Aging and Emotional Memory

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Aging and Emotional Goals Implications for Risk
Seeking
Mara Mather University of California, Santa Cruz
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• Focus on emotional goals increases as time left
  in life decreases (Carstensen, Isaacowitz,
  Charles, 1999)
• Compared with younger adults, older adults show a
  positivity effect in attention and memory
  (for reviews see Carstensen et al., 2006 Mather
  Carstensen, 2005)
• Is the positivity effect the result of
  goal-directed strategic processes or a
  serendipitous side effect of age-related decline?

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Reducing goal-directed cognition by occupying
cognitive resources
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Under full attention, there is an age by valence
interaction
Younger Adults
Older Adults
Positive
Negative
Neutral
Mather Knight (2005), Psychology and Aging
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For young, divided attention does not affect
which valence is most memorable
Younger Adults
Older Adults
Positive
Negative
Neutral
Mather Knight (2005), Psychology and Aging
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But the valence of older adults memories is
affected by the availability of attentional
resources
Younger Adults
Older Adults
Positive
Negative
Neutral
Mather Knight (2005), Psychology and Aging
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Are cognitive resources required for positivity
effect in initial attention?
Preliminary results presented from an eyetracking
study
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Summary

• Positivity effect in attention and memory among
  older adults is the result of strategic processes
• What implications might goal-directed emotion
  regulation processes have for risky decisions?

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Lab studies of risky decisions reveal few
consistent age differences

• Little evidence of increased risk aversion on
  Iowa Gambling Task (Denberg et al., 2001
  MacPherson et al., 2002 Sanfey et al., 2003
  Wood et al., 2005)
• However, one consistent finding is an increase in
  decision avoidance (for a review see Mather, 2006)

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How might focus on emotion regulation influence
risky decisions?

• Regret/satisfaction with choice outcomes is
  largely determined by the counterfactuals that
  come to mind (Kahneman Miller, 1986)
• When forecasting future emotions, sure-thing
  options provide the most concrete counterfactual

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Questions for future research

• Is older adults tendency to choose the
  sure-thing option due to the affect heuristic or
  emotion regulation? (e.g., Slovic, Finucane,
  Peters, MacGregor, 2004)
• How might this tendency affect loss aversion?
• How do these age changes relate to changes in the
  brain?

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Conclusions

• Older adults use cognitive resources for emotion
  regulation purposes in their attention and memory
• This increased focus on emotion regulation may
  influence risky decisions, making sure-thing
  options more attractive.
• Emotion regulation focus may also influence
  decision search, variety seeking and memory for
  decisions (e.g., Mather Johnson, 2000 Mather,
  Knight, McCaffrey, 2005 Novak Mather, under
  review)

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Acknowledgements
Eyetracking Study Gambling Study Chris Baker
Dan Ariely Josh Gaunt Nina Mazar Marisa
Knight Kia Nesmith Kia Nesmith Travis
Seymour
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end
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Additional material For some choices, sure-thing
option had lower expected value
Win chance Amount vs. Win chance Amount 100 10
1 1250 100 10 5 250 100 10 10 125
100 10 20 62.5 100 10 40 31.25 100 10
60 20.83 100 10 80 15.63 100 10 90 13.
89 100 10 95 13.16 100 10 99 12.63
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For some choices, the two risky options varied in
expected value
Win chance Amount vs. Win chance Amount 50 10
1 400 50 10 5 80 50 10 10 40 50 10
20 20 50 10 40 10 50 10 60 6.67 50
10 80 5 50 10 90 4.44 50 10 95 4.21
50 10 99 4.04