Age-related differences in how negative emotions influence arithmetic performance

ABSTRACT

In this study, we investigated the role of negative emotions on arithmetic and whether this role changes with aging during adulthood. Young and older adults were asked to verify one-digit addition problems (Experiment 1) and to estimate the results of two-digit multiplication problems (Experiment 2). In both experiments, easier and harder problems were displayed superimposed on emotionally neutral (e.g. mushrooms) or emotionally negative (e.g. a corpse) pictures. In both simple and complex arithmetic, young and older adults obtained poorer arithmetic performance under negative emotion conditions, especially while solving harder problems. Most interesting, deleterious effects of negative emotions on arithmetic performance were larger in young than in older adults. These findings have important implications for further our understanding of the role of negative emotions in the domain of arithmetic and age-related differences in this role.

KEYWORDS:

• Aging
• arithmetic
• emotion
• cognition

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Mikael Flatot for his help in programming the experiments. Correspondence about this paper should be directed to Patrick Lemaire, Aix-Marseille University & CNRS, 3 Place Victor Hugo, Case D, 13331 Marseille, France (email: [email protected]). The raw data of this study can be found at https://osf.io/bduwr/?view_only=ed63c152c1f24e0e9529e69014a9fad1. This experiment was not pre-registered.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Four additional participants in Expt. 1 and five in Expt. 2 were tested. However, their error rates ranged between 49–51%, with very short latencies. As these participants were suspected to have responded randomly, they were not included in data analyses.

2 We thank Ingrid Cordon and Gail S. Goodman for kindly sending us pictures (and associate statistics) from the DAPS.

3 To check that negative valence and arousal differed for neutral and negative images used in Experiments 1 and 2, an independent group of young adults (N = 24, 18–35 years of age, M = 23.5, SD = 5.3) rated first the 96 pictures used in Experiment 1 and then the 64 pictures in Experiment 2 in terms of valence and arousal. Participants provided their ratings on a 5-point scale (5 being most negative on the valence scale and most calm on the arousal scale) for the 96 pictures of Experiment 1 (following the normative rating procedure for DAPS pictures; Cordon et al., 2013), and on a 9-point scale (9 being most positive on the valence scale and most arousing on the arousal scale) for the 64 pictures of Experiment 2 (following the normative rating procedure for IAPS pictures; Lang & Bradley, 2007). Neutral pictures (mean valence = 5.6; SD = 0.4; mean arousal = 2.1; SD = 0.6) and negative pictures (mean valence = 1.6; SD = 0.4; mean arousal = 7.9; SD = 0.6) significantly differed in terms of valence, F(1,62)=1512.725, p < .001, MSe = .172, ${\eta }_p^2$ =.96, and arousal, F(1,62)=1563.946, p < .001, MSe = .354, ${\eta }_p^2$ = .96, in Experiment 1. Similarly, neutral pictures (mean valence = 2.6; SD = 0.4; mean arousal = 4.0; SD = 0.4) and negative pictures (mean valence = 4.4; SD = 0.3; mean arousal = 2.4; SD = 0.5) significantly differed in terms of valence, F(1, 94) =516.888, p < .001, MSe = .151, ${\eta }_p^2$ =.85, and arousal, F(1, 94) =297.927, p < .001, MSe = .210, ${\eta }_p^2$ = .76, in Experiment 2.

4 We also analysed z scores to control for potentially artifactual interactions (see Faust et al., 1999) for both Experiments 1 and 2. Analyses of means and z scores showed similar patterns for effects of negative emotion on performance and for the Age x Emotion interaction in both Experiments 1 and 2. Therefore, only analyses of means are reported here. Also, the same age-related differences in effects of negative emotions came out significant when they were analysed on proportional increased latencies in emotion condition relative to neutral condition (i.e., for each participant and each type of problem, the dependent variable was [(mean response times in the emotion condition – mean response times in the neutral condition)/mean response times in the neutral condition].

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by grants from the Agence Nationale de la Recherche: [Grant Number # ANR-17-CE28-0003; ANR # 20-ASTC-0031].