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Aging, Emotion, Attention, and Binding in the Taboo Stroop Task: Data and Theories

Author

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  • Donald G. MacKay

    (Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA)

  • Laura W. Johnson

    (Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
    Laura W. Johnson is now at the Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science, Pomona College. Elizabeth R. Graham is now in the Office of Institutional Research, Pomona College.)

  • Elizabeth R. Graham

    (Department of Psychology, Pomona College and Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA 91711, USA
    Laura W. Johnson is now at the Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science, Pomona College. Elizabeth R. Graham is now in the Office of Institutional Research, Pomona College.)

  • Deborah M. Burke

    (Department of Psychology, Pomona College and Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA 91711, USA)

Abstract

How does aging impact relations between emotion, memory, and attention? To address this question, young and older adults named the font colors of taboo and neutral words, some of which recurred in the same font color or screen location throughout two color-naming experiments. The results indicated longer color-naming response times (RTs) for taboo than neutral base-words ( taboo Stroop interference ); better incidental recognition of colors and locations consistently associated with taboo versus neutral words ( taboo context-memory enhancement ); and greater speed-up in color-naming RTs with repetition of color-consistent than color-inconsistent taboo words, but no analogous speed-up with repetition of location-consistent or location-inconsistent taboo words ( the consistency type by repetition interaction for taboo words ). All three phenomena remained constant with aging, consistent with the transmission deficit hypothesis and binding theory, where familiar emotional words trigger age-invariant reactions for prioritizing the binding of contextual features to the source of emotion. Binding theory also accurately predicted the interaction between consistency type and repetition for taboo words. However, one or more aspects of these phenomena failed to support the inhibition deficit hypothesis, resource capacity theory, or socio-emotional selectivity theory. We conclude that binding theory warrants further test in a range of paradigms, and that relations between aging and emotion, memory, and attention may depend on whether the task and stimuli trigger fast-reaction, involuntary binding processes, as in the taboo Stroop paradigm.

Suggested Citation

  • Donald G. MacKay & Laura W. Johnson & Elizabeth R. Graham & Deborah M. Burke, 2015. "Aging, Emotion, Attention, and Binding in the Taboo Stroop Task: Data and Theories," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-31, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:12:y:2015:i:10:p:12803-12833:d:57075
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Elizabeth A. Kensinger, 2008. "Age Differences in Memory for Arousing and Nonarousing Emotional Words," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 63(1), pages 13-18.
    2. Mara Mather & Marisa R. Knight, 2006. "Angry Faces Get Noticed Quickly: Threat Detection is not Impaired Among Older Adults," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 61(1), pages 54-57.
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