How Feelings of Stereotype Threat Influence Older Adults' Memory Performance

Abstract

The purpose of the present research was to explore the role of stereotype threat as a mediator of older people's memory performance under different instructional sets. In three studies, younger and older participants completed a memory test that was either framed as a memorization or as an impression formation task. Across these studies, memory performance was greater for younger than for older adults and was higher in the impression formation than memorization condition, but was not different for older adults in the two instruction conditions. These results also showed that age differences in memory performance were mediated by participants' feelings of stereotype threat, such that age was positively related to stereotype threat and stereotype threat was negatively related to memory performance. These data demonstrate that concerns about being negatively stereotyped influence age differences in memory performance, and that the effects of these feelings on performance are not easily reduced by reframing the task instructions.

The Dynamic Effects of Age-Related Stereotype Threat on Explicit and Implicit Memory Performance in Older Adults

“…Results from both types of ST manipulations reveal that evoking a negative stereotype about age-related memory decline causes older adults' memory performance to covary with degree of activation of the negative aging stereotype, while younger adults memory performance remains unaffected by the threat manipulation (Hess, Auman, Colcombe, & Rahhal, 2003). This result holds for both the free recall of material (Hess, Auman, Colcombe, & Rahhal, 2003;Chasteen, Bhattacharyya, Horhota, Tam & Hasher, 2005;Levy, 1996), recognition (Rahhal, Hasher, and Colcombe, 2001;Chasteen, Bhattacharyya, Horhota, Tam & Hasher, 2005), and false memory suggestibility (Thomas & Dubois, 2011). Past studies exploring ST effects on older adults' memory abilities have relied almost exclusively on explicit memory measures (but see Mazerolle, Régner, Morisset, Rigalleau & Huguet, 2012, for a recent study on automatic and controlled memory operations and aging).…”

“…ST has been studied extensively in a laboratory setting, in a number of different populations, and the findings are ubiquitous. Effects of threats to intellectual ability have been found in highly educated African Americans (Steele & Aronson, 1995), women in mathematics (Adams, Garcia, Purdie-Vaughs & Steele, 2006;Spencer, Steele & Quinn, 1999;Steele & Ambady, 2006), chess players (Maass, D'Ettole & Cadinu, 2008), and, according to a growing literature, memory performance in older adults when they are made aware of culturally held negative stereotypes associating memory loss and old age (Andreletti & Lachman, 2004;Barber & Mather, in press a,b,c ; Chasteen, Bhattacharyya, Horhota, Tam & Hasher, 2005;Hess, Auman, Colcombe, & Rahhal, 2003;Hess & Hinson, 2006;Hess, Hinson & Hodges, 2009).…”

Stereotypes of Aging: Their Effects on the Health of Older Adults

“…Most studies underpinned by stereotype threat theory have examined memory or cognitive performance of older adults [12]. The relationship between stereotype threat and regressions in memory performance has been found among older adults who were explicitly primed with a negative stereotype (in the way the task was framed) [43][44][45], especially among those who were greatly invested in their memory ability or had high levels of education [46][47][48]. Stereotype threat has also been found to worsen older adults' math performance [49] and general cognitive ability [50].…”

The Effects of Aging Stereotype on the Memory in the Elderly: A Review

“…。老化刻板印象对老年人的影响 主要表现在生理功能、认知功能和行为结果三个方面。生理功能包括感知觉、冠心病、心脏病等 (Levy, Slade, & Gill, 2006;Levy, Zonderman, Slade, & Ferrucci, 2009)；认知功能包括学习能力、记忆能力、思维 能力等 (Chasteen, Bhattacharyya, Horhota, Tam, & Hasher, 2005;Desrichard & Köpetz, 2010)；行为结果包括 步子大小、步行速度、书写笔迹好坏等 (Bargh, Chen, & Burrows, 1996;Levy et al, 2000)。 不过由于老化刻板印象的类型不同，其对老年人的影响也是不同的。其中最主要的分类方法是根据 老化刻板印象的效价，将其分为积极老化刻板印象和消极老化刻板印象 (Horton, Baker, Pearce, & Deakin, 2008;Meisner, 2012 …”