Here's looking at you: the relative effect of age and attractiveness on judgments about memory failure
Article Abstract:
Memory failure is common, but the way it is interpreted by others can vary greatly. For instance, if a young person forgets something, others may not attach any significance to this, but in an older person the same forgetfulness might be explained as evidence of changes in mental capacity related to age or illness. The person experiencing the memory failure can be affected by these interpretations such that confidence, self-esteem, cognitive performance, and psychological well-being may suffer. Studies have found that attractiveness, like age, elicits strong judgments by others. Attractive faces are seen as more socially desirable, and therefore they are the object of less harsh judgments. Given the similarities between society's treatment of age and attractiveness, it was hypothesized in the current study that memory failures of the elderly and of unattractive adults would be expected by subjects and would therefore be attributed to stable causes such as aging or intellectual deficits. In contrast, it was hypothesized that memory failures in younger adults and attractive adults would be less expected and more likely to be attributed to unstable causes such as unimportance of the forgotten material. The subjects were 36 young women with a mean age of 22.1 years and 36 elderly women with a mean age of 70.7 years. The women were presented with 12 memory vignettes along with a photograph of a woman for each. Memory failures in the vignettes were either of short-term memory, long-term memory, or very-long-term memory. Overall, memory failures of elderly women and unattractive women were attributed by the subjects to lack of ability, whereas forgetful young women were said to be inattentive and lacking in effort. Attractive women, on the other hand, were said to have difficulty remembering because of task difficulty and lack of attention. Elderly and unattractive women were also more likely to have greater mental difficulties, according to subjects, than young and attractive women, and it was more often suggested that they be referred for evaluation. Further analysis showed that age was a stronger factor than attractiveness in the judgements of the subjects. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Journals of Gerontology
Subject: Seniors
ISSN: 0022-1422
Year: 1991
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Young and older adults' appraisal of memory failures in young and older adult target persons
Article Abstract:
Concern about losing one's memory is very common, if not universal, among the elderly. There is currently much research being done about memory loss and aging. While some studies have found older persons are more likely to be forgetful, other studies have actually measured no decrease in memory with aging, particularly when real-life, familiar tasks are tested. A person's perception of his or another person's memory power may also be affected by attitudes about aging and senility. It has been suggested that people apply a 'double standard' when judging memory lapses, assuming that if an elderly person forgets, he is senile, while if a young person forgets, this is normal and natural. This study was designed to evaluate whether such a double standard exists. One hundred fifteen college students were asked to read various vignettes describing another person's memory lapse, and were then told to rate the seriousness of each memory failure. The vignettes described common instances of forgetfulness, such as forgetting a person's name, failing to remember to buy something, and forgetting how to reach a certain destination. For every type of memory lapse, a more serious and a less serious version were included (such as forgetting the name of a person you know well versus forgetting the name of someone you just met.) Each student then rated each memory failure on a scale of 'not at all serious' (could happen to anyone) to 'very serious' (sign of mental difficulty). The subjects had been told that the woman in the vignette was either 30 or 70 years old, and the seriousness of the lapse was considered greater when they thought she was 70 versus 30. Another subject group of 79 older adults read the same vignettes, but were not influenced by the woman's age in their ratings of the seriousness of the memory lapses. Thus, the younger subjects were more judgmental of forgetfulness in an older person than in a younger person, while older subjects did not apply this double standard. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Journals of Gerontology
Subject: Seniors
ISSN: 0022-1422
Year: 1989
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Age differences in memory for two common objects
Article Abstract:
Research has often shown that older persons perform less well than younger persons in tasks involving memory. The elderly may also be hesitant to make decisions in the laboratory setting, according to one study. These possible age differences were evaluated in a study of 30 older adults (aged 54 to 79) and 30 younger adults (aged 18 to 28). Instead of testing their recognition of objects that had been designed for research studies, familiar objects from real life were used. The subjects were shown 15 possible versions of the head of a Lincoln penny and 15 versions of a push-button telephone dial, and were asked to choose the one in each case that was correct. Many of the drawings differed only in minor ways from the correct version. It was found that the older subjects were wrong in their choices more often than the younger subjects, which supports previous studies of memory. However, the older people were not more cautious in making decisions, in fact, they were more confident that they were correct than the younger subjects. Perhaps the use of familiar objects enhanced the confidence of older persons, who may be less confident of their perceptions regarding unfamiliar objects. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Journals of Gerontology
Subject: Seniors
ISSN: 0022-1422
Year: 1989
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