Center for Healthy Aging, Pennsylvania State University, University Park.
Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2021 Apr 23;76(5):920-929. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbaa155.
Previous diary work indicates that older people experience more intrusive and unwanted thoughts (i.e., cognitive interference) on days with stressors. We examined additional predictors of daily cognitive interference to enhance understanding of the psychological context surrounding this link. We specifically focused on factors related to subjective experiences of aging based on studies that have related higher stress and impairments in cognition such as executive control processes (working memory) to negative age stereotypes. Consistent with these findings, we generally expected stronger stress effects on cognitive interference when daily self-perceptions of aging (i.e., within-person fluctuations in awareness of age-related losses [AARC losses]) and general aging attitudes (i.e., individual differences in attitudes toward own aging [ATOA]) were more negative.
Participants (n = 91; aged 60-80) on Amazon's Mechanical Turk completed surveys on 9 consecutive days, reporting on their ATOA (Day 1) as well as their stressors, AARC losses, and cognitive interference (Days 2-9).
Multilevel models showed that people reported more cognitive interference on days with more AARC losses. Individuals with positive ATOA also experienced less cognitive interference on days with more stressors, whereas those with negative ATOA experienced more.
Both individual differences and fluctuating daily perceptions of aging appear to be important for older adults' cognitive interference. Consistent with other work, positive ATOA protected against daily stressor effects. Further elucidating these relationships can increase understanding of and facilitate efforts to improve (daily) cognitive experiences in older adults.
先前的日记研究表明，在有压力的日子里，老年人会经历更多的侵入性和不必要的想法（即认知干扰）。我们研究了日常认知干扰的其他预测因素，以增强对这一联系周围心理背景的理解。我们特别关注基于研究的与衰老相关的主观体验的因素，这些研究将更高的压力与认知障碍（如执行控制过程[工作记忆]）联系起来，与消极的年龄刻板印象有关。与这些发现一致，当日常自我感知衰老（即对与年龄相关的丧失的意识[AARC 丧失]的个体内波动）和一般衰老态度（即对自身衰老的态度[ATOA]的个体差异）更消极时，我们通常预计压力对认知干扰的影响会更强。
亚马逊 Mechanical Turk 上的 91 名参与者（年龄 60-80 岁）连续 9 天完成了调查，报告了他们的 ATOA（第 1 天）以及他们的压力源、AARC 丧失和认知干扰（第 2-9 天）。
多层次模型表明，人们在 AARC 丧失较多的日子里报告的认知干扰更多。具有积极 ATOA 的个体在压力源较多的日子里也经历较少的认知干扰，而具有消极 ATOA 的个体则经历更多的认知干扰。
个体差异和波动的日常衰老感知似乎对老年人的认知干扰都很重要。与其他研究一致，积极的 ATOA 可以防止日常压力源的影响。进一步阐明这些关系可以提高对老年人（日常）认知体验的理解，并促进改善这些体验的努力。
