in a less efficient manner when processing negative expressions, or if they attend to and encode qualitatively different information. We investigated whether the diagnostic information underlying the correct emotion categorization of five basic facial expressions (happy, fear, disgust, anger and sadness) changes as a function of observer age (young vs. older adults) and facial age (young vs. middle-aged vs. older faces). We applied the bubbles reverse correlation methodology with two groups of participants: younger (N=15, 18-35 years) and older adults (N=15, 65+ years). Results revealed that younger and older adults used qualitatively equivalent information to accurately categorize happy and fearful faces, but that the information used by both groups differed when they categorized fear in younger vs. older adult face stimuli. Older adults generally experienced more difficulty with the remaining negative emotions (disgust, anger and sadness) and exhibited a sub-optimal use of the diagnostic facial features. These results constitute a novel, highly detailed account of the specific visual features underlying the classification of facial expressions as across observer and transmitter of the emotional expressions stimulus age. 1Smith Cottrell, Gosselin & Schyns, 2005, Psychological Science 2Smith & Merlusca, 2014, Emotion Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.

Past studies have suggested that the intensity of subjective reactions to emotion-arousing stimuli remains stable, whereas the magnitude of autonomic reactions declines with age. The goal of the present studies was to investigate whether this evidence will generalize to newly edited films dealing with age-relevant themes such as the loss of loved ones. In Study 1, greater self-reported sadness was found in older than in younger adults in response to all films. Findings of Study 2, which were based on an independent sample, replicated those of Study 1. In addition, 6 indicators of autonomic nervous system activity were assessed. Young and old adults did not differ in their autonomic reactions to the films. This evidence suggests that when older people are exposed to stimuli featuring themes that are relevant to their age group, they show greater subjective and physiological reactions than would be expected on the basis of past research.