The Time Course of Age-Related Preferences Toward Positive and Negative Stimuli

Derek M. Isaacowitz, Eric S. Allard, Nora A. Murphy and Mark Schlangel

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2009, vol. 64B, issue 2, 188-192

Abstract: When and why do older adults show positive preferences in their gaze patterns, looking preferentially toward positive and away from some negative stimuli? The current study investigated the time course of older adults' preferential fixation toward positive (happy) stimuli and away from negative (angry) stimuli to discern whether such patterns are more consistent with cognitive control or with simplified processing accounts of their origins. Positive preferences in older adults were found to emerge only 500 ms and later after stimulus onset and increased linearly over time; this time course is consistent with a cognitive control account. Copyright 2009, Oxford University Press.

Date: 2009
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbn036 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:geronb:v:64b:y:2009:i:2:p:188-192

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B is currently edited by Psychological Sciences - S. Duke Han, PhD and Social Sciences - Jessica A Kelley, PhD, FGSA

More articles in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B from The Gerontological Society of America Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().