Psychology Department, Springfield College.
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri.
Psychol Aging. 2018 Feb;33(1):17-29. doi: 10.1037/pag0000194.
The purpose of the current study was to assess whether the age-related associative memory deficit is affected by stereotype threat, which has been shown to negatively affect performance on a wide variety of cognitive tasks, including memory performance of older adults. To date, the effects of stereotype threat on older adults' memory performance have only been shown using tests of item memory, and using only between-subjects manipulations. The first experiment manipulated stereotype threat by providing younger and older adults with either stereotype consistent (threat condition) or stereotype inconsistent (nonthreat condition) information before studying lists of item pairs and being tested for both item and associative memory. The results revealed a triple interaction of Age × Test × Condition (a strong associative memory deficit in the threat condition that disappeared in the nonthreat condition), and this pattern of results was found both between- and within-subjects. A follow-up control experiment also yielded an age-related associative deficit, suggesting that stereotype threat may be activated even under normal testing conditions. These results imply that stereotype threat could affect older adults' associative memory, and that one effective strategy to reduce the associative deficit of older adults is to reverse negative stereotypes that exist. (PsycINFO Database Record
本研究旨在评估与年龄相关的联想记忆缺陷是否受到刻板印象威胁的影响，已有研究表明，刻板印象威胁会对各种认知任务的表现产生负面影响，包括老年人的记忆表现。迄今为止，刻板印象威胁对老年人记忆表现的影响仅在使用项目记忆测试时得到证实，并且仅使用被试间操纵。第一项实验通过在学习项目对列表之前向年轻和老年人提供一致（威胁条件）或不一致（非威胁条件）的刻板印象信息来操纵刻板印象威胁，并对项目和联想记忆进行测试。结果显示出年龄×测试×条件的三重交互作用（在威胁条件下存在强烈的联想记忆缺陷，而在非威胁条件下则消失），这种结果模式在被试间和被试内都存在。后续的对照实验也得出了与年龄相关的联想缺陷，这表明即使在正常测试条件下也可能激活刻板印象威胁。这些结果表明，刻板印象威胁可能会影响老年人的联想记忆，而减少老年人联想缺陷的一种有效策略是扭转存在的负面刻板印象。
