Effects of age on detection of emotional information.
Age differences were examined in affective processing, in the context of a visual search task. Young and older adults were faster to detect high arousal images compared with low arousal and neutral items. Younger adults were faster to detect positive high arousal targets compared with other categories. In contrast, older adults exhibited an overall detection advantage for emotional images compared with neutral images. Together, these findings suggest that older adults do not display valence-based effects on affective processing at relatively automatic stages.
Leclerc
Christina M
CM
Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA. christina.leclerc.1@bc.edu
Kensinger
Elizabeth A
EA
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001143:Arousal; D001288:Attention; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011930:Reaction Time; D012858:Size Perception