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Experimental Aging Research
An International Journal Devoted to the Scientific Study of the Aging Process
Volume 44, 2018 - Issue 5
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Articles

When Do Older Adults Show a Positivity Effect in Emotional Memory?

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Pages 455-468 | Received 20 Apr 2017, Accepted 04 Feb 2018, Published online: 24 Oct 2018
 

ABSTRACT

Background: Typically, positive and negative emotional items are easier to remember than neutral ones. Charles, Mather, and Carstensen (2003) reported that older adults preferentially remember positive items, but this age-related “positivity effect” has not been replicated consistently.

Methods: We conducted a close replication of Charles et al.’s study to verify that their method yields a clear positivity effect in older adults relative to the young. We also examined the role of attention, which has been argued to influence the presence of the positivity effect in older adults. We used a method similar to Charles et al. (2003). Young and older adults recalled pictures that had been encoded under full or divided attention.

Results and Conclusions: Older adults showed a positivity effect, but only under full attention. Young adults did not show any hint of a positivity effect, under either of the encoding conditions. The finding of a positivity effect in older but not young adults replicates the original report from Charles et al. (2003). The attention manipulation results suggest that when the positivity effect occurs in older adults’ memory, it is attributable at least in part to cognitive control during encoding.

Key terms: Emotional Enhancement of Memory–Divided attention–Aging

Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Gaën Plancher for her help in the conception of the divided attention task, Dr. Susan Turk Charles for the stimuli, and Allison Walsh, Kelsey Bowie, Cendra Kidjo, Danielle Secondi, and Lydia Muyingo for assistance during data collection. We are grateful to our participants for taking the time to participate in our study.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and from Lyon University’s LABEX CORTEX [ANR-10-LABX-0042] as part of the “Investissements d’Avenir” programme [ANR-11-IDEX-0007] run by the French National Research Agency (ANR).

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