The effect of ageing on the recollection of emotional and neutral pictures

[en] This study investigated age-related differences in recognition memory for emotional and neutral pictures. Younger and older participants were asked to rate pictures according to their emotional valence, arousal, and visual complexity. Two weeks later they had to recognise these pictures and the states of awareness associated with memory were assessed with the "remember/know/guess" paradigm. We found that, although the influence of emotion on recognition accuracy (as assessed by d') was similar in both age groups, the tendency for positive and negative pictures to create a rich recollective experience was weaker in older adults. In addition., "remember" responses were more often based on a recollection of emotional reactions in older than in younger participants. We suggest that the elderly tend to focus on their feelings when confronted with emotional pictures, which could have impaired their memory for the contextual information associated with these stimuli.

Disciplines :

Theoretical & cognitive psychology

Author, co-author :

Comblain, Christine; Université de Liège - ULiège

D'Argembeau, Arnaud ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences cognitives > Psychopathologie cognitive

Van der Linden, Martial ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences cognitives > Psychopathologie cognitive

Aldenhoff, Laurence

Language :

English

Title :

The effect of ageing on the recollection of emotional and neutral pictures

Publication date :

November 2004

Journal title :

Memory

ISSN :

0965-8211

eISSN :

1464-0686

Publisher :

Psychology Press, Hove, United Kingdom

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

673-684

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Available on ORBi :

since 19 December 2008

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