Aging and distraction by irrelevant speech: does emotional valence matter?

The Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
Pascal W M Van Gerven, Dana R Murphy

Abstract

From prior studies, we know that older adults are rarely more distracted by irrelevant speech than younger adults, which is remarkable in light of the inhibitory deficit view of aging. We tested the hypothesis that older adults are more distracted by emotional irrelevant speech during a visual cognitive task than younger adults. Forty-eight younger (mean age = 21.9 years) and 48 older individuals (mean age = 68.1 years) performed a visual counting task while being exposed to irrelevant speech consisting of random numbers intermixed with neutral, positive, or negative words. Performance in these conditions was compared with that in a silence condition. Irrelevant speech increased counting time and decreased accuracy similarly for younger and older adults. Furthermore, the emotional conditions did not elicit a stronger effect than the neutral condition. Finally, we found implicit memory for irrelevant speech, but its level was independent of emotional valence and age. We conclude that emotional irrelevant speech has no disproportionate impact on cognitive performance in older adults. This can be regarded as a challenge to the inhibitory deficit hypothesis.

References

Nov 1, 1996·The Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences·N Rouleau, S Belleville
Nov 24, 2004·Memory & Cognition·Axel BuchnerBettina Mehl
Jan 20, 2006·Psychology and Aging·Mara Mather, Marisa Knight
Jan 5, 2007·Psychology and Aging·Ruthann C Thomas, Lynn Hasher
May 15, 2007·Experimental Aging Research·Pascal W M Van GervenJelle Jolles
Jul 25, 2007·Memory & Cognition·Raoul Bell, Axel Buchner
Jun 25, 2008·Psychology and Aging·Raoul BellIris Mund

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Citations

Jan 23, 2013·Acta Psychologica·Maria J S GuerreiroPascal W M Van Gerven
Nov 26, 2013·Psychonomic Bulletin & Review·Maria J S GuerreiroPascal W M Van Gerven
Jan 30, 2015·PsyCh Journal·Patrik Sörqvist, Jerker Rönnberg
Apr 12, 2016·Frontiers in Human Neuroscience·Pascal W M Van Gerven, Maria J S Guerreiro
Apr 14, 2016·Experimental Aging Research·James R HoustonDavid J Madden
May 24, 2014·Psychological Research·Alicia LeivaPilar Andrés
Jul 15, 2016·Experimental Aging Research·Kimiko KatoKengo Ito
Feb 9, 2021·Cognition·Tiziana PedaleValerio Santangelo

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