Laulan Pierrick, Catheline Gwenaelle, Mayo Willy, Robert Christelle, Mathey Stéphanie
Laboratoire de psychologie Labpsy - EA 4139, Université de Bordeaux, BordeauxFrance, INCIA - CNRS UMR 5287, Université de Bordeaux, BordeauxFrance.
INCIA - CNRS UMR 5287, Université de Bordeaux, BordeauxFrance, EPHE, PSL Research University, BordeauxFrance.
Geriatr Psychol Neuropsychiatr Vieil. 2020 Dec 1;18(4):437-447. doi: 10.1684/pnv.2020.0901.
A growing number of studies have shown that, compared to young adults, older adults better remember positive information than negative information. However, it is not clear whether this age-related positivity effect relies on an increase in positive information memory and/or on a decrease in negative information memory. Thus, we aimed to study the specific mechanisms underlying the age-related positivity effect in different memory tasks. To do so, we used an emotional word memory paradigm including immediate free recall, recognition and delayed free recall tasks. Forty-five young adults (m = 20.0 years) and 45 older adults (m = 69.2 years) native French speakers participated. Thirty-six low French words, including 12 negative (e.g. égout), 12 positive (e.g. lagune) and 12 neutral (e.g. notion) words were selected from an emotional lexical database (Gobin et al. 2017). For the recognition task, 36 new words were selected. The results showed that the age-related positivity effect specifically depended on a decrease in negativity preference (i.e. the comparison between negative and neutral words) in older adults, in comparison with young adults, both in immediate and delayed free recall tasks. Indeed, in these tasks, young adults recalled more negative than neutral words whereas there was no difference in older adults. In recognition task, no age-related positivity effect has been observed. Moreover, the results showed that, in immediate recall, the higher the older adults memory abilities, the lower their negativity preference. This correlation was not significant in delayed recall. These results suggest that, when compared with young adults, older adults disengage from negative words processing through costly cognitive processes. A small magnitude of negativity preference would indicate good maintenance of memory abilities. Results are discussed in the framework of the socioemotional selectivity theory.
越来越多的研究表明，与年轻人相比，老年人对积极信息的记忆优于消极信息。然而，尚不清楚这种与年龄相关的积极效应是依赖于积极信息记忆的增加和/或消极信息记忆的减少。因此，我们旨在研究不同记忆任务中与年龄相关的积极效应背后的具体机制。为此，我们使用了一种情绪词汇记忆范式，包括即时自由回忆、识别和延迟自由回忆任务。45名以法语为母语的年轻成年人（平均年龄m = 20.0岁）和45名老年人（平均年龄m = 69.2岁）参与了研究。从一个情绪词汇数据库（戈宾等人，2017年）中选择了36个低频率法语单词，包括12个消极词汇（如égout，意为“下水道”）、12个积极词汇（如lagune，意为“泻湖”）和12个中性词汇（如notion，意为“概念”）。对于识别任务，选择了36个新单词。结果表明，与年轻人相比，老年人中与年龄相关的积极效应具体取决于消极偏好的降低（即消极词汇和中性词汇之间的比较），这在即时和延迟自由回忆任务中均如此。实际上，在这些任务中，年轻人回忆的消极词汇比中性词汇更多，而老年人则没有差异。在识别任务中，未观察到与年龄相关的积极效应。此外，结果表明，在即时回忆中，老年人的记忆能力越高，其消极偏好越低。这种相关性在延迟回忆中不显著。这些结果表明，与年轻人相比，老年人通过代价高昂的认知过程不再参与消极词汇的处理。较小程度的消极偏好表明记忆能力得到良好维持。研究结果在社会情绪选择理论的框架内进行了讨论。
