The effect of valence on young and older adults' attention in a rapid serial visual presentation task.
Using a rapid serial visual presentation task, the authors examined how the emotional valence of a word affected young and older adults' abilities to detect another word that closely followed it in temporal proximity. Both age groups detected neutral words better when such words followed a positive or negative arousing word rather than a neutral arousing word. These results suggest that emotion influences attention in a similar fashion for young and older adults. Despite evidence that older adults can sometimes show a "positivity effect" in memory, we found no evidence of increased attention toward positive words for older adults.
Steinmetz
Katherine R Mickley
KR
Department of Psychology, Boston College, McGuinn Hall, 140 Commonwealth Ave., Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA. mickley@bc.edu
Muscatell
Keely A
KA
Kensinger
Elizabeth A
EA
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011930:Reaction Time; D012660:Semantics; D012691:Serial Learning; D014706:Verbal Learning; D055815:Young Adult