How list composition affects the emotional enhancement of memory in younger and older adults.

Young adults show an immediate emotional enhancement of memory (EEM) when emotional and non-emotional information are presented in mixed lists but not pure lists, but it is unclear whether older adults' memories also benefit from the cognitive factors producing the list-composition effect. The present study examined whether the list-composition effect extended to older adults (55+), testing the following alternatives: (1) younger and older adults could show the list-composition effect, (2) due to age-related decreases in cognitive resources, older adults may show weaker effects of list-composition, or (3) due to age-related positivity effects, older adults' list-composition effect may vary by valence. Results supported the first alternative: the list-composition effect occurred for older as well as younger adults, when testing memory for pictures (Experiment 1) or words (Experiment 2).

Perceived event resolution-rather than time-allows older adults to reduce the negativity of their memories.

In addition to showing greater memory positivity soon after negative events, older adults can be more likely than younger adults to show decreases in memory negativity as events grow more distant. We recently showed that this latter effect was not present when adults were asked to rate memories of the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic (March-May 2020): after a short (June/July 2020) and long delay (October/November 2020), older age was associated with greater reflections on positive aspects, but with no difference in negative aspects. We suggested that older adults did not show decreased negativity because the pandemic was still prevalent in their daily lives.

With age comes well-being: older age associated with lower stress, negative affect, and depression throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite initial concerns about older adult's emotional well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic, reports from the first months of the pandemic suggested that older adults were faring better than younger adults, reporting lower stress, negative affect, depression, and anxiety. In this study, we examined whether this pattern would persist as the pandemic progressed. A convenience sample of 1,171 community-dwelling adults in the United States, ages 18-90, filled out surveys on various metrics of emotional well-being starting in March 2020 and at various time points through April 2021.

Older adults remember more positive aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The initial phase of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic changed our lives dramatically, with stay-at-home orders and extreme physical distancing requirements. The present study suggests that how adults remember these disruptions depends, in part, on their age. In two surveys collected from American and Canadian participants during Summer 2020 (n = 551) and Fall 2020 (n = 506), older age (across ages 18-90 years) was associated with greater reflections on positive aspects of the initial phase of the pandemic.

The relation between age and experienced stress, worry, affect, and depression during the spring 2020 phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

Advanced age is often associated with increased emotional well-being, with older adults reporting more positive and less negative affect than younger adults. Here, we test whether this pattern held during the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic that disproportionately put older adults at risk. We additionally examine potential moderating effects of daily activity and social connectedness, which have been shown to benefit mental health across the life span.

Effects of HD-tDCS on memory and metamemory for general knowledge questions that vary by difficulty.

Background: The ability to monitor one's own memory is an important feature of normal memory and is an aspect of 'metamemory'. Lesion studies have shown dissociations between memory and metamemory, but only single dissociations have been shown using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). One potential reason that only single dissociations have been shown is that tDCS effects may be moderated by task difficulty.