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. 2018 Jun;33(4):667-673.
doi: 10.1037/pag0000262.

Differential effects of angry faces on working memory updating in younger and older adults

Natalie Berger  1 , Anne Richards  1 , Eddy J Davelaar  1
Affiliations

Differential effects of angry faces on working memory updating in younger and older adults

Natalie Berger et al. Psychol Aging. 2018 Jun.

Abstract

Research suggests that cognition-emotion interactions change with age. In the present study, younger and older adults completed a 2-back task, and the effects of negative stimuli were analyzed as a function of their status in the n-back sequence. Older adults were found to benefit more from angry than from neutral probes relative to younger adults. However, they were slower when lures were angry and less accurate when lures and probes had the same emotion. The results suggest that recollection of the n-back sequence was reduced in older adults, making them more susceptible to the facilitating and impairing effects of negative emotion. (PsycINFO Database Record

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Example of a nonmatch trial sequence with angry probe and neutral 1-back lure. The remaining faces of the sequence, namely the 2-back target and the 3-back lure, are happy and constitute unscored filler trials.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Accuracy (upper panel) and RTs (lower panel) for probes as a function of the 1-back and 3-back lures. Younger adults’ data are presented on the left and older adults’ data are presented on the right.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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