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Age and forgetfulness: the effect of implicit priming
J T Erber1, M A Caiola, M Williams
1Florida International University, Department of Psychology, Miami 33199, USA.
Experimental Aging Research
|January 1, 1997
Summary
Priming a forgetfulness schema made people rate high-memory tasks as harder for forgetful individuals. This effect did not differ across young, middle-aged, or old targets, indicating age did not influence the schema
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Gerontology
Background:
- Stereotypes about memory decline in older adults are prevalent.
- Implicit schemas can influence social judgments and perceptions.
- Understanding how memory-related schemas affect judgments is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if implicit priming of a forgetfulness schema influences judgments about task difficulty.
- To examine if this priming effect is moderated by the target's age (young, middle-aged, old).
Main Methods:
- Participants were primed with either memory-related or neutral phrases.
- They then read vignettes about targets of varying ages and rated task difficulty.
- Task difficulty ratings were compared between experimental and control groups.
Main Results:
- Priming forgetfulness led to higher difficulty ratings for high-memory-load tasks.
- This effect was consistent across young, middle-aged, and old targets.
- No significant interaction was found between priming condition and target age.
Conclusions:
- Implicit forgetfulness schemas can lead to harsher judgments of task difficulty for perceived forgetful individuals.
- Age did not significantly alter the impact of this implicit memory schema on judgments.
- Findings highlight the pervasive influence of cognitive schemas on social perception, independent of target age.
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