Department of Psychology, Brock University, 1812 Sir Isaac Brock Way, St. Catharines, ON, L2S 3A1, Canada.
Sci Rep. 2023 Jun 6;13(1):9167. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-36189-y.
Similar cognitive processes enable us to remember the past (i.e., episodic memory) and simulate future events (i.e., episodic simulation). In the current study, we demonstrate an important role for previous experience when younger and older adults simulate future behaviours. Participants read short descriptions of a person in need of help in scenarios that were more familiar to either younger or older adults (e.g., dealing with dating apps vs writing a cheque). Participants either imagined helping the person or thought about the style of the story (control task), and then rated their willingness to help, scene vividness, emotional concern, and subjective use of theory of mind. Hierarchical mixed effect modelling revealed that both episodic simulation and one's previous experience increased willingness to help, in that participants were more willing to help if they imagined helping and the situation was more familiar to them. Further, in simulated scenarios the relationship between previous experience and willingness to help was mediated by scene vividness and perspective-taking in younger adults, but only by perspective-taking in older adults. Taken together, these findings suggest that situation similarity and episodic simulation increase willingness to help, possibly via different mechanisms in younger and older adults.
类似的认知过程使我们能够记住过去（即情景记忆）和模拟未来事件（即情景模拟）。在当前的研究中，我们证明了先前经验在年轻和年长的成年人模拟未来行为时的重要作用。参与者阅读了在年轻人或老年人更熟悉的情境中需要帮助的人的简短描述（例如，处理约会应用程序与写支票）。参与者要么想象帮助这个人，要么思考故事的风格（控制任务），然后对他们的帮助意愿、场景生动性、情感关注和心理理论的主观使用进行评分。分层混合效应模型显示，情景模拟和一个人的先前经验都增加了帮助的意愿，即如果参与者想象帮助并且情况对他们来说更熟悉，他们就更愿意帮助。此外，在模拟场景中，情景生动性和年轻成年人的换位思考在先前经验和帮助意愿之间起着中介作用，但在年长成年人中仅起着换位思考的中介作用。综上所述，这些发现表明，情境相似性和情景模拟增加了帮助的意愿，这可能是通过年轻和年长成年人不同的机制实现的。
