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Age-Related Changes in the Processing of Emotional Faces in a Dual-Task Paradigm
Carmen Casares-Guillén1, Beatriz García-Rodríguez1, Marisa Delgado2
1a Facultad de Psicología , Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia , Madrid , Spain.
Experimental Aging Research
|February 19, 2016
Summary
Older adults show deficits in identifying emotional facial expressions (EFEs) during dual-task conditions. Performance declines when tasks interfere with encoding or require similar cognitive resources, impacting social interactions.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience of Aging
- Social Cognition
Background:
- Age-related cognitive changes can impair emotional facial expression (EFE) identification, particularly under dual-task conditions.
- The impact of secondary tasks on EFE processing varies based on the processing phase and task type.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how age affects EFE identification in dual-task scenarios.
- To examine the influence of interference timing (encoding vs. retrieval) and stimulus type (visuospatial vs. verbal) on age-related EFE processing deficits.
Main Methods:
- Assessed EFE identification in 24 older adults (mean age 75.38) and 40 younger adults (mean age 26.90) using a dual-task paradigm.
- Manipulated interference during encoding vs. retrieval phases and employed visuospatial vs. verbal interfering stimuli.
- Calculated accuracy of EFE identification across all conditions.
Main Results:
- Older adults performed significantly worse than younger adults in all dual-task conditions.
- Performance decreased when interference occurred during the encoding phase.
- Dual-task interference was more pronounced when both tasks demanded similar attentional resources.
Conclusions:
- Empirical evidence supports age-related deficits in identifying emotional facial expressions.
- Impaired cognitive resources, particularly attention, may underlie these deficits.
- Findings suggest potential difficulties for older adults in social interactions requiring simultaneous processing of emotional and environmental cues.
