title: A cross-cultural examination of the positivity effect in memory: United States vs. China.
abstract: Many studies conducted in the United States (U.S.) have documented a positivity effect in aging-a tendency for older adults to remember more positive than negative information in comparison to young adults. Despite this cognitive emotional benefit, U.S. adults still hold a more negative view of aging compared to adults in Asia. We hypothesized that these aging stereotypes may contribute to different patterns of age-related emotional memory processing in the two cultures. In the present study, we tested young and older adults in the U.S. and China on a View of Aging task and an emotional picture memory task. Chinese older adults hold a significantly more positive view of aging compared to all other groups of participants. Older adults in both countries demonstrated an age-related positivity effect, but Chinese older adults showed a trend in remembering fewer negative pictures than their American counterparts. These findings suggest that aging stereotypes might significantly influence older adults' cognitive abilities.
authors.affiliation: Mills College, Psychology Department, Oakland, California 94613, USA. cchung@mills.edu
authors.forename: Christie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: Ziyong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001290:Attitude / Q000208:ethnology*; D002681:China; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult