Department of Psychology, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454-9110, USA.
Psychol Aging. 2009 Dec;24(4):989-94. doi: 10.1037/a0017706.
Older adults show positive preferences in their gaze toward emotional faces, and such preferences appear to be activated when older adults are in bad moods. This suggests that age-related gaze preferences serve a mood regulatory role, but whether they actually function to improve mood over time has yet to be tested. We investigated links between fixation and mood change in younger and older adults, as well as the moderating role of attentional functioning. AgexFixationxAttentional Functioning interactions emerged such that older adults with better executive functioning were able to resist mood declines by showing positive gaze preferences. Implications for the function of age-related positive gaze preferences are discussed.
老年人在注视情绪面孔时表现出积极的偏好,而且这种偏好似乎在老年人情绪不佳时被激活。这表明与年龄相关的注视偏好起着情绪调节的作用,但它们是否真的能随着时间的推移改善情绪,还有待验证。我们调查了年轻人和老年人的注视与情绪变化之间的联系,以及注意力功能的调节作用。出现了年龄×注视×注意力功能的交互作用,表明执行功能较好的老年人能够通过表现出积极的注视偏好来抵制情绪下降。讨论了与年龄相关的积极注视偏好的功能的含义。