School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Queensland, Australia.
Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), School of Psychiatry, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2023 Jan 28;78(1):62-72. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbac110.
Normal adult aging is associated with changes in social cognition. Although 4 social cognitive domains have been identified (social perception, theory of mind [ToM], affective empathy, and social behavior), no study has tested all 4 domains concurrently in a life-span sample, limiting understanding of the relative magnitude of age-related changes across domains. This study addresses this gap by providing the first assessment of all 4 social cognitive domains in an adult life-span sample.
Three hundred and seventy-two participants ranging from 18 to 101 years of age took part in this study. Participants completed a testing battery that assessed social perception, ToM, affective empathy, and social behavior, as well as broader cognitive function and well-being.
The results showed that adult aging is associated with multidirectional changes in social cognitive abilities, with ToM and social perception showing nonlinear decline across much of the life-span, and affective empathy and social behavior showing improvement. Age remained a significant predictor of all 4 social cognitive domains, even after accounting for broader cognitive function. Weak associations emerged between some of the social cognitive abilities and and indices of broader well-being.
These findings provide novel and important evidence that normative aging is associated with both gains and losses in social cognition that occur at distinct points of the adult life-span, and that are at least partially independent of general age-related cognitive decline.
正常成年人的衰老与社会认知的变化有关。虽然已经确定了 4 个社会认知领域（社会感知、心理理论[ToM]、情感同理心和社会行为），但没有研究在整个生命周期样本中同时测试所有 4 个领域，从而限制了对各领域与年龄相关的变化幅度的理解。本研究通过在成人生命周期样本中对所有 4 个社会认知领域进行首次评估，解决了这一差距。
372 名年龄在 18 至 101 岁之间的参与者参加了这项研究。参与者完成了一个测试套件，评估了社会感知、ToM、情感同理心和社会行为，以及更广泛的认知功能和幸福感。
结果表明，成年人的衰老与社会认知能力的多方向变化有关，ToM 和社会感知在整个生命周期中呈现出非线性下降，而情感同理心和社会行为则有所改善。即使考虑到更广泛的认知功能，年龄仍然是所有 4 个社会认知领域的重要预测因素。一些社会认知能力与更广泛的幸福感指数之间出现了微弱的关联。
这些发现提供了新的和重要的证据，表明正常衰老与社会认知的得失有关，这些得失发生在成年生命周期的不同阶段，并且至少部分独立于与年龄相关的认知衰退。
