Age-Related Positivity Effect

Distinct Mechanisms for Lexical Access and Episodic Memory of Emotional Words

Laulan, Pierrick
Catheline, Gwénaëlle
Mayo, Willy
Robert, Christelle
Mathey, Stéphanie

Cognition and Social Cognition, Laboratoire de Psychologie, University of Bordeaux
Neuroimaging and Human Cognition, Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives et Intégratives d’Aquitaine, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris Sciences et Lettres Research University, University of Bordeaux

This research was conducted while Pierrick Laulan was supported by a grant from Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche (MESR). The study was presented at the Journées d’Etudes du Vieillissement in Lyon on May 20–21, 2021. All the data, R-scripts, and stimuli are openly available at the Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/rgh9e/.

Pierrick Laulan, Cognition and Social Cognition, Laboratoire de Psychologie, University of Bordeaux, 3 place de la Victoire, F-33076 Bordeaux, France [email protected]

Received October 31, 2021

revised July 22, 2022

Accepted August 1, 2022

Psychology & Aging 37(8):p 913-928, December 2022. | DOI: 10.1037/pag0000709

The age-related positivity effect is the tendency of older adults to preferentially process positive information over negative information when compared to younger adults (e.g., ). The aim of the study was to determine whether common and/or distinct mechanisms underlie the age-related positivity effect in lexical access and episodic memory. Fifty young and 50 older adults successively performed a progressive demasking task incorporating memory instructions, an immediate free recall task, a memory recognition task, and delayed free recalls at 20 min and 7 days. The materials included 60 words that varied in emotional valence (positive, neutral, negative) and arousal (low, high). The results revealed that distinct processes underlie the age-related positivity effect in lexical access and episodic memory. In progressive demasking, this effect emerged for both low- and high-arousal words, suggesting that it depends on automatic processes. In immediate and delayed free recall and recognition, this effect emerged for low-arousal words only, suggesting that it depends on more controlled processes. Moreover, in older adults, positivity scores correlated with well-being scores for episodic memory. These results are discussed in relation to affective aging theories.