Adult age differences in remembering gain- and loss-related intentions. Issue 8 (17th November 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Horn, Sebastian S.; Freund, Alexandra M.
• Is Part Of: Cognition and emotion. Volume 35:Issue 8(2021)
• Page Start: 1652
• Page End: 1669
• Publication Date: 2021-11-17
• Subjects: Gains and losses -- cognitive aging -- motivational orientation -- lifespan psychology -- prospective memory; Cognition -- Periodicals; Emotions and cognition -- Periodicals; 155.413
• DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2021.1986375
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0269-9931

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Motivational and emotional changes across adulthood have a profound impact on cognition. In this registered report, we conducted an experimental investigation of motivational influence on remembering intentions after a delay (prospective memory; PM) in younger, middle-aged, and older adults, using gain- and loss-framing manipulations. The present study examined for the first time whether motivational framing in a PM task has different effects on younger and older adults' PM performance ( N = 180; age range: 18–85 years) in a controlled laboratory setting. Based on lifespan theories of motivation, we assumed that the prevention of losses becomes more relevant with increasing age: We expected that older adults show relatively higher PM performance in a task with loss-related consequences following PM failure than in a task in which successful PM leads to gains. The opposite pattern of performance was expected for younger adults. The findings suggest that the relevance of reward and positive gain-related consequences for successful remembering appears to decrease with age. As hypothesised, a motivational framing × age interaction indicated that age differences in memory performance were smaller with loss-related than gain-related consequences, supporting a loss-prevention view on motivated cognition.