Is there an age-related positivity effect in visual attention? A comparison of two methodologies.
- 1 January 2006
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Psychological Association (APA) in Emotion
- Vol. 6 (3), 511-516
- https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.6.3.511
Abstract
Research suggests a positivity effect in older adults' memory for emotional material, but the evidence from the attentional domain is mixed. The present study combined 2 methodologies for studying preferences in visual attention, eye tracking, and dot-probe, as younger and older adults viewed synthetic emotional faces. Eye tracking most consistently revealed a positivity effect in older adults' attention, so that older adults showed preferential looking toward happy faces and away from sad faces. Dot-probe results were less robust, but in the same direction. Methodological and theoretical implications for the study of socioemotional aging are discussed.Keywords
Funding Information
- National Institute on Aging (R03AG022168-01)
This publication has 21 references indexed in Scilit:
- An Attentional Application of Socioemotional Selectivity Theory in College StudentsSocial Development, 2006
- At the Intersection of Emotion and CognitionCurrent Directions in Psychological Science, 2005
- The Tie That Binds? Coherence Among Emotion Experience, Behavior, and Physiology.Emotion, 2005
- Amygdala Responses to Emotionally Valenced Stimuli in Older and Younger AdultsPsychological Science, 2004
- Anxiety-related attentional biases and their regulation by attentional control.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2002
- Anxiety-related attentional biases and their regulation by attentional control.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2002
- Biases in eye movements to threatening facial expressions in generalized anxiety disorder and depressive disorder.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2000
- Taking time seriously: A theory of socioemotional selectivity.American Psychologist, 1999
- Taking time seriously: A theory of socioemotional selectivity.American Psychologist, 1999
- The effect of age on positive and negative affect: A developmental perspective on happiness.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1998