Age-Related Differences in the Influence of Affect on Judgment Processes: Selectivity versus Selective Preservation?

Abstract

Research has indicated that aging is associated with declines in executive functioning, as well as with significant neuronal loss in associated brain regions. Interestingly, research has also indicated relatively less age-related decline in regions of the brain linked to affective processing, and no significant age differences in performance on tasks assessing affective functioning. Given that older adults experience executive declines, it may be that the selective preservation of affective processing structures in the brain results in a greater reliance on affective processing systems compared to younger adults. This shift in reliance on affective processing may be reflected in increased dependence on less resource-demanding, automatic processing mechanisms, as well as maintenance in performance on tasks dependent on processing of affective information. The current work is an attempt to examine the relative influence of deliberative versus affective processes of younger (ages 18-30, M = 18.6) and older (ages 63-73, M = 71.8) adults using a social judgment task. Participants read a series of descriptions that varied in the number of positive and negative traits they contained. A subset of these traits was relevant to performance in a particular occupation. Participants were required to either make an overall impression judgment (based on all traits) or a job-related judgment (based only on the relevant subset of traits). Results indicate that all participants were able to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant attributes and made more accurate general impression ratings than job effectiveness ratings. The hypothesized lower levels of performance in older adults in the job judgment condition due to the presumed involvement of executive processes in distinguishing between relevant and irrelevant traits was not supported in spite of lower observed levels of functioning of older adults on a variety of executive functioning tasks. Social judgment abilities appear to be relatively well preserved in healthy older adults. It may be that social judgment tasks are unique in that performance on these tasks draws from relatively well preserved brain systems, or is maintained as a result of greater social expertise, permitting older adults to exhibit continued high levels of functioning.