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Recent studies in psychology emphasize the pivotal roles of adopting a growth mindset to enhance students' motivation and employing effective memory strategies to improve memory performance. This study evaluated the impact of a metacognitive intervention that combined the promotion of a growth mindset with the teaching of efficient learning strategies. Using a pre-post experimental design with fourth- and fifth-graders, we examined the effect of the intervention on motivation and learning outcomes compared to an active control group. The results revealed that the metacognitive intervention produced a shift toward a more malleable intelligence belief, which in turn led to a more positive conception of effort. It also modified their memory strategies, leading to better memory performance. The paper discusses the effectiveness of metacognitive programs that combine motivational and strategic elements, highlighting their potential to foster academic outcomes. This integrative approach may significantly enhance children's metacognitive capacities, contributing to improved academic achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a smile can serve as an expression of genuine happiness, it can also be generated to conceal negative emotions. The traces of negative emotion present in these types of smiles can produce micro-expressions, subtle movements of the facial muscles manifested in the upper or lower half of the face. Studies examining the judgment of smiles masking negative emotions have mostly employed dichotomous rating measures, while also assuming that dichotomous categorization of a smile as happy or not is synonymous with judgments of the smile's authenticity. The aim of the two studies was to explore the judgment of enjoyment and masking smiles using unipolar and bipolar continuous rating measures and examine differences in the judgment when instruction varied between judgments of happiness and authenticity. In Experiment 1, participants rated smiles on 7-point scales on perceived happiness and authenticity. In Experiment 2, participants rated the smiles on bipolar 7-point scales between happiness and a negative emotion label. In both studies, similar patterns were observed: faces with traces of fear were rated significantly less happy/authentic and those with traces of anger in the brows were rated significantly happier/more authentic. Regarding varied instruction type, no effect was found for the two instruction types, indicating that participants perceive and judge enjoyment and masking smiles similarly according to these two instructions. Additionally, the use of bipolar scales with dimensions between a negative emotion label and happiness were not consistently effective in influencing the judgement of the masking smile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Résumé: La fiabilité de nos souvenirs est d'une importance cruciale, qu'il s'agisse de situations exceptionnelles (e.g. , témoignages judiciaires), ou du quotidien (e.g. , lorsqu'une personne doit prendre régulièrement des médicaments). Pour répondre à ces enjeux, de nombreuses recherches se sont attachées à déterminer les conditions d'émergence des faux souvenirs. Ces travaux ont clairement démontré que si les distorsions de mémoire sont un phénomène normal et fréquent dans la population générale, elles sont largement accentuées par le vieillissement. Dans cette revue, nous proposons un état des lieux des recherches ayant documenté l'impact du vieillissement sur la sensibilité aux faux souvenirs dans le paradigme DRM et le paradigme de désinformation. Nous examinons ensuite les facteurs à l'origine de la production des faux souvenirs, en nous centrant sur les facteurs socio-émotionnels, et en particulier les stéréotypes sociaux. À cette fin, nous présentons des résultats récents qui éclairent les conditions dans lesquelles les stéréotypes du vieillissement peuvent constituer une menace, et influencer la sensibilité aux faux souvenirs. Nous discutons enfin des implications de ce phénomène lorsque la véracité des souvenirs est évaluée chez les personnes âgées, dans une perspective théorique mais également appliquée. The reliability of our memories is of crucial importance, both in extraordinary situations (e.g. court testimony) and in everyday life (e.g., when a person must take medication on a regular basis). To address these issues, numerous studies documented the conditions under which false memories emerge. Research clearly demonstrated that memory distortions are a normal and frequent phenomenon in the general population, but greatly accentuated in aging. Here, we review studies that documented age-related impact on memory distortions in the DRM and misinformation paradigms. Next, we examine the factors that underlie false memory susceptibility, with a focus on socio-emotional factors, and in particular aging stereotypes. We present recent results that highlighted the way negative age-related stereotypes might threaten older adults' and influence false memory susceptibility. Importantly, we also demonstrate that older adult's memory distortions can easily be reduced when taking into account tasks' characteristics and participants' motivation. Finally, we discuss the implications of age-related stereotypes when older adults' memory is evaluated, both from a theoretical and an applied perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives In two studies, we examined the effects of age-related stereotype threat on eyewitness memory using the misinformation paradigm to (a) examine stereotype threat in the context of a more ecologically valid memory task and (b) to determine the relationship between task difficulty and susceptibility to stereotype threat. Methods After watching a video that depicted a crime, older and younger adult participants were presented with a written synopsis in which information consistent or inconsistent with the original event was presented. Half of the participants were then presented with information designed to activate negative stereotypes about aging. Finally, participants completed a memory test. Results In Study 1, when participants were instructed to report information from either the video or the synopsis to complete the final memory test, older adults under high stereotype threat were less accurate than those under low threat. In Study 2, when participants were required to engage in more controlled processes at retrieval and respond with only video information, older adults under stereotype threat performed as well or better than those under low threat. Discussion The results are consistent with the Regulatory Focus Model of Stereotype Threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction The number of older people diagnosed with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), the prodromal state of Alzheimer's disease (AD), is increasing worldwide. However, some patients with aMCI never convert to the AD type of dementia, with some remaining stable and others reverting to normal. This overdiagnosis bias has been largely overlooked and gone unexplained. There is ample evidence in the laboratory that negative ageing stereotypes (eg, the culturally shared belief that ageing inescapably causes severe cognitive decline) contribute to the deteriorating cognitive performances of healthy older adults, leading them to perform below their true abilities. The study described here is intended to test for the first time whether such stereotypes also impair patients’ cognitive performances during neuropsychological examinations in memory clinics, resulting in overdiagnosis of aMCI. Methods and analysis The ongoing study is a 4-year randomised clinical trial comparing patients’ physiological stress and cognitive performances during neuropsychological testing in memory clinics. A total of 260 patients attending their first cognitive evaluation will be randomised to either a standard condition of test administration, assumed here to implicitly activate negative ageing stereotypes or a reduced-threat instruction condition designed to alleviate the anxiety arising from these stereotypes. Both groups will be tested with the same test battery and stress biomarkers. For 30 patients diagnosed with aMCI in each group (n=60), biomarkers of neurodegeneration and amyloidopathy will be used to distinguish between aMCI with normal versus abnormal AD biomarkers. A 9-month follow-up will be performed on all patients to identify those whose cognitive performances remain stable, deteriorate or improve. Ethics and dissemination This protocol has been approved by the French National Agency for Medicines and Health Products Safety and the Sud-Est I French Ethics Committee (2017-A00946-47). Results will be published in peer-reviewed journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive performance of older adults is very often inferior to that of younger adults on a variety of laboratory tests assessing basic functions such as memory, inhibition, or attention. Classic hypotheses and theories share the idea that these cognitive deficits are irreversible, due to profound cerebral changes. In this review article, we develop a more positive conception of aging, according to which cognitive deficits are not all irreversible, and can even be partially if not completely reversible. To this end, we present some of the most illustrative research on the reversibility of the effects of aging on cognition. We show how subtle contextual manipulations can change older adults' motivation and strategy, which improve their cognitive performance. We also show that guidance toward the selection of the most appropriate strategy, whether explicit as in selectivity paradigms or implicit as in dual-task procedures, can increase older adults' cognitive performance. We finally describe the hypotheses and theories that both account for low cognitive performance in old age and ways to reverse the effects of cognitive aging.

The reliability of our memories is of crucial importance, both in extraordinary situations (e.g. court testimony) and in everyday life (e.g., when a person must take medication on a regular basis). To address these issues, numerous studies documented the conditions under which false memories emerge. Research clearly demonstrated that memory distortions are a normal and frequent phenomenon in the general population, but greatly accentuated in aging. Here, we review studies that documented age-related impact on memory distortions in the DRM and misinformation paradigms. Next, we examine the factors that underlie false memory susceptibility, with a focus on socio-emotional factors, and in particular aging stereotypes. We present recent results that highlighted the way negative age-related stereotypes might threaten older adults’ and influence false memory susceptibility. Importantly, we also demonstrate that older adult’s memory distortions can easily be reduced when taking into account tasks’ characteristics and participants’ motivation. Finally, we discuss the implications of age-related stereotypes when older adults’ memory is evaluated, both from a theoretical and an applied perspective.

Numerous studies have documented the detrimental impact of age-based stereotype threat (ABST) on older adults' cognitive performance and especially on veridical memory. However, far fewer studies have investigated the impact of ABST on older adults' memory distortion. Here, we review the subset of research examining memory distortion and provide evidence for the role of stereotype threat as a powerful socio-emotional factor that impacts age-related susceptibility to memory distortion. In this review we define memory distortion as errors in memory that are associated with gist-based errors or source misattributions. Whereas, some of the reviewed experiments support the conclusion that ABST should be considered in the context of age-related differences in memory distortion, others reported little or no impact of stereotype threat. These discrepancies suggest that the role of ABST, and socio-emotional processes generally, in age-related changes in memory distortion are less clear. In this review, we argue that ABST does play an important role in age-related changes in memory distortion. We present evidence suggesting that discrepancies in the reviewed literature may be reconciled when evaluated in the context of the leading theories about stereotype threat: the Executive Resource Depletion hypothesis and the Regulatory Focus theory. We also discuss how differences in methodology and participant characteristics can account for a priori contradictory results in the literature. Finally, we propose some recommendations for researchers and practitioners when assessing memory in older adults., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Mazerolle, Smith, Torrance and Thomas.)