age differences in positivity during episodic future thought
DESCRIPTION
Age Differences in Positivity During Episodic Future Thought. Lisa Emery, Stephanie Hale, & Emily Booze. agelabs.appstate.edu. Episodic Future Thought. “Mental Time Travel” into the future to imagine specific episodes Highly related to autobiographical memory - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Age Differences in Positivity During Episodic Future Thought
Lisa Emery, Stephanie Hale, & Emily Booze
agelabs.appstate.edu
Episodic Future Thought
• “Mental Time Travel” into the future to imagine specific episodes
• Highly related to autobiographical memory– Activates similar brain regions (e.g., Addis, Wong & Schacter,
2008a; Viard et al. 2011)
– Shows similar phenomenological characteristics (e.g., D’Argembeau & Van der Linden, 2004)
– Performance on ABM & EFT tasks highly correlated (Hill & Emery, 2013)
Aging & EFT
• Older adults produce fewer episodic details in EFT (and ABM) than young adults (Addis et al. 2008b; Levine et al., 2002; Piolino et al., 2010)
• Attributed primarily to decline in associative memory and/or executive function
• Recent studies suggest memory isn’t the only age difference (Gaesser et al., 2001; Rendell et al., 2012).
Aging & Emotion
• “Positivity Bias”: Compared to the young, older adults: – Remember past events more positively (Kennedy,
Mather, & Carstensen, 2004; Comblain, D’Argembeau, & Van der Linden, 2005)
– Use more positive and fewer negative words when describing memories (Pennebaker & Stone, 2003; Schryer et al., 2012)
The Current Study
• Does the “positivity bias” extend to future events
Method
Participants
• Young adults (ages 20-30; M = 23.8; N = 19)• Middle-aged adults (ages 40-50; M = 45.2; N = 16)• Older adults (ages 60-70; M = 63.6; N = 13)
Method
Materials & Procedure
• Cue Word Retrieval/Construction• 2 (Event Direction: Past vs. Future) x 2 (Event
Distance: Near vs. Far)– 4 trials of each type, 16 trials total– 3 minutes to retrieve and describe the event
Method
• Linguistic Inquiry & Word Count (LIWC2007; Pennebaker et al., 2007)– Word counts• Positive Words (e.g., Love, Sweet, Nice)• Negative Words (e.g., Hurt, Ugly, Nasty)
Results
Past Future0.00
0.20
0.40
0.60
0.80
1.00
1.20
YoungMiddleOld
Neg
ativ
e Em
otio
n W
ords
Results
Past Future0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
YoungMiddleOld
Posi
tive
Emot
ion
Wor
ds
Results
Past Near Future Near0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
3.50
YoungMiddleOld
Posi
tive
Emot
ion
Wor
ds
Past Far Future Far0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
3.50
4.00
YoungMiddleOld
Posi
tive
Emot
ion
Wor
ds
Results
Past Near Future Near0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
3.50
YoungMiddleOld
Posi
tive
Emot
ion
Wor
ds
Past Far Future Far0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
3.50
4.00
YoungMiddleOld
Posi
tive
Emot
ion
Wor
ds
Results
Past Future0
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.1
0.12
0.14
NearFar
"Dea
th"
Wor
ds
Conclusions & Future Directions
• Past events = reduced negativity• Future events = increased positivity
Conclusions & Future Directions
• Might age-related emotional changes impact memory specificity?– Positive mood produces greater heuristic
processing (Emery, Hess, & Elliot, 2012)
– Repeated use of “Functional Avoidance” of negative or traumatic memories may lead to “overgeneral autobiographical memory” (Williams et al., 2007)
Conclusions & Future Directions
Emery & Griffin, 2014
Come see our posters!
Poster Session 2: Friday April 4, 4:00 – 6:30 PMPoster 63: AGE DIFFERENCES IN PERFORMANCE ON FINANCIAL GAMES Elizabeth Payment, Lisa Emery, Erica Camp
Poster Session 4: Saturday, April 5, 4:00 PM – 6:30 PMPoster 9: AGE-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN RETRIEVAL OF EPISODIC AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORIES Heather Burkett, Simona Gizdarska, Meagan Griffin, Lisa Emery
Reprints of presentations, papers, & posters @agelabs.appstate.edu