Theory of Mind in aging: Comparing cognitive and affective components in the faux pas test

Bottiroli, Sara; Cavallini, Elena; Ceccato, Irene; Vecchi, Tomaso; Lecce, Serena

doi:10.1016/j.archger.2015.09.009

Cited by 108 publications

(120 citation statements)

References 95 publications

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“…In keeping with previous studies in ageing (Bottiroli, Cavallini, Ceccato, Vecchi, & Lecce, 2016;Henry et al, 2013), all three ToM measures derived from the SSFT (and the memory question) correlated negatively with age. Despite using a measure designed to optimise ecologically validity, age-related declines in performance were still observed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 58%

Cognitive and affective associations with an ecologically valid test of theory of mind across the lifespan.

Nolaker¹,

Murray

Happé

et al. 2018

Neuropsychology

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Objectives: Many studies have demonstrated that theory of mind (ToM) ability declines with increasing age. Research has found that ToM-age associations are often mediated by other cognitive abilities particularly executive function. However, older adults rarely complain about real-world ToM difficulties.It has been suggested that older adults may perform better in real-world situations compared to experimental settings.Methods: We examined performance on the Strange Stories Film Task (SSFT) which has been designed to assess ToM using naturalistic, video scenarios. Sixty adults aged between 17-95 years old completed the SSFT, inhibitory control (Stroop) and working memory (Letter-Number Sequencing) measures, the basic empathy scale (cognitive and affective empathy), and the broad autism phenotype questionnaire.Results: ToM performance correlated significantly with age, whereas performance on a control task did not. Partial correlations and stepwise regression analyses demonstrated that performance on the three SSFT ToM measures was explained by a combination of executive function and empathy measures, with age explaining none of the variance.Conclusions: Using a naturalistic test of ToM, performance was shown to decline with age for ToM but not control scenarios. Across the lifespan, the variance in ToM performance was explained by cognitive abilities and empathy but not age. Age alone may not influence ToM ability, but may be associated with age-related changes in cognition and social-cognition. Theory of Mind across the adult lifespan Public SignificanceOlder age is associated with poorer ability to understand the mental states of others, although older adults ready complain about the quality of their social interactions. Using a video task of real-world scenarios, we found that although poorer theory of mind ability was associated with older age, performance was explained by other cognitive abilities. Age-related cognitive difficulties rather than age alone may explain changes in understanding others in later life.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 58%

Cognitive and affective associations with an ecologically valid test of theory of mind across the lifespan.

Nolaker¹,

Murray

Happé

et al. 2018

Neuropsychology

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“…Its neural correlates depend on whether cognitive (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex [dmPFC], temporoparietal junction [TPJ]) or affective (ventromedial prefrontal cortex [vmPFC], MTL) theory of mind are employed (Li, Mai, & Liu, 2014). Age-related declines in ability and neural mechanisms of cognitive theory of mind (Bottiroli, Cavallini, Ceccato, Vecchi, & Lecce, 2016;Charlton, Barrick, Markus, & Morris, 2009;Moran, Jolly, & Mitchell, 2012) but relative stability in affective theory of mind (Bottiroli et al, 2016;Ebner, Bailey, Horta, Joiner, & Chang, 2016;Mather, 2016), lead to older adults' deficits in mentalizing others' thoughts but not in mentalizing their affective states. These predicted asymmetrical age-related trajectories for cognitive and affective theory of mind and their subsequent effects on social-decision making performance are illustrated in Figure 2a.…”

Section: Integrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

CISDA: Changes in Integration for Social Decisions in Aging

Frazier

Lighthall

Horta

et al. 2019

WIRES Cognitive Science

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The aging of our population has been accompanied by increasing concerns about older adults' vulnerability to violations of trust and a growing interest in normative age-related changes to decision making involving social partners. This intersection has spurred research on age-related neurocognitive and affective changes underlying social decision making. Based on our review and synthesis of this literature, we propose a specification that targets social decision making in aging to the recently proposed Affect-Integration-Motivation (AIM) framework. Our framework specification, Changes in Integration for Social Decisions in Aging (CISDA), emphasizes three key components of value integration with particular relevance for social decisions in aging: theory of mind, emotion regulation, and memory for past experience. CISDA builds on converging research from economic decision making, cognitive neuroscience, and lifespan development to outline how age-related changes to neurocognition and behavior impact social decision making. We conclude with recommendations for future research based on CISDA's predictions, including implications for the development of interventions to enhance social decision outcomes in older adults.

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“…Studies examining age-related differences in social cognition have yielded inconsistent results. Some have shown that older adults perform poorer than younger adults (Bailey, Henry, & Von Hippel, 2008;Baksh, Abrahams, Auyeung, & MacPherson, 2018;Bottiroli, Cavallini, Ceccato, Vecchi, & Lecce, 2016;Henry et al, 2013;Moran, Jolly, & Mitchell, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Executive Functions do not Underlie Performance on the Edinburgh Social Cognition Test (ESCoT) in Healthy Younger and Older Adults

Baksh

Bugeja

MacPherson

2020

J Int Neuropsychol Soc

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Objective:Current measures of social cognition have shown inconsistent findings regarding the effects of executive function (EF) abilities on social cognitive performance in older adults. The psychometric properties of the different social cognition tests may underlie the disproportional overlap with EF abilities. Our aim was to examine the relationship between social cognition and EF abilities using the Edinburgh Social Cognition Test (ESCoT; Baksh, R.A., Abrahams, S., Auyeung, B., & MacPherson, S.E. (2018). The Edinburgh Social Cognition Test (ESCoT): Examining the effects of age on a new measure of theory of mind and social norm understanding. PloS One, 13(4), e0195818.), a test assessing four different aspects of social cognition: cognitive theory of mind (ToM), affective ToM, interpersonal understanding of social norms, and intrapersonal understanding of social norms.Method:We administered the ESCoT, EF measures of inhibition, set shifting, updating, and a measure of processing speed to 30 younger and 31 older adults. We also administered the Visual Perspective Taking task (VPT) as a ToM test thought to be reliant on EF abilities.Results:Better performance on cognitive ToM was significantly associated with younger age and slower processing speed. Better performance on affective ToM and ESCoT total score was associated with being younger and female. Better performance on interpersonal understanding of social norms was associated with being younger. EF abilities did not predict performance on any subtest of the ESCoT. In contrast, on the VPT, the relationship between age group and performance was fully or partially mediated by processing speed and updating.Conclusions:These findings show that the ESCoT is a valuable measure of different aspects of social cognition and, unlike many established tests of social cognition, performance is not predicted by EF abilities.

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Theory of Mind in aging: Comparing cognitive and affective components in the faux pas test

Cited by 108 publications

References 95 publications

Cognitive and affective associations with an ecologically valid test of theory of mind across the lifespan.

Cognitive and affective associations with an ecologically valid test of theory of mind across the lifespan.

CISDA: Changes in Integration for Social Decisions in Aging

Executive Functions do not Underlie Performance on the Edinburgh Social Cognition Test (ESCoT) in Healthy Younger and Older Adults

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