Negative emotional outcomes impair older adults’ reversal learning

Negative emotional outcomes impair older adults' reversal learning.

In a typical reversal-learning experiment, one learns stimulus-outcome contingencies that then switch without warning. For instance, participants might have to repeatedly choose between two faces, one of which yields points whereas the other does not, with a reversal at some point in which face yields points. The current study examined age differences in the effects of outcome type on reversal ...

Racial stereotypes impair flexibility of emotional learning.

Flexibility of associative learning can be revealed by establishing and then reversing cue-outcome discriminations. Here, we used functional MRI to examine whether neurobehavioral correlates of reversal-learning are impaired in White and Asian volunteers when initial learning involves fear-conditioning to a racial out-group. For one group, the picture of a Black male was initially paired with s...

Motor Learning and Movement Performance: Older versus Younger Adults

Introduction: Motor skills play an important role during life span, and older adults need to learn or relearn these skills. The purpose of this study was to investigate how aging affects induction of improved movement performance by motor training. Methods: Serial Reaction Time Test (SRTT) was used to assess movement performance during 8 blocks of motor training. Participants were tested i...

Differential Brain Activity During Emotional vs . Non - emotional Reversal Learning

Stereotype threat can both enhance and impair older adults' memory.

Negative stereotypes about aging can impair older adults' memory via stereotype threat; however, the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are unclear. In two experiments, we tested competing predictions derived from two theoretical accounts of stereotype threat: executive-control interference and regulatory fit. Older adults completed a working memory test either under stereotype threat about ...