Aging-Related Changes in Decoding Negative Complex Mental States from Faces

Abstract

Background/Study Context: Many studies have found age-related declines in emotion recognition, with older adult (OA) deficits strongest for negative emotions. Some evidence suggests that OA also show worse performance in decoding complex mental states. However, no research has investigated whether those deficits are stronger for negative states.

Methods: The authors investigated OA (ages 65–93) and younger adult (YA; ages 18–22) performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RME), a well-validated measure of the ability to decode complex mental states from faces.

Results: The authors replicated findings showing OA deficits in this task. Using a multilevel logistic model, the authors found that the poorer performance of OA was due to worse performance on items for which a negative state was the correct answer. When analyzing each age group separately, OA scored worse on negative than positive items, whereas YA performance did not vary as a function of item valence. These age differences on the RME could not be explained by differences in lower-level visual function.

Conclusion: These findings show that previously documented OA deficits in perceiving basic negative emotional expressions are also present in reading complex mental states.

Notes

¹ Although mentalizing is used to refer to understanding what another person is thinking based on many cues in addition to facial cues, we use the term mentalizing to refer to decoding what another is thinking based on facial cues alone.