Maillet David, Schacter Daniel L
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, United States.
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, United States.
Neuropsychologia. 2016 Jan 8;80:142-156. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.11.017. Epub 2015 Nov 23.
The majority of studies that have investigated the effects of healthy aging on cognition have focused on age-related differences in voluntary and deliberately engaged cognitive processes. Yet many forms of cognition occur spontaneously, without any deliberate attempt at engaging them. In this article we review studies that have assessed age-related differences in four such types of spontaneous thought processes: mind-wandering, involuntary autobiographical memory, intrusive thoughts, and spontaneous prospective memory retrieval. These studies suggest that older adults exhibit a reduction in frequency of both mind-wandering and involuntary autobiographical memory, whereas findings regarding intrusive thoughts have been more mixed. Additionally, there is some preliminary evidence that spontaneous prospective memory retrieval may be relatively preserved in aging. We consider the roles of age-related differences in cognitive resources, motivation, current concerns and emotional regulation in accounting for these findings. We also consider age-related differences in the neural correlates of spontaneous cognitive processes.
大多数研究健康衰老对认知影响的研究都集中在自愿且刻意参与的认知过程中与年龄相关的差异上。然而，许多认知形式是自发产生的，无需任何刻意的参与尝试。在本文中，我们回顾了评估四种此类自发思维过程中与年龄相关差异的研究：走神、非自愿自传体记忆、侵入性思维和自发前瞻性记忆检索。这些研究表明，老年人走神和非自愿自传体记忆的频率降低，而关于侵入性思维的研究结果则更为复杂。此外，有一些初步证据表明，自发前瞻性记忆检索在衰老过程中可能相对得以保留。我们考虑了认知资源、动机、当前担忧和情绪调节方面与年龄相关的差异在解释这些发现中的作用。我们还考虑了自发认知过程的神经关联中与年龄相关的差异。
