Andreoletti Carrie, Veratti Bridget W, Lachman Margie E
Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT 06050-4010, USA.
Aging Ment Health. 2006 May;10(3):265-71. doi: 10.1080/13607860500409773.
The present study examined the relationship between anxiety and recall performance as well as whether this association varied by age. One hundred and ninety-five young, middle-aged, and older adults studied and recalled a list of 30 categorizable words. Anxiety was measured before memory testing using a cognitive-specific anxiety measure (PIC) and after testing with a state measure (STAI). Based on previous research it was expected that older adults would show more anxiety related to cognitive testing than younger adults, but our results revealed no significant age differences in anxiety. There was, however, a negative relationship between cognitive-specific anxiety and memory, such that greater anxiety was related to poorer recall, but this was so only for middle-aged and older adults. This suggests that middle-aged and older adults may be more influenced by anticipatory cognitive-specific anxiety than younger adults. Although many factors may contribute to memory decline, our results suggest that managing anxiety may be a promising avenue for minimizing episodic memory problems in later life.
本研究考察了焦虑与回忆表现之间的关系，以及这种关联是否因年龄而异。195名年轻人、中年人和老年人学习并回忆了一组30个可分类的单词。在记忆测试前，使用认知特异性焦虑量表（PIC）测量焦虑，测试后使用状态量表（STAI）测量焦虑。基于先前的研究，预计老年人在认知测试中会比年轻人表现出更多与焦虑相关的症状，但我们的结果显示，焦虑方面不存在显著的年龄差异。然而，认知特异性焦虑与记忆之间存在负相关关系，即焦虑程度越高，回忆表现越差，但这种情况仅在中年人和老年人中存在。这表明，中年人和老年人可能比年轻人更容易受到预期性认知特异性焦虑的影响。尽管许多因素可能导致记忆衰退，但我们的结果表明，控制焦虑可能是减少晚年情景记忆问题的一个有前景的途径。
