Age-Related Stereotype Threat and Emotion Recognition in Older and Young Adults. The Role of Self-Efficacy and Pupil Size
Age-Related Stereotype Threat and Emotion Recognition in Older and Young Adults. The Role of Self-Efficacy and Pupil Size

Author: Niklas Sebastian Jung

Publisher:

Published: 2023-08-15

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9783346928184

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2023 in the subject Psychology - Miscellaneous, grade: 1 (sehr gut), University of Innsbruck, language: English, abstract: As individuals are living longer, understanding the factors that impact their everyday lives, health and well-being has become a critical area of research. The purpose of this research study is to assess the impact of an explicit negative stereotype on performance in an emotion recognition task. Specifically, the study aims to investigate in greater detail how self-efficacy influences the relationship between stereotype threat and performance. This will be investigated between age groups (young vs. older adults) and experimental condition (presence vs. absence of stereotype threat). This relationship will be examined on three dimensions; the accuracy (decision-making) and reaction-time (processing speed) in the emotion recognition test and the pupil dilation (physiological changes) during the task. We conducted an double-blind eye-tracking experiement with n = 90 participants and computed multiple two-way ANOVA's to test the hypothesis regarding the differences among the four groups (young/prime, young/non-prime, old/prime, old/non-prime) . Our findings indicate that the presence of the stereotype threat did not yield any significant effects on these dimensions in young and old adults. However, it is noteworthy that significant differences were observed between young and old adults on all three dimensions. Young adults exhibited superior performance in the RMET, displaying higher accuracy and shorter reaction times compared to the older adults. Additionally, young adults exhibited increased pupil dilation during the task compared to the older adults, indicating a potentially higher level of cognitive engagement or arousal. The study indicates that despite the age-related declines in brain functionality among older adults, they exhibit notable resilience against specific stereotypes, thereby portraying a sense

Stereotype Threat
Stereotype Threat

Author: Michael Inzlicht

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0199732442

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The 21st century has brought with it unparalleled levels of diversity in the classroom and the workforce. It is now common to see in elementary school, high school, and university classrooms, not to mention boardrooms and factory floors, a mixture of ethnicities, races, genders, and religious affiliations. But these changes in academic and economic opportunities have not directly translated into an elimination of group disparities in academic performance, career opportunities, and levels of advancement. Standard explanations for these disparities, which are vehemently debated in the scientific community and popular press, range from the view that women and minorities are genetically endowed with inferior abilities to the view that members of these demographic groups are products of environments that frustrate the development of the skills needed for success. Although these explanations differ along a continuum of nature vs. nurture, they share in common a presumption that a large chunk of our population lacks the potential to achieve academic and career success.In contrast to intractable factors like biology or upbringing, the research summarized in this book suggests that factors in one's immediate situation play a critical yet underappreciated role in temporarily suppressing the intellectual performance of women and minorities, creating an illusion of group differences in ability. Research conducted over the course of the last fifteen years suggests the mere existence of cultural stereotypes that assert the intellectual inferiority of these groups creates a threatening intellectual environment for stigmatized individuals - a climate where anything they say or do is interpreted through the lens of low expectations. This stereotype threat can ultimately interfere with intellectual functioning and academic engagement, setting the stage for later differences in educational attainment, career choice, and job advancement.

The Effect of Stereotype-threat on Memory and Cortisol in Older Adults
The Effect of Stereotype-threat on Memory and Cortisol in Older Adults

Author: Ashley Dawn Ryan

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Stereotype-threat is characterized by underperformance on a task after exposure to a negative, self-relevant stereotype. In the case of older adults, there is a widely-held stereotype that older adults have poor memory function. It has been suggested that reminding older individuals of this stereotype results in poorer memory performance on effortful, but not automatic memory tasks. Further, testing older adults under certain conditions may increase cortisol levels, a biomarker associated with stress. The present study investigated whether stereotype-threat affects implicit and explicit memory, and cortisol levels in older adults. We gave older adults (n = 62) an incidental encoding task wherein they rated a list of common words for pleasantness. Participants were randomly assigned to threat-activated or threat-eased groups, with each group reading a newspaper article designed to either induce or ease the salience of stereotype-threat. Memory was tested implicitly, via word stem completion task, and explicitly, via free recall task and forced choice recognition. Saliva samples were taken before encoding and after memory testing to assess changes in cortisol. Stereotype threat had no effect on implicit or explicit memory, or the change in cortisol levels over time. However, there was a negative relationship between salivary cortisol levels and free recall in older men. We suggest that this finding may be explained by sex differences in reactivity and resilience to psychosocial stressors. Further, we discuss the difficulties involved with measuring stereotype-threat in older adults, who are often tested in youth-favouring settings.

Effects of Age- Related Stereotype Threat on Memory and Executive Function
Effects of Age- Related Stereotype Threat on Memory and Executive Function

Author: Natasha Y. Fourquet

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 74

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Recall performance is greatly affected when older adults are presented with stereotype threat regarding memory (See Lamont et al., 2015 for a review). Stereotype threat is a concern that one's performance will confirm negative stereotypes about one's group. In Study 1 (Chapter 2), we examined the effect of threat on metamemory processes and memory selectivity for high value information. Our findings showed that threat affected calibration (i.e., bets-recall, p=.045) and total score (p=.03), both which require metacognitive control. Our threat manipulation did not affect value. That is, both groups placed bets and recalled more high-value words than low and medium value words (p>.05). Metacognition goes hand in hand with executive control, thus it is possible that threat burdened both cognitive processes. Moreover, the effect of value was stronger than that of threat. In Study 2 (Chapter 3), we were interested in testing the effect of threat when the manipulation was done after encoding (i.e., prior to retrieval). We found no differences across groups in free recall or cued recall with this manipulation. However, we cannot refute the plausible effect of threat on retrieval given differences in experimental conditions (i.e., encoding time) between the current study and previous research. Taken together, our results provide partial support for executive function (See Chapter 2) as a possible mechanism of stereotype threat's effect on memory performance. We were interested in contributing to the growing body of literature on the cognitive mechanisms that underlie this disruption in performance. Study 3 (Chapter 4) aimed to assess the effect of different types of threat on executive function. Older adults were assigned to one of three conditions: a neutral, memory threat, or processing speed threat condition. Participants completed a task-switching paradigm, in which global, local, and alternating switch costs were examined. Reaction time and accuracy were used as dependent measures. Overall, participants displayed a pattern of performance that is consistent with the task switching literature. That is, older adults showed global and local switch costs (e.g., Mayr, 2001). Participants in the memory threat condition did not differ greatly from those in the neutral condition, while participants in the processing speed threat condition were significantly faster than the other two groups, (p=.03). We did not observe an interaction between trial type and group for local switch costs (p>.05). Group differences only emerged for global switch trials. It is possible that our processing speed threat manipulation may have prompted a reminder about the objective of the task. Taken together, incorporating value-based tasks into neuropsychological assessments would provide an improved objective measure of memory performance. Also, as suggested by Study 3 deemphasizing memory prior to a task of executive function may improve performance.

Social Cognition and Aging
Social Cognition and Aging

Author: Thomas M. Hess

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 1999-06-18

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 0080541305

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Most of the research done in social cognition has been conducted with younger adults and may not be applicable to a much older population. Social Cognition and Aging provides a snapshot view of research that has been done with older adults or is directly applicable to this population. Focusing on issues of self identity, social interactions, and social perceptions, this book provides a broad overview of how aging affects one's own perceptions and actions as well as how others perceive and interact with the aged. Coverage includes such topics as self-control, memory, resilience, age stereotypes, moral development, and the "art" of living. With contributions from top researchers in both gerontology and psychology, this book is an important reference for academics and professionals alike in personality, cognition, social psychology, adult development, sociology, and gerontology.

Effect of Aging Stereotype Activation on Older Adults' Memory and Neural Activity
Effect of Aging Stereotype Activation on Older Adults' Memory and Neural Activity

Author: Yung Tsen Chen

Publisher:

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 171

ISBN-13: 9780438370494

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Ageist stereotype threat can impact older adults' cognitive ability, including memory performance, but the mechanisms underlying these effects are poorly understood. In this dissertation, I used behavioral tasks, physiological measurement, and brain imaging (fMRI) to identify the mechanisms underlying ageist stereotype effects in older adults. A large sample of cognitively normal older adults (mean age = 63.6) was randomly assigned to either a stereotype activation or control group. On the first day (baseline) all participants completed episodic and working memory tasks, and on the second day I gave instructions explicitly activating aging stereotypes (or a control passage) just before they took these same tests during fMRI brain scanning. There were three primary findings. First, although there was no overall stereotype effect on working memory or episodic memory performance, regression analyses based on prior work indicated that education and retirement status moderated the impact of stereotype activation on episodic memory performance. Second, self-report measures as well as physiological measures (e.g., heart rate variability) revealed that the stereotype manipulation did not increase anxiety or stress. These and other findings indicate that stereotype activation in the fMRI environment did not cause an extreme threat or emotional response in older adults, but may have instead motivated some of them to differentially engage the tasks than others. Lastly, using whole-brain fMRI and targeted Region-of-Interest (ROI) analyses, I found that stereotype activation increased activity in the superior and middle temporal gyrus, which have previously been associated with emotion regulation, as well as posterior midline regions (e.g., mid-cingulate, posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus), which have previously been associated with processing stereotype threat and self-referential thoughts. Stereotype activation also altered functional connectivity between these regions and prefrontal regions associated with self-relevant ideas and attentional focus (e.g., anterior prefrontal cortex and orbitofrontal cortex/ventromedial prefrontal cortex). These fMRI results are consistent with a motivational shift hypothesis, or the idea that aging stereotypes cause older adults to engage self-referential thought and a prevention-focused response style (i.e., trying harder to avoid losses and prevent errors). As a whole, these results demonstrate for the first time that stereotype activation can impact neural activity in older adults, even in the absence of large behavioral effects. This work emphasizes the importance of minimizing even the mildest stereotype threat in clinical settings aiming to use fMRI to help diagnose memory problems in older adults, as a stereotyping environment can significantly impact the test results.