Plasticity in older adults’ theory of mind performance: the impact of motivation

Zhang, Xin; Lecce, Serena; Ceccato, Irene; Cavallini, Elena; Linfang, Zhang; Chen, Tianyong

doi:10.1080/13607863.2017.1376313

Cited by 16 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Hence, the authors hypothesized that the manipulation of perceived closeness may increase emotional meaningfulness and potential motivation in accomplishing a task, thus leading to better performance. In line with their expectations, the authors found that perceived closeness enhanced older Chinese participants’ performance on both ER and ToM tasks [24,25].…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 61%

“…On the one hand, accountability should increase motivation and performance, yet Stanley and Isaacowitz [26] found that it did not significantly improve older adults’ emotion recognition performance. On the other hand, Zhang et al [24,25] and Stanley and Isaacowitz [26] manipulated familiarity in markedly different ways, and found that it did improve older adults’ social-cognition.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The second way that Zhang et al [24,25] primed closeness was twofold: first, the experimenter told participants that the participant’s answers on a daily activity scale were very similar to the experimenter’s own profile; second, a participant’s relative (grandchild or sibling) served as experimenter. Thus, in both cases, the primed closeness manipulation created an in-group containing experimenter and participant.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In sum, both Zhang and colleagues [24,25] and Stanley and Isaacowitz [26] argued that familiarity facilitates older adults’ motivation and subsequent social-cognitive reasoning. However, neither group actually measured motivation and it is possible to hypothesize different explanations for each finding not relying on motivation and effort mobilization.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Second, previous studies did not examine whether a positive effect of motivation would be specific to social-cognitive performance (i.e., ER and/or ToM), or whether it extended to general task performance. Zhang and colleagues [24,25] and Stanley and Isaacowitz [26] have argued that motivation affects performance on social-cognitive tasks. However, according to the selective engagement theory older adults should refrain from engaging in effortful activities [22], and this should affect their performance on a range of tasks, including non-social control tasks.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Motivation and social-cognitive abilities in older adults: Convergent evidence from self-report measures and cardiovascular reactivity

Ceccato¹,

Lecce²,

Cavallini³

et al. 2019

PLoS ONE

Self Cite

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Recently, some authors have suggested that age-related impairments in social-cognitive abilities—emotion recognition (ER) and theory of mind (ToM)—may be explained in terms of reduced motivation and effort mobilization in older adults. We examined performance on ER and ToM tasks, as well as corresponding control tasks, experimentally manipulating self-involvement. Sixty-one older adults and 57 young adults were randomly assigned to either a High or Low self-involvement condition. In the first condition, self-involvement was raised by telling participants were told that good task performance was associated with a number of positive, personally relevant social outcomes. Motivation was measured with both subjective (self-report questionnaire) and objective (systolic blood pressure reactivity—SBP-R) indices. Results showed that the self-involvement manipulation did not increase self-reported motivation, SBP-R, or task performance. Further correlation analyses focusing on individual differences in motivation did not reveal any association with performance, in either young or older adults. Notably, we found age-related decline in both ER and ToM, despite older adults having higher motivation than young adults. Overall, the present results were not consistent with previous claims that motivation affects older adults’ social-cognitive performance, opening the route to potential alternative explanations.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 61%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Motivation and social-cognitive abilities in older adults: Convergent evidence from self-report measures and cardiovascular reactivity

Ceccato¹,

Lecce²,

Cavallini³

et al. 2019

PLoS ONE

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Analyzing the Dynamics Between Theory of Mind, Speech Disorders, and Brain Rewiring in Aphasia

Lopez-Soto

2023

Logic, Argumentation &Amp; Reasoning

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Aging and social cognition: A comprehensive review of the literature.

Fernandes¹,

Barbosa²,

Martins³

et al. 2021

Psychology & Neuroscience

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Aging is associated with a decline in several neurocognitive processes but also with a preserved or even improved emotional functioning. As both neurocognitive and emotional processes are implicated in social cognition, what happens to this domain during aging? Social cognition broadly refers to the ability to construct mental representations of the relations between oneself and others and to use them to guide social behavior. It involves the processing of information that is relevant to guide the behavior in social contexts, but considering that most information is relevant for this purpose, social cognition became a term too general to be measurable. To make this construct quantifiable, it is typically divided into subdomains that are studied separately, among which emotional identification, theory of mind, and social perception are the most studied. In this comprehensive review, we discuss the core insights into the effects of aging on these domains of social cognition, present the main up-to-date findings and point to areas that demand further investigation. This review highlights that aging may affect all these domains, even if a preserved or even improved performance is occasionally found. Further studies are needed to reach higher consistency. Public Significance StatementAging has been associated with decreasing biological and cognitive functioning, but also with increasing emotional regulation. Considering the role of emotional and cognitive abilities on social cognition, it is necessary to clarify the effects of aging on this domain, which is a fundamental component of successful social interactions. Social interactions are of extreme importance during aging considering that older adults with stronger social relationships are less likely to decline in cognitive functions.

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Plasticity in older adults’ theory of mind performance: the impact of motivation

Abstract: These results indicate that motivation can enhance older adults' performance in ToM tasks, however, this beneficial effect cannot be generalized across ToM tasks.

Cited by 16 publications

References 49 publications

Motivation and social-cognitive abilities in older adults: Convergent evidence from self-report measures and cardiovascular reactivity

Motivation and social-cognitive abilities in older adults: Convergent evidence from self-report measures and cardiovascular reactivity

Analyzing the Dynamics Between Theory of Mind, Speech Disorders, and Brain Rewiring in Aphasia

Aging and social cognition: A comprehensive review of the literature.

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