Motivation moderates the impact of aging stereotypes on effort expenditure

Aging Stigma and the Health of US Adults Over 65: What Do We Know?

This narrative review assessed the current state of research on aging stigma and health relevant to US adults ages 65 and older. We adopted a stigma framework to highlight aging stigma as a meaningful social construct and the complex ways in which it may be harmful for health. We identified 29 studies of various types (experimental, intervention, cross-sectional quantitative, longitudinal quantitative, and qualitative) published between 2010 and 2023 that investigated relationships between concepts related to aging stigma and health. Aging stigma was associated with poor short- and long-term health outcomes spanning cognition, psychological wellbeing, physical health, and hospitalizations. The premise that aging stigma is harmful to health was moderately well supported, while evidence that health influenced aging stigma was weak. Collectively, studies provided insight into several mechanisms through which aging stigma may affect the health of older US adults, while also highlighting areas for future research. Potential strategies for addressing aging stigma as a public health hazard were discussed.

Biases in Retrospective Perceptions of Changes in Well-Being Associated With Aging Attitudes

OBJECTIVES

Aging attitudes have important consequences on functioning in later life. A critical question concerns whether such attitudes may bias perceptions of one's own aging, with potentially negative effects on important outcomes.

METHODS

Using data from adults aged 30-85 years in Germany (n = 623), Hong Kong (n = 317), and the United States (n = 313), we examined the impact of age and aging attitudes on accuracy of perceptions of change in well-being over 5 years in different domains of functioning.

RESULTS

Across contexts, comparisons revealed good correspondence between retrospective reports and actual change. However, older adults and those with negative attitudes retrospectively reported less positive change over this period. Inconsistent with expectations, attitudes did not consistently bias accuracy of retrospective reports over cultures and domains of functioning, nor did age have a consistent moderating effect on the impact of attitudes on accuracy.

DISCUSSION

The results highlight the complex relationship between various personal characteristics and perceptions of change in well-being, as well as the potentially insidious effects of attitudes on the accuracy of these perceptions.

Aging attitudes and changes in the costs of cognitive engagement in older adults over 5 years

The costs associated with performing a specific activity may play an important role in determining engagement, potentially impacting the willingness of older adults to engage in activities-particularly those with high demands-that may have benefits for physical and cognitive health. The present study examined changes in both objective (effort expenditure) and subjective (perceived task demands) costs associated with engagement in a cognitively challenging memory-scan task across a 5-year period in 163 older adults aged 64-81. Consistent with assumptions of selective engagement theory (SET; Hess, 2014), the effort associated with performing the task-as assessed by systolic blood pressure responses-was observed to increase over time. Subjective assessments of costs, as assessed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration task load index (NASA TLX), were also observed to increase. In addition, the increases in both objective and subjective costs were greatest at high levels of task demands. We further found that both the effort and, to a lesser extent, perceived costs associated with performance were moderated by aging attitudes. Specifically, more positive attitudes were associated with greater effort expenditure and lower perceived costs. These findings suggest that negative attitudes about aging may have detrimental effects on perceived ability to perform challenging tasks. Given the importance of costs in determining activity participation, promoting positive aging attitudes along with more realistic perceptions of task demands may provide important means for promoting engagement in beneficial activities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The influence of age and age simulation on task-difficulty choices in motor tasks

    Having a realistic perception of one's motor abilities is important for successful aging. We used two different motor tasks, carrying a tray with cube-towers (study 1; n = 20 young adults; n = 20 older adults), and stepping over a crossbar (study 2; n = 23 young adults; n = 21 older adults), to investigate how physical risk influences task-difficulty choices. We also investigated the effect of wearing an age simulation suit on young adults. For the tray-carrying task, older adults were more risk-tolerant in their task-difficulty choices. When stepping over the crossbar, older adults left a larger "safety-buffer" than young adults. When wearing the age suit, young adults adopted a more careful strategy in the stepping task. We conclude that healthy older adults flexibly adjust their strategies to postural risks, and that young adults' strategy-choices can be influenced by experimentally inducing some of the sensory-motor constraints of old age.

Effort Mobilization and Healthy Aging

Healthy aging is in part dependent upon people's willingness and ability to mobilize the effort necessary to support behaviors that promote health and well-being. People may have the best information relating to health along with the best intentions to stay healthy (e.g., health-related goals), but positive outcomes will ultimately be dependent upon them actually investing the necessary effort toward using this information to achieve their goals. In addition, the influences on effort mobilization may vary as a function of physical, psychological, and social changes experienced by the individual across the life span. Building on the overall theme of this special issue, we explore the relationships between motivation, effort mobilization, and healthy aging. We begin by characterizing the relationship between motivation and effort, and identify the factors that influence effort mobilization. We then consider the factors associated specifically with aging that may influence effort mobilization (e.g., changes in cardiovascular and neural mechanisms) and, ultimately, the health and well-being of older adults. Finally, distinguishing between those influential factors that are modifiable versus intractable, we identify ways to structure situations and beliefs to optimize mobilization in support of healthy aging.

BFF: Bayesian, Fiducial, and Frequentist Analysis of Cognitive Engagement among Cognitively Impaired Older Adults

Engagement in cognitively demanding activities is beneficial to preserving cognitive health. Our goal was to demonstrate the utility of frequentist, Bayesian, and fiducial statistical methods for evaluating the robustness of effects in identifying factors that contribute to cognitive engagement for older adults experiencing cognitive decline. We collected a total of 504 observations across two longitudinal waves of data from 28 cognitively impaired older adults. Participants’ systolic blood pressure responsivity, an index of cognitive engagement, was continuously sampled during cognitive testing. Participants reported on physical and mental health challenges and provided hair samples to assess chronic stress at each wave. Using the three statistical paradigms, we compared results from six model testing levels and longitudinal changes in health and stress predicting changes in cognitive engagement. Findings were mostly consistent across the three paradigms, providing additional confidence in determining effects. We extend selective engagement theory to cognitive impairment, noting that health challenges and stress appear to be important moderators. Further, we emphasize the utility of the Bayesian and fiducial paradigms for use with relatively small sample sizes because they are not based on asymptotic distributions. In particular, the fiducial paradigm is a useful tool because it provides more information than p values without the need to specify prior distributions, which may unduly influence the results based on a small sample. We provide the R code used to develop and implement all models.

Adult Age Differences in the Effects of Chronic Mental Fatigue on Task-Related Fatigue, Appraisals, and Performance

Engagement in potentially beneficial activities is assumed to be based partially on perceived costs and benefits. Mental fatigue may be one factor that affects perceived costs. We examined age differences in both chronic and situational mental fatigue, and their relation to task perceptions and engagement levels. Younger (M _age = 32.6) and older (M _age = 73.1) adults completed questionnaires measuring subjective mental fatigue, physical and mental health, and motivational states, along with several assessments of cognitive ability. In addition, assessments of effort expenditure (systolic blood pressure) and task difficulty were collected during performance of a cognitively demanding memory-scan task. Two components of chronic mental fatigue (CMF) relating to affect and motivation were identified. Although the structure of CMF did not vary with age, CMF was differentially predictive of engagement and appraisal levels across groups. As CMF-Affect levels increased, older adults' task-difficulty appraisals increased more than those of younger adults. In addition, CMF-Affect was positively associated with levels of engagement in the young, but negatively associated in the old as memory load increased. Older adults also exhibited higher levels of situational fatigue than did the young, as evidenced by increased levels of effort expenditure as both time on task and objective demands increased. However, little relationship existed between chronic and situational mental fatigue in either age group. These findings suggest that the affective aspect of CMF is particularly consequential in older adults, with both task appraisals and engagement levels being negatively affected when fatigue is high.

Predictors of engagement in young and older adults: The role of specific activity experience

Activity that places demands on cognitive resources has positive effects on cognitive health in old age. To further understand determinants of age-group differences in participation, we examined how negative aging stereotypes and responses associated with a cognitively challenging activity influenced future willingness to engage in that activity. Sixty-nine young (20-40 years) and 80 older (63-84 years) adults performed a letter-number sequencing (LNS) task at different levels of demand for 15 min, during which systolic blood pressure responses-a measure of effort mobilization-and subjective perceptions of task demands were assessed. Approximately half the participants were primed with a negative aging stereotype prior to this task. Following the LNS task, participants completed an effort-discounting task, with resulting subjective values indicating their willingness to perform the task at each level of demand. As expected, both subjective and objective indicators of cognitive demands as well as performance were associated with future willingness to engage in a difficult task, with these effects being significantly greater for older adults. In addition, although stereotype activation influenced older adults' engagement levels in the LNS task, it did not moderate willingness. Together, the results indicate that, relative to younger adults, older adults' decisions to engage in cognitively challenging activities are disproportionately affected by their subjective perceptions of demands. Interestingly, actual engagement with the task and associated success result in reduced perceptions of difficulty and greater willingness to engage. Thus, overcoming faulty and discouraging task perceptions may promote older adults' engagement in demanding but potentially beneficial activities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

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

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.