Getting the message across: Age differences in the positive and negative framing of health care messages.

Although valenced health care messages influence impressions, memory, and behavior (Levin, Schneider, & Gaeth, 1998) and the processing of valenced information changes with age (Carstensen & Mikels, 2005), these 2 lines of research have thus far been disconnected. This study examined impressions of, and memory for, positively and negatively framed health care messages that were presented in pamphlets to 25 older adults and 24 younger adults. Older adults relative to younger adults rated positive pamphlets more informative than negative pamphlets and remembered a higher proportion of positive to negative messages. However, older adults misremembered negative messages to be positive. These findings demonstrate the age-related positivity effect in health care messages with promise as to the persuasive nature and lingering effects of positive messages. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress reduces use of negative feedback in a feedback-based learning task.

In contrast to the well-established effects of stress on learning of declarative material, much less is known about stress effects on reward- or feedback-based learning. Differential effects on positive and negative feedback especially have received little attention. The objective of this study, thus, was to investigate effects of psychosocial stress on feedback-based learning with a particular focus on the use of negative and positive feedback during learning. Participants completed a probabilistic selection task in both a stress and a control condition. The task allowed quantification of how much participants relied on positive and negative feedback during learning. Although stress had no effect on general acquisition of the task, results indicate that participants used negative feedback significantly less during learning after stress compared with the control condition. An enhancing effect of stress on use of positive feedback failed to reach significance. These findings suggest that stress acts differentially on the use of positive and negative feedback during learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rote learning in schizophrenic and normal subjects under positive and negative reinforcement conditions.

The defects on rote learning performance of adding positive or negative verbal reinforcers to the information provided by presentation of the correct response was studied in normals and in remitted and nonremitted schizophrenics. On a verbal discrimination task, the reinforcers facilitated the performance of all groups (p     

Impairment of probabilistic reward-based learning in schizophrenia.

Recent models assume that some symptoms of schizophrenia originate from defective reward processing mechanisms. Understanding the precise nature of reward-based learning impairments might thus make an important contribution to the understanding of schizophrenia and the development of treatment strategies. The present study investigated several features of probabilistic reward-based stimulus association learning, namely the acquisition of initial contingencies, reversal learning, generalization abilities, and the effects of reward magnitude. Compared to healthy controls, individuals with schizophrenia exhibited attenuated overall performance during acquisition, whereas learning rates across blocks were similar to the rates of controls. On the group level, persons with schizophrenia were, however, unable to learn the reversal of the initial reward contingencies. Exploratory analysis of only the subgroup of individuals with schizophrenia who showed significant learning during acquisition yielded deficits in reversal learning with low reward magnitudes only. There was further evidence of a mild generalization impairment of the persons with schizophrenia in an acquired equivalence task. In summary, although there was evidence of intact basic processing of reward magnitudes, individuals with schizophrenia were impaired at using this feedback for the adaptive guidance of behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal paired-associates learning in chronic schizophrenics as a function of positive and negative evaluation.

Seventy-two chronic schizophrenics (36 regressed and 36 partially remitted) and 36 normals were given paired associates of 2 levels of association strength and 2 levels of intralist response competition to learn under positive, negative, and nonevaluation conditions. Regressed schizophrenics showed maximum decrement on low-association word pairs following positive evaluation. This was especially true for those Ss with low self-esteem. These findings suggest that heightened arousal resulting from dissonance between a negative self-image and positive evaluation of performance can lead to behavioral decrement in a difficult task requiring novel associations, such decrement being congruent with the Hull-Spence behavior theory and the Yerkes-Dodson hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perspectives of probabilistic inferences: Reinforcement learning and an adaptive network compared.

The assumption that people possess a strategy repertoire for inferences has been raised repeatedly. The strategy selection learning theory specifies how people select strategies from this repertoire. The theory assumes that individuals select strategies proportional to their subjective expectations of how well the strategies solve particular problems; such expectations are assumed to be updated by reinforcement learning. The theory is compared with an adaptive network model that assumes people make inferences by integrating information according to a connectionist network. The network's weights are modified by error correction learning. The theories were tested against each other in 2 experimental studies. Study 1 showed that people substantially improved their inferences through feedback, which was appropriately predicted by the strategy selection learning theory. Study 2 examined a dynamic environment in which the strategies' performances changed. In this situation a quick adaptation to the new situation was not observed; rather, individuals got stuck on the strategy they had successfully applied previously. This "inertia effect" was most strongly predicted by the strategy selection learning theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning to choose: Cognitive aging and strategy selection learning in decision making.

Decision makers often have to learn from experience. In these situations, people must use the available feedback to select the appropriate decision strategy. How does the ability to select decision strategies on the basis of experience change with age? We examined younger and older adults' strategy selection learning in a probabilistic inference task using a computational model of strategy selection learning. Older adults showed poorer decision performance compared with younger adults. In particular, older adults performed poorly in an environment favoring the use of a more cognitively demanding strategy. The results suggest that the impact of cognitive aging on strategy selection learning depends on the structure of the decision environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The associative-memory basis of cognitive skill learning: Adult age differences.

It has been established that memorizing common problems and their solutions underlies cognitive skill development, and that there are substantial age deficits in the rate of this learning. In a between-groups design, the authors compared learning rates for the same set of problems in skill (SK) training and paired-associate (PA) training. The authors found main effects due to condition (PA problems were acquired earlier) and to age (older adults' learning was delayed), but no condition-by-age interaction. The authors concluded that the age deficit in SK can be accounted for by the age deficit in associative memory; no further explanation is needed. The authors also analyzed fast and slow retrieves in SK and PA, and found that the frequency of fast retrieves did not differ in the two conditions. The overall advantage of PA was due to the occurrence of slow retrieves, which were absent in SK presumably because the skill algorithm displaces slow, explicit memory search in SK, but not fast, familiarity-based retrieval. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in psychosocial predictors of positive and negative affect: A longitudinal investigation of young, midlife, and older adults.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 26(2) of Psychology and Aging (see record 2011-11703-002). Contains an error in Figure 3, on page 649. The correction discusses where to find the correct data.] Research has consistently shown that despite aging-related losses, older adults have high levels of emotional well-being relative to those in young and midlife adults. We aimed to contribute to knowledge around the factors that predict emotional well-being over the life course by examining age group differences in associations of positive and negative social exchanges and mastery beliefs with positive and negative affect in a sample of 7,472 young, midlife, and older adults assessed on 2 measurement occasions, 4 years apart. Results from structural equation models indicated lower levels of negative affect with advancing age. Mastery was consistently related to higher well-being, with the strongest associations evident for young adults. Older adults reported the most frequent positive and least frequent negative social exchanges; however, associations of social relations with affect tended to be stronger among young and midlife adults relative to older adults. Results are discussed in the context of life course perspectives on goal orientations and self-regulatory processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of adult aging and induced positive and negative mood on planning.

Changes in executive functions have been found in older adults and also in young adults experiencing positive or negative mood states. The current study investigated the hypothesis that older adults would show greater executive function impairment following mood induction than young adults. Ninety-six participants (half aged 19-37, half aged 53-80) completed a neutral, positive, or negative mood induction procedure, followed by the Tower of London planning task. Significant interactions were found between age and mood such that older adults showed greater planning impairment than young adults in both the positive and negative mood conditions. Emotionally salient events occurring before testing may interfere with executive function in older adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Crisis decision theory: Decisions in the face of negative events.

How do people respond to negative life events? Crisis decision theory combines the strengths of coping theories with research on decision making to predict the responses people choose under negative circumstances. The theory integrates literatures on coping, health behavior, and decision making, among others, into 3 stages that describe the process of responding to negative events: (a) assessing the severity of the negative event, (b) determining response options, and (c) evaluating response options. The author reviews and organizes the relevant research on factors that shape information processing at each stage and that ultimately predict decisions in the face of negative events. Finally, the author presents a critique of crisis decision theory and discusses areas for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The comparability of positive and negative items in scales of ethnic prejudice.

"These findings suggest that the use of positive or negative items or a mixture of both is immaterial in the measurement of ethnic prejudice. All-negative item scales do not appear to possess any intrinsic superiority as has been previously assumed. While these reports support the choice of the E scale when desirable for continuity with earlier research, they equally support the use of a mixed scale when an all-negative (or all-positive) scale is regarded as creating problems of rapport." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adult age differences in autobiographical reasoning in narratives.

Two studies examined age differences in autobiographical reasoning within narratives about personal experiences. In Study 1 (n=63), people completed brief interviews about turning points and crises in their lives. Older participants were more likely to narrate crises in ways that connected the experience to the speaker's sense of self, that is, to show autobiographical reasoning. This increase was primarily evident in young adulthood and midlife. In Study 2 (n=115), adults provided written narratives about heterogeneous autobiographical experiences. Age was associated with linear increases in the likelihood of autobiographical reasoning. The results are discussed in terms of narrative approaches to self-development across the life span. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of meprobamate and prochlorperasine on positive and negative conditioning.

The comparative effect of 2 tranquilizing drugs (miltown and thorazine) upon conditioning in normal adults was investigated. Conditioning involved GSR to a noxious (shock) and positive (sexually stimulating picture) stimulus. Both tranquilizers were observed to be ineffective in affecting classical conditioning procedures when the noxious UCS was used. Only miltown effected conditioning in the predicted direction when the positive UCS was used. The results are related to the differential effect of each tranquilizer upon the nervous system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

No negative semantic priming from unconscious flanker words in sight.

In replicating 1 of the within-language conditions of E. Fox's (1996) Experiment 1, the authors confirmed that unattended words presented 2.4° above and below fixation are mostly unavailable to awareness. However, no negative semantic priming was observed in a lexical decision on a probe letter string appearing about 1 s later, which does not replicate Fox's finding. These results are compatible with the hypothesis underlying the present study, according to which positive semantic priming, if any, rather than negative semantic priming is expected in Fox's situation. The reason is that unavailability to awareness of the parafoveal words is not achieved by means of an act of selective inhibition combined with attentional diversion through masking but is achieved simply by means of perceptual degradation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Altered probabilistic learning and response biases in schizophrenia: Behavioral evidence and neurocomputational modeling.

Objective: Patients with schizophrenia (SZ) show reinforcement learning impairments related to both the gradual/procedural acquisition of reward contingencies, and the ability to use trial-to-trial feedback to make rapid behavioral adjustments. Method: We used neurocomputational modeling to develop plausible mechanistic hypotheses explaining reinforcement learning impairments in individuals with SZ. We tested the model with a novel Go/NoGo learning task in which subjects had to learn to respond or withhold responses when presented with different stimuli associated with different probabilities of gains or losses in points. We analyzed data from 34 patients and 23 matched controls, characterizing positive- and negative-feedback-driven learning in both a training phase and a test phase. Results: Consistent with simulations from a computational model of aberrant dopamine input to the basal ganglia patients, patients with SZ showed an overall increased rate of responding in the training phase, together with reduced response-time acceleration to frequently rewarded stimuli across training blocks, and a reduced relative preference for frequently rewarded training stimuli in the test phase. Patients did not differ from controls on measures of procedural negative-feedback-driven learning, although patients with SZ exhibited deficits in trial-to-trial adjustments to negative feedback, with these measures correlating with negative symptom severity. Conclusions: These findings support the hypothesis that patients with SZ have a deficit in procedural “Go” learning, linked to abnormalities in DA transmission at D1-type receptors, despite a “Go bias” (increased response rate), potentially related to excessive tonic dopamine. Deficits in trial-to-trial reinforcement learning were limited to a subset of patients with SZ with severe negative symptoms, putatively stemming from prefrontal cortical dysfunction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reflecting on self-relevant experiences: Adult age differences.

A broad array of research findings suggest that older adults, as compared with younger adults, have a more positive sense of self and possibly a clearer and more consistent sense of self. Further, older adults report lower motivation to construct or maintain a sense of self. In the present study, we examined whether such differences in self-views were reflected in features of older and younger adults’ narratives and narrating practices around recent, self-relevant events. Narratives about self-discrepant and self-confirming events were elicited from a sample of younger (18–37 years of age; n = 115) and older (58–90 years of age; n = 62) adults and were compared for indicators of engagement in self-construction, meanings, and emotionality. Older adults’ narratives contained significantly fewer self-focused pronouns, less present tense, and less emotional language, and they were significantly less likely to articulate and resolve challenges to their self-concepts. These findings, as well as others, are consistent with the idea that older adults are less engaged in self-construction in narrating everyday events, perhaps especially for self-discrepant events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The differential effects of mood on age differences in the correspondence bias.

The present study found that age-related differences in the correspondence bias were differentially influenced by induced mood. Young and older adults completed an attitude-attribution task after having been induced to experience a positive, neutral, or negative mood. Although negative moods intensified age-related differences in the correspondence bias, young and older adults were equally susceptible to the correspondence bias when in a positive mood. In addition, induced mood differentially influenced the attributional confidence of young and older adults. Whereas negatively induced young adults were less confident than positively induced young adults in their attributions, negatively induced older adults were more confident than positively induced older adults in their attributions. Findings are discussed in terms of how positive and negative moods operate differently in motivating young and older adults' attributional judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perfectionism, negative social feedback, and interpersonal rumination in depression and social anxiety.

The current study investigated the associations among trait perfectionism, perfectionistic self-presentation, negative social feedback, interpersonal rumination, depressive symptoms, and social anxiety. New measures of negative social feedback and interpersonal rumination were used to evaluate their relevance to the social aspects of perfectionism and their roles in distress. A sample of 155 undergraduate students completed the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, the Perfectionistic Self-Presentation Scale, the Social Feedback Questionnaire, Rumination About an Interpersonal Offense, and measures of depressive symptoms and social anxiety. The results confirmed that socially prescribed perfectionism and perfectionistic self-presentation were associated significantly with negative social feedback and rumination following interpersonal events (i.e., being hurt, humiliated, mistreated). Also, depressive symptoms and social anxiety were associated significantly with negative social feedback, interpersonal rumination, trait perfectionism, and perfectionistic self-presentation. Additional analyses indicated that negative social feedback and interpersonal rumination mediated the links between components of the perfectionism construct and distress. Overall, our findings suggest that self-reported receipt of frequent negative feedback from others and engaging in rumination about an interpersonal event play important roles in the distress experienced by certain individuals with high levels of perfectionism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning to avoid in older age.

The dopamine hypothesis of aging suggests that a monotonic dopaminergic decline accounts for many of the changes found in cognitive aging. The authors tested 44 older adults with a probabilistic selection task sensitive to dopaminergic function and designed to assess relative biases to learn more from positive or negative feedback. Previous studies demonstrated that low levels of dopamine lead to avoidance of those choices that lead to negative outcomes, whereas high levels of dopamine result in an increased sensitivity to positive outcomes. In the current study, age had a significant effect on the bias to avoid negative outcomes: Older seniors showed an enhanced tendency to learn from negative compared with positive consequences of their decisions. Younger seniors failed to show this negative learning bias. Moreover, the enhanced probabilistic integration of negative outcomes in older seniors was accompanied by a reduction in trial-to-trial learning from positive outcomes, thought to rely on working memory. These findings are consistent with models positing multiple neural mechanisms that support probabilistic integration and trial-to-trial behavior, which may be differentially impacted by older age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)