Age-based stereotype threat mechanisms: Evidence from a working-memory task

Age-based stereotype threat (ABST) occurs when older adults worry about being judged by a negative ageist stereotype. Although ABST can impair cognitive performance, its underlying mechanisms remain unclear, and two prominent frameworks offer different explanations. The integrated process model proposes that ABST heightens arousal, negative affect, and self-monitoring, which together consume working-memory resources and reduce processing efficiency. In a working-memory task, ABST should therefore lead to reduced hits, slower responding, increased false alarms, and slower evidence accumulation (i.e., lower drift rates in a drift diffusion model). In contrast, the regulatory focus account proposes that ABST induces a prevention focus that prioritizes vigilance and avoids commission errors. ABST should therefore lead to reduced hits, slower responding, reduced false alarms, increased omissions, and increased response caution (i.e., higher boundary separation in a drift diffusion model). To test these predictions, older adults completed a baseline 2-back task and then repeated the task under either control instructions or instructions designed to elicit ABST. Compared with the control condition, participants in the ABST condition showed reduced practice-related gains in hit rates and a selective increase in omissions. No ABST effects were observed for response times, false alarms, drift rates, or boundary separation. Although this pattern aligns with some aspects of the regulatory focus account, ABST did not consistently result in more cautious responding, and the ABST-related increase in omissions could also reflect reduced working-memory efficiency. Overall, the findings suggest that ABST can undermine correct responding without producing clear changes in underlying decision parameters. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).