Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University.
Center for Healthy Aging, The Pennsylvania State University.
Psychol Aging. 2021 Mar;36(2):131-142. doi: 10.1037/pag0000561. Epub 2020 Jul 20.
Activity that places demands on cognitive resources has positive effects on cognitive health in old age. To further understand determinants of age-group differences in participation, we examined how negative aging stereotypes and responses associated with a cognitively challenging activity influenced future willingness to engage in that activity. Sixty-nine young (20-40 years) and 80 older (63-84 years) adults performed a letter-number sequencing (LNS) task at different levels of demand for 15 min, during which systolic blood pressure responses-a measure of effort mobilization-and subjective perceptions of task demands were assessed. Approximately half the participants were primed with a negative aging stereotype prior to this task. Following the LNS task, participants completed an effort-discounting task, with resulting subjective values indicating their willingness to perform the task at each level of demand. As expected, both subjective and objective indicators of cognitive demands as well as performance were associated with future willingness to engage in a difficult task, with these effects being significantly greater for older adults. In addition, although stereotype activation influenced older adults' engagement levels in the LNS task, it did not moderate willingness. Together, the results indicate that, relative to younger adults, older adults' decisions to engage in cognitively challenging activities are disproportionately affected by their subjective perceptions of demands. Interestingly, actual engagement with the task and associated success result in reduced perceptions of difficulty and greater willingness to engage. Thus, overcoming faulty and discouraging task perceptions may promote older adults' engagement in demanding but potentially beneficial activities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
需要认知资源的活动对老年人的认知健康有积极影响。为了进一步了解参与度在年龄组差异上的决定因素，我们研究了与认知挑战性活动相关的负面老化刻板印象和反应如何影响未来参与该活动的意愿。69 名年轻（20-40 岁）和 80 名年长（63-84 岁）成年人在不同需求水平下进行了 15 分钟的字母数字排序（LNS）任务，在此期间评估了收缩压反应（衡量努力动员）和对任务需求的主观感知。大约一半的参与者在进行 LNS 任务之前接受了负面的老化刻板印象的启发。在 LNS 任务之后，参与者完成了一项努力折扣任务，由此产生的主观价值表明他们在每个需求水平上执行任务的意愿。正如预期的那样，主观和客观的认知需求指标以及表现都与未来参与困难任务的意愿相关，对于老年人来说，这些影响更为显著。此外，尽管刻板印象的激活影响了老年人在 LNS 任务中的参与水平，但它并没有调节意愿。总的来说，结果表明，与年轻人相比，老年人参与认知挑战性活动的决定更多地受到他们对需求的主观感知的影响。有趣的是，实际参与任务并取得相关成功会降低对难度的感知，并提高参与意愿。因此，克服错误和令人沮丧的任务感知可能会促进老年人参与具有挑战性但可能有益的活动。（PsycInfo 数据库记录（c）2021 APA，保留所有权利）。
