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Updated: May 20, 2026
04:30
An Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Ageing on Sentence Processing
Published on: October 25, 2019
[Effects of category label activation about the elderly]
Antonio Bustillos1, Rocío Fernández-Ballesteros, Carmen Huici
1Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid. abustillos@psi.uned.es
Psicothema
|July 4, 2012
Summary
Non-conscious activation of negative labels like "old" impacts reaction times (RTs) in both young and elderly individuals. This priming effect influences behavior even when not directly related to intergroup interaction.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Cognitive Psychology
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Non-conscious processes significantly influence human behavior and cognition.
- Stereotypes and category activations can shape responses to social groups, including ingroups and outgroups.
- The valence of activated social categories (positive vs. negative) may differentially impact cognitive and behavioral outcomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the behavioral effects of non-conscious category activation in ingroup (elderly) and outgroup (young) members.
- To examine whether different valences of social labels (e.g., "old" vs. "elderly") elicit distinct behavioral responses.
- To determine if non-conscious priming with social category labels affects performance on tasks unrelated to direct social interaction.
Main Methods:
- Two studies were conducted involving young (N=62) and elderly (N=40) participants.
- Participants were exposed to non-conscious priming using social category labels with varying valence (negative: "old"; positive: "elderly").
- Reaction times (RTs) during a cognitive task were measured to assess behavioral effects.
Main Results:
- In young participants, priming with the negative label "old" resulted in significantly longer RTs compared to priming with the positive label "elderly".
- Elderly participants also exhibited longer RTs following non-conscious activation of the negative label "old" relative to the positive label "elderly".
- These findings suggest a consistent effect of negative social category priming on cognitive task performance across different age groups.
Conclusions:
- Non-conscious activation of negative social categories can subtly influence behavior, as evidenced by altered reaction times.
- The valence of social labels plays a crucial role in modulating these non-conscious effects.
- Understanding these implicit biases is important for both theoretical models of social cognition and practical interventions aimed at reducing ageism.
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