title: Age-differential motivational consequences of optimization versus compensation focus in younger and older adults.
abstract: Four studies investigated age-related differences in goal focus in younger and older adults. Studies 1 and 2 confirmed the hypothesis that younger adults are more persistent when the same sensorimotor task offers possibility for optimizing performance than when the task requires counteracting a loss in performance (compensation). In contrast, older adults were more persistent in the compensation than in the optimization condition. Study 3 showed that the age-differential effects of goal focus on persistence were not simply due to perceiving the 2 conditions as easy versus difficult. Study 4 ruled out that the age differences were due to differences in the 2 tasks themselves. Taken together, the studies underscore the importance of situating motivational research into a life span context.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA. freund@angpsy.unizh.ch
authors.forename: Alexandra M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Freund
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003201:Computers; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires