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A link between age, affect, and predictions?

Authors :
Trapp, Sabrina
Guitart-Masip, Marc
Schröger, Erich
Source :
European Journal of Ageing; Dec2022, Vol. 19 Issue 4, p945-952, 8p
Publication Year :
2022

Abstract

The prevalence of depressive symptoms decreases from late adolescence to middle age adulthood. Furthermore, despite significant losses in motor and cognitive functioning, overall emotional well-being tends to increase with age, and a bias to positive information has been observed multiple times. Several causes have been discussed for this age-related development, such as improvement in emotion regulation, less regret, and higher socioeconomic status. Here, we explore a further explanation. Our minds host mental models that generate predictions about forthcoming events to successfully interact with our physical and social environment. To keep these models faithful, the difference between the predicted and the actual event, that is, the prediction error, is computed. We argue that prediction errors are attenuated in the middle age and older mind, which, in turn, may translate to less negative affect, lower susceptibility to affective disorders, and possibly, to a bias to positive information. Our proposal is primarily linked to perceptual inferences, but may hold as well for higher-level, cognitive, and emotional forms of error processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
16139372
Volume :
19
Issue :
4
Database :
Complementary Index
Journal :
European Journal of Ageing
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
160646075
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-022-00710-5