Slessor Gillian, Phillips Louise H, Bull Rebecca
School of Psychology, College of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.
Psychol Aging. 2008 Dec;23(4):812-22. doi: 10.1037/a0014348.
Previous research has investigated age differences in complex social perception tasks such as theory of mind and emotion recognition, with predominant findings of age-related declines. The present study investigated whether there are also age-related changes in basic aspects of social perception. Individuals' ability both to detect subtle differences in eye-gaze direction (e.g., where someone is looking in the environment) and to subsequently use these gaze cues to engage in joint attention with others was assessed. Age-related declines were found in the detection of the most subtle differences in gaze aversion. The ability to engage in joint attention by following gaze cues also declined with age. These age differences were not solely attributable to age impairments in visual perception and visual attention. The potential role of age-related neural declines in social perception problems was considered, along with the implications that age deficits in these basic social skills may have for older adults' social perception.
以往的研究调查了在诸如心理理论和情绪识别等复杂社会认知任务中的年龄差异，主要发现是与年龄相关的能力下降。本研究调查了社会认知的基本方面是否也存在与年龄相关的变化。评估了个体检测眼神注视方向细微差异（例如，某人在环境中看向何处）以及随后利用这些注视线索与他人进行共同注意的能力。在检测最细微的目光回避差异方面发现了与年龄相关的能力下降。通过跟随注视线索进行共同注意的能力也随着年龄下降。这些年龄差异并非完全归因于视觉感知和视觉注意方面的年龄损伤。研究考虑了与年龄相关的神经衰退在社会认知问题中的潜在作用，以及这些基本社交技能的年龄缺陷可能对老年人社会认知产生的影响。
