ANGER, LOVE, SADNESS: DO EMOTION WORDS HAVE THE SAME SEMANTIC MEANING ACROSS AGE-GROUPS?

Abstract Every day we use emotion words to describe our experiences, but past research finds that the meanings of these words can vary. Furthermore, historical shifts in language use and experiential knowledge of the emotions may contribute to age-differences in what these emotion words convey. We examined age-related differences in the valence, arousal, and expression connoted by the words anger, love, and sadness. We predicted age-related differences in the semantic meanings of the words would emerge such that older adults would more clearly differentiate the positivity/negativity of the words, whereas younger adults would report higher endorsement for the conveyed arousal and expression. Participants included American and German older adults (N=61; mean age=68.98) and younger adults (N=77; mean age=20.77). Using the GRID instrument (Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, 2013), they rated each emotion word for its valence, arousal, and expression when used by a speaker of the participant’s native language. Across emotions and dimensions, older adults were generally more moderate in their understanding of emotion words. For example, German older adults rated anger and sadness as suggesting the speaker felt less bad and more good than the younger adults. American older adults rated love as connoting the speaker felt more bad and less good than younger adults. Arousal ratings were higher for German younger, as opposed to older, adults. Cultural differences were most pronounced for sadness such that German participants gave more moderate answers than American participants. Overall, our research suggests that there are age-related differences in the understanding of emotion words.

Download Full-text

Virtual Hand Illusion in younger and older adults

Journal of Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies Engineering ◽

10.1177/20556683211059389 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

pp. 205566832110593

Author(s):

Jennifer L. Campos ◽

Graziella El-Khechen Richandi ◽

Marge Coahran ◽

Lindsey E. Fraser ◽

Babak Taati ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Virtual Environments ◽

Age Differences ◽

Age Groups ◽

Tactile Feedback ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Localization Accuracy ◽

Virtual Hand ◽

Age Related ◽

Spatio Temporal

Introduction Embodiment involves experiencing ownership over our body and localizing it in space and is informed by multiple senses (visual, proprioceptive and tactile). Evidence suggests that embodiment and multisensory integration may change with older age. The Virtual Hand Illusion (VHI) has been used to investigate multisensory contributions to embodiment, but has never been evaluated in older adults. Spatio-temporal factors unique to virtual environments may differentially affect the embodied perceptions of older and younger adults. Methods Twenty-one younger (18–35 years) and 19 older (65+ years) adults completed the VHI paradigm. Body localization was measured at baseline and again, with subjective ownership ratings, following synchronous and asynchronous visual-tactile interactions. Results Higher ownership ratings were observed in the synchronous relative to the asynchronous condition, but no effects on localization/drift were found. No age differences were observed. Localization accuracy was biased in both age groups when the virtual hand was aligned with the real hand, indicating a visual mislocalization of the virtual hand. Conclusions No age-related differences in the VHI were observed. Mislocalization of the hand in VR occurred for both groups, even when congruent and aligned; however, tactile feedback reduced localization biases. Our results expand the current understanding of age-related changes in multisensory embodiment within virtual environments.

Download Full-text

Looking the same, but remembering differently: Preserved eye-movement synchrony with age during movie-watching

10.31234/osf.io/xazdw ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Emily Davis ◽

Emily Chemnitz ◽

Tyler K. Collins ◽

Linda Geerligs ◽

Karen L. Campbell

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Eye Movement ◽

Age Differences ◽

Neural Activity ◽

Age Groups ◽

Cued Recall ◽

False Information ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Age Related ◽

Movement Synchrony

Naturalistic stimuli (e.g., movies) provide the opportunity to study lifelike experiences in the lab. While young adults respond to these stimuli in a highly synchronized manner (as indexed by intersubject correlations [ISC] in their neural activity), older adults respond more idiosyncratically. Here, we examine whether eye movement synchrony (eye-ISC) also declines with age during movie-watching and whether it relates to memory for the movie. Our results show no age-related decline in eye-ISC, suggesting that age differences in neural ISC are not caused by differences in viewing patterns. Both age groups recalled the same number of episodic details from the movie, however, older adults recalled more semantic and false information. In both age groups, more recall of false information related to lower eye-ISC. Finally, older adults showed better cued-recall than younger adults across event boundaries, suggesting that older adults may form broader associations across events when encoding everyday experiences.

Download Full-text

Video Games and Emotion Regulation

GeroPsych ◽

10.1024/1662-9647/a000196 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 31 (4) ◽

pp. 205-213 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Kathryn L. Ossenfort ◽

Derek M. Isaacowitz

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Emotion Regulation ◽

Video Games ◽

Age Differences ◽

Interactive Media ◽

Age Groups ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Media Usage ◽

The Everyday ◽

Media Preferences

Abstract. Research on age differences in media usage has shown that older adults are more likely than younger adults to select positive emotional content. Research on emotional aging has examined whether older adults also seek out positivity in the everyday situations they choose, resulting so far in mixed results. We investigated the emotional choices of different age groups using video games as a more interactive type of affect-laden stimuli. Participants made multiple selections from a group of positive and negative games. Results showed that older adults selected the more positive games, but also reported feeling worse after playing them. Results supplement the literature on positivity in situation selection as well as on older adults’ interactive media preferences.

Download Full-text

Age Differences in the Social Associative Learning of Trust Information

10.31234/osf.io/b38rd ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Kendra Leigh Seaman ◽

Alexander P. Christensen ◽

Katherine Senn ◽

Jessica Cooper ◽

Brittany Shane Cassidy

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Age Differences ◽

Social Cues ◽

Trust Game ◽

Time Model ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Cortical Areas ◽

Age Related ◽

The Social ◽

Over Time

Trust is a key component of social interaction. Older adults, however, often exhibit excessive trust relative to younger adults. One explanation is that older adults may learn to trust differently than younger adults. Here, we examine how younger (N=33) and older adults (N=30) learn to trust over time. Participants completed a classic iterative trust game with three partners. Younger and older adults shared similar amounts but differed in how they shared money. Compared to younger adults, older adults invested more with untrustworthy partners and less with trustworthy partners. As a group, older adults displayed less learning than younger adults. However, computational modeling shows that this is because older adults are more likely to forget what they have learned over time. Model-based fMRI analyses revealed several age-related differences in neural processing. Younger adults showed prediction error signals in social processing areas while older adults showed over-recruitment of several cortical areas. Collectively, these findings suggest that older adults attend to and learn from social cues differently from younger adults.

Download Full-text

Adult age differences in subjective responses to dynamic socioemotional incentives

10.31234/osf.io/4u3kc ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Sade J Abiodun ◽

Galen McAllister ◽

Gregory Russell Samanez-Larkin ◽

Kendra Leigh Seaman

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Age Differences ◽

Emotional Valence ◽

Incentive Motivation ◽

Social Signals ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Positivity Effect ◽

Adult Age ◽

Age Related ◽

Adult Age Differences

Facial expressions are powerful communicative social signals that motivate feelings and action in the observer. However, research on incentive motivation has overwhelmingly focused on money and points and the limited research on social incentives has been mostly focused on responses in young adulthood. Previous research on the age-related positivity effect and adult age differences in social motivation suggest that older adults might experience higher levels of positive arousal to socioemotional stimuli than younger adults. Affect ratings following dynamic emotional expressions (anger, happiness, sadness) varying in magnitude of expression showed that higher magnitude expressions elicited higher arousal and valence ratings. Older adults did not differ significantly in levels of arousal when compared to younger adults, however their ratings of emotional valence were significantly higher as the magnitude of expressions increased. The findings provide novel evidence that socioemotional incentives may be relatively more reinforcing as adults age. More generally, these dynamic socioemotional stimuli that vary in magnitude are ideal for future studies of more naturalistic affect elicitation, studies of social incentive processing, and use in incentive-driven choice tasks.

Download Full-text

Age Differences in the Required Coefficient of Friction During Level Walking Do Not Exist When Experimentally-Controlling Speed and Step Length

Journal of Applied Biomechanics ◽

10.1123/jab.2013-0275 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 30 (4) ◽

pp. 542-546 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Dennis E. Anderson ◽

Christopher T. Franck ◽

Michael L. Madigan

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Age Differences ◽

Coefficient Of Friction ◽

Age Groups ◽

Step Length ◽

Age Difference ◽

Age Related ◽

Negative Effect ◽

Independent Effects ◽

Positive Effect

The effects of gait speed and step length on the required coefficient of friction (COF) confound the investigation of age-related differences in required COF. The goals of this study were to investigate whether age differences in required COF during self-selected gait persist when experimentally-controlling speed and step length, and to determine the independent effects of speed and step length on required COF. Ten young and 10 older healthy adults performed gait trials under five gait conditions: self-selected, slow and fast speeds without controlling step length, and slow and fast speeds while controlling step length. During self-selected gait, older adults walked with shorter step lengths and exhibited a lower required COF. Older adults also exhibited a lower required COF when walking at a controlled speed without controlling step length. When both age groups walked with the same speed and step length, no age difference in required COF was found. Thus, speed and step length can have a large influence on studies investigating age-related differences in required COF. It was also found that speed and step length have independent and opposite effects on required COF, with step length having a strong positive effect on required COF, and speed having a weaker negative effect.

Download Full-text

EXPLORING AGE, GENDER, AND RELATIONSHIP CLOSENESS DIFFERENCES IN RESPONSES TO IGNORED DISRESPECT

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igz038.1118 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. S305-S305

Author(s):

Jenessa C Steele ◽

Amanda Chappell ◽

Rachel Scott

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Young Adults ◽

Age Differences ◽

Negative Emotions ◽

Age Groups ◽

Emotional Responses ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Relationship Closeness ◽

Close Condition

Abstract Emotional responses to disrespect tend to be negative (Hawkins, 2015). Little is known about how responses to disrespect vary across age groups and relationship closeness. It is unknown whether older adults have more emotional protection against disrespectful experiences, or are more deeply affected due to relationship closeness. Overall, we might expect that older adults react less negatively to disrespect compared to young adults, as they are more-skilled emotion regulators (Carstensen, 1991; English & Carstensen, 2014). We aimed to explore if, and under which circumstances, older adults are more or less sensitive to disrespect compared to younger adults. Three hundred participants responded to six scenarios illustrating ignored disrespect. Participants were randomly assigned to close or distant relationship disrespect scenarios. Relationship closeness was first determined by requesting participants identify a person in each layer of Kahn and Antonucci’s (1980) Social Convoy Model. Identified names were then automatically inserted into the six scenarios. Emotional responses and sensitivity to each scenario were recorded. Participants in the close condition reported more sensitivity to disrespect and negative emotions than participants in the distant condition. Females reported more sensitivity to disrespect and negative emotions than males. We did not find overwhelming support for age differences in responses to disrespect. A single scenario indicated younger participants more sensitive to disrespect than older participants. Findings suggest it is more hurtful to be disrespected by someone close to you and females may be more sensitive to disrespect than males. More research investigating the role of age in disrespect is needed.

Download Full-text

Age Differences in Material Deprivation in Finland: How do Consensus and Prevalence-Based Weighting Approaches Change the Picture?

Social Indicators Research ◽

10.1007/s11205-020-02571-w ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Ilari Ilmakunnas ◽

Lauri Mäkinen

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Age Differences ◽

Age Groups ◽

Material Deprivation ◽

Prevalence Rates ◽

Group Level ◽

Younger Adults ◽

New Information ◽

Deprivation Indices

AbstractWhile material deprivation is often used to measure poverty, analyses focusing on the measurement of material deprivation are scarce. This study provides new information on material deprivation by analyzing how differences in the considerations of necessities and possession of deprivation items among all respondents and within population subgroups affect group-level differences in material deprivation in Finland. In line with many previous studies on material deprivation, this study focused on age groups. There is a significant age gradient regarding considerations of necessities, possession, and deprivation of many deprivation items. On average, younger adults experience material deprivation more often than older adults do. This study considers the differences in the considerations of necessities and possession of deprivation items using different weighting approaches. The study found that these differences are not largely transmitted to deprivation indices. Two causes of this finding were found: (1) individuals, on average, are not deprived of items in which there are differences between age groups regarding consensus and prevalence and (2) in those items in which deprivation is high, the consensus and the prevalence rates are often lower compared to other items. The results provide new information on which factors are important when using weighting approaches to measure material deprivation.

Download Full-text

Comprehension of Explicit and Implicit Warning Information in Younger and Older Adults

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting ◽

10.1177/154193120104502006 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 45 (20) ◽

pp. 1474-1478

Author(s):

Holly E. Hancock ◽

Arthur D. Fisk ◽

Wendy A. Rogers

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Text Comprehension ◽

Safety Information ◽

Age Groups ◽

Comprehensive Investigation ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Product Usage ◽

Implicit Information ◽

Age Related ◽

Safe Product

Successful comprehension of warning text necessitates an ability to understand both explicitly stated safety information, as well as information about hazards and safe product usage that may be implied. Comprehension level for this type of text may vary across age groups as a function of normal age-related changes that may be experienced in memory and text comprehension in general. To date, there has been no comprehensive investigation of how well younger and older adults understand explicit and implicit information associated with actual product warnings. In the current study, 43 older and 42 younger adults read text from consumer product warnings and then rated the truth/falsity of statements containing information that was either explicitly stated or implied by the warnings. The results suggest both older and younger adults are able to recognize information that is explicitly associated with an actual product warning. However, they are less able to recognize information that can be inferred from warnings. These data also suggest that older adults perceive themselves to understand consumer warnings fairly well.

Download Full-text

Age Affects Responses on the Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ) by Adults with Minimal Audiometric Loss

Journal of the American Academy of Audiology ◽

10.3766/jaaa.23.2.2 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 23 (02) ◽

pp. 081-091 ◽

Cited By ~ 36

Author(s):

Jessica Banh ◽

Gurjit Singh ◽

M. Kathleen Pichora-Fuller

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Hearing Loss ◽

Cognitive Processing ◽

Local Community ◽

Age Groups ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Clinically Normal ◽

Age Related ◽

Listening In Noise ◽

Psychology Course

Background: Age-related declines in auditory and cognitive processing may contribute to the difficulties with listening in noise that are often reported by older adults. Such difficulties are reported even by those who have relatively good audiograms that could be considered “normal” for their age (ISO 7029-2000 [ISO, 2000]). The Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ; Gatehouse and Noble, 2004) is a questionnaire developed to measure a listener's self-reported ability to hear in a variety of everyday situations, such as those that are challenging for older adults, and it can provide insights into the possible contributions of auditory and cognitive factors to their listening difficulties. The SSQ has been shown to be a sensitive and reliable questionnaire to detect benefits associated with the use of different hearing technologies and potentially other forms of intervention. Establishing how age-matched listeners with audiograms “normal” for their age rate the items on the SSQ could enable an extension of its use in audiological assessment and in setting rehabilitative goals. Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to investigate how younger and older adults who passed audiometric screening and who had thresholds considered to be “normal” for their age responded on the SSQ. It was also of interest to compare these results to those reported previously for older listeners with hearing loss in an attempt to tease out the relative effects of age and hearing loss. Study Sample: The SSQ was administered to 48 younger (mean age = 19 yr; SD = 1.0) and 48 older (mean age = 70 yr, SD = 4.1) adults with clinically normal audiometric thresholds below 4 kHz. The younger adults were recruited through an introductory psychology course, and the older adults were volunteers from the local community. Data Collection and Analysis: Both age groups completed the SSQ. The differences between the groups were analyzed. Correlations were used to compare the pattern of results across items for the two age groups in the present study and to assess the relationship between SSQ scores and objective measures of hearing. Comparisons were also made to published results for older adults with hearing loss. Results: The pattern of reported difficulty across items was similar for both age groups, but younger adults had significantly higher scores than older adults on 42 of the 46 items. On average, younger adults scored 8.8 (SD = 0.6) out of 10 and older adults scored 7.7 (SD = 1.2) out of 10. By comparison, scores of 5.5 (SD = 1.9) have been reported for older adults (mean age = 71 yr, SD = 8.1) with moderate hearing loss (Gatehouse and Noble, 2004). Conclusions: By establishing the best scores that could reasonably be expected from younger and older adults with “normal” hearing thresholds, these results provide clinicians with information that should assist them in setting realistic targets for interventions for adults of different ages.

Download Full-text