Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA.
Department of Sociology, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2022 Jan 12;77(1):18-28. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbab048.
The current study explores whether personal social network characteristics are associated with older adults' memory and/or social cognitive function (e.g., ability to infer other's mental states-theory of mind).
120 older adults completed a social network interview, a memory measure, and 2 core measures of social cognitive functions: emotion recognition and theory of mind.
Variation in memory and social cognitive abilities predicted distinct aspects of older adults' social networks. Having better memory predicted having larger, less-dense social networks, but better theory of mind was associated with having at least one acquaintance in the network, and having more heterogeneous social relationships within the network.
Together our findings suggest that disparate social cognitive abilities may serve unique functions, facilitating maintenance of beneficial social connections.
本研究旨在探讨个体的社会网络特征是否与老年人的记忆和/或社会认知功能（例如，推断他人心理状态的能力——心理理论）相关。
120 名老年人完成了社会网络访谈、记忆测试以及 2 项核心社会认知功能测试：情绪识别和心理理论。
记忆和社会认知能力的差异可以预测老年人社会网络的不同方面。更好的记忆能力预示着更大、密度更低的社交网络，但更好的心理理论则与网络中至少有一个熟人有关，并且在网络内有更多异质的社会关系。
我们的研究结果表明，不同的社会认知能力可能具有独特的功能，有助于维持有益的社会联系。
