ABSTRACT:According to the literature there is not one but multiple memory systems. In particular, two forms of memory can be distinguished in long-term memory: the explicit or declarative memory and the implicit or non-declarative memory. Different stimuli (words, faces/photographs/images or storytelling) of emotional significance (neutral/positive/negative) have been used to explain the functional interdependence between memory and emotion, with the relevance of affective material in the processing of information appearing to increase with age (Carstensen & Mikels, 2005). With the association of a depressed emotional state, several authors suggest that the information that is affectively congruent with a person's state of mind/mood is better remembered than information that is affectively incongruent (Joorman & Gotlib, 2006; Lepännen, 2006). In this study we evaluate the conscious and non-conscious mnemonic processing of emotional words. To this end, 200 older adults aged between 60 and 89 were involved and two specific tests were designed (word recognition test and bigram completion test).In both tasks, the emotion words were better recognised and recalled than the ageing words. Despite the research hypotheses have not been confirmed, the emotional content of the stimuli somehow facilitated the retrieval of previously stored information. The differences found when comparing the group of the depressed with the non-depressed elderly are not statistically significant (p

RESUMOIntrodução: Em constante interacção com os processos cognitivos encontra-se a emoção. No curso do envelhecimento humano verifica-se uma frequência elevada dos estados depressivos (Snowdon, 2001a,b). Resultados de pesquisas põem em evidência que a presença de um estado depressivo determina a forma como um estímulo (neutro vs positivo vs negativo) é selectivamente atendido (Shane & Peterson, 2007) e recordado (Ochsner, 2000). Objetivos: Com este estudo procura-se avaliar a existência de um viés atencional produzido por palavras emocionais em idosos deprimidos e não deprimidos. Metodologia: Participaram 200 idosos com idades compreendidas entre 60 e os 88 anos (M=67.7; DP=6.9). Cento e trinta dos participantes (65%) não apresentaram depressão, ao passo que 70 (35%) apresentaram depressão ligeira e grave, com base na Escala de Depressão Geriátrica (GDS) (Barreto, Leuschner, Santos & Sobral, 2003). Especificamente neste estudo foi utilizada a tarefa stroop emocional (Prata, 2013). Resultados: Foram encontradas diferenças estatisticamente significativas entre os dois grupos, sendo que os participantes deprimidos nomeiam menos cores de palavras do que os não deprimidos em qualquer uma das lâminas apresentadas. Conclusões: Os resultados obtidos sugerem que o desempenho dos idosos deprimidos ficou prejudicado devido à presença de um viés atencional, suportando uma relação congruente entre o estado emocional e o processamento atencional selectivo.Palavras-chave: Tarefa Stroop emocional, víes atencional, depressão, idosos ABSTRACT Introduction: In permanent interaction with cognitive processes is emotion. In the course of human ageing it is verified a high frequency of depressed states (Snowdon, 2001). Research results evidences that the presence of a depressive state determines how (neutral vs positive vs negative) stimulus is selectively attended (Shane & Peterson, 2007) and recollected (Ochsner, 2000). Objectives: With this study it is evaluated the existence of bias attentional produced by emotional words in non-depressed and depressed older people. Methodology: Of the two hundred elderly aged between 60 and 88 (M=67.7; SD=6.9) who participated. One hundred and thirty participants (65%) showed no signs of depression whereas seventy (35%) showed mild and severe depression, with base on the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) (Barreto, Leuschner, Santos & Sobral, 2003). Specifically in this study was used emotional Stroop task (Prata, 2013). Results: Significant statistic differences were found between the two groups, with the depressed participants naming less colours of words than the non-depressed ones in any of the blades. Conclusions: The results obtained suggest that the depressed older people performance was impaired due to the presence of an attentional bias, supporting a coherent relation between the emotional state and the selective attentional procedure. Keywords: Emotional Stroop task, attention bias, depression, older people. INTRODUÇÃOA atenção é um dos domínios cognitivos mais complexos estudados pela ...