Older adults' memory beliefs predict perceptions of memory strategy difficulty and effectiveness.

The current study investigated whether memory self-efficacy and beliefs about the controllability of memory abilities relate to older adults' perceptions of the difficulty and effectiveness of various strategies for improving their everyday memory. One hundred and fifteen older adults (ages 65-89) completed the Personal Beliefs about Memory Instrument to evaluate their beliefs about their own memory abilities and the Memory Strategies Questionnaire to assess perceptions of the difficulty and effectiveness of utilizing six different strategic approaches for optimizing memory function. Results showed that memory-self efficacy related to older adults' perceptions of how difficult various memory strategies are to implement, whereas control beliefs related to perceptions of memory strategy effectiveness. These results advance our understanding of how memory beliefs influence older adults' selection of approaches to improve their everyday memory abilities.

Unwanted help: Accepting versus declining ageist behavior affects impressions of older adults.

What are the consequences for older adults who confront ageism and the perpetrators who engage in ageist behaviors? We compared young (n = 265), middle-aged (n = 338), and older adults' (n = 235) impressions of an older target and the perpetrator of an ageist action. Participants read a vignette about a pedestrian offering unwanted help to an older woman crossing the street. We manipulated the type of ageism (benevolent or hostile), the reaction of the older target (acceptance, moderate confrontation, or strong confrontation) and assessed perceptions of perpetrator appropriateness and how evaluations of warmth, competence, and overall impression of the target changed over time. The perpetrator's act of benevolent ageism was perceived to be more appropriate than hostile ageism, and middle-aged and older adult participants reported the benevolent act to be more acceptable than young participants. This finding supports an age stereotype assimilation account. For target perceptions, accepting a hostile ageist behavior led to lower warmth and competence ratings but accepting benevolent ageism reduced warmth but not competence evaluations. Age differences in target perceptions were predicted by social identity theory, in that older adults rated the older target more positively overall. Perceptions of targets who confronted varied by type of ageism and the intensity of the confrontation. When participants perceived the target's reaction to be disproportionate to the ageist act, the target was viewed more negatively overall. The findings suggest that ageism directed toward older adults is perceived to be normative by adults of all ages and that confrontations of ageist behavior result in negative perceptions of the older target. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Overlooked and Underestimated: Experiences of Ageism in Young, Middle-Aged, and Older Adults.

OBJECTIVES: Although the prevalence of ageism against older people has been well-established, less is known about the characteristics of those experiences or the experiences of young and middle-aged adults. The present study addressed these gaps by examining young, middle-aged, and older adults' self-reports of an ageist action they experienced. METHODS: Participants' descriptions were coded for the domain in which the ageist experience occurred, the perpetrator of the ageist experience, and the type of ageist experience. RESULTS: Young adults most commonly reported experiencing ageism in the workplace with coworkers as perpetrators. Middle-aged and older adults also reported ageism in the workplace; however, they also frequently reported experiencing ageism while seeking goods and services. Perpetrators of ageism varied more widely for middle-aged and older adults. Regardless of one's age, ageism was commonly experienced in the form of a lack of respect or incorrect assumptions. DISCUSSION: The findings enhance our understanding of ageism across adulthood by considering the domains, perpetrators, and types of ageist expressions that adults of all ages encounter. They also suggest that interventions to reduce age bias will require multifaceted approaches that take into account the different forms that individuals experience across the life span.

Factors that affect younger and older adults' causal attributions of robot behaviour.

Stereotypes are cognitive shortcuts that facilitate efficient social judgments about others. Just as causal attributions affect perceptions of people, they may similarly affect perceptions of technology, particularly anthropomorphic technology such as robots. In a scenario-based study, younger and older adults judged the performance and capability of an anthropomorphised robot that appeared young or old. In some cases, the robot successfully performed a task while at other times it failed. Results showed that older adult participants were more susceptible to aging stereotypes as indicated by trust. In addition, both younger and older adult participants succumbed to aging stereotypes when measuring perceived capability of the robots. Finally, a summary of causal reasoning results showed that our participants may have applied aging stereotypes to older-appearing robots: they were most likely to give credit to a properly functioning robot when it appeared young and performed a cognitive task. Our results tentatively suggest that human theories of social cognition do not wholly translate to technology-based contexts and that future work may elaborate on these findings. Practitioner summary: Perception and expectations of the capabilities of robots may influence whether users accept and use them, especially older users. The current results suggest that care must be taken in the design of these robots as users may stereotype them.

Easy or effective? Explaining young adults' and older adults' likelihood of using various strategies to improve their memory.

We examined two factors to explain why young and older adults report using different memory strategies in their everyday lives. Participants rated the likelihood of use, difficulty, and effectiveness of six categories of memory strategies that they could implement in order to improve their general memory performance. Consistent with previous literature, older adults were more likely to report utilizing "use it or lose it" approaches than young adults, whereas young adults reported a greater likelihood of using task-focused approaches such as internal strategies and effort than older adults. We found that both perceived strategy difficulty and perceived strategy effectiveness predicted likelihood of strategy use, but young and older adults differentially weighed these factors. Young adults' likelihood of using different strategies was influenced more by strategy effectiveness than difficulty. Older adults differentially weighed difficulty and effectiveness when considering how likely they were to use various strategies.

Is Ageism Acceptable When it Comes From a Familiar Partner?

OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the perceived acceptability of benevolent and hostile ageist behaviors targeting older adults and whether the acceptability varied depending on the age of the perceiver and the relationship between the person engaging in the ageist behavior and the recipient of the ageist behavior. METHOD: Young, middle-aged, and older adult participants rated the acceptability of 13 benevolent and 17 hostile ageist behaviors targeting older adults for five different relationship types: younger family members, same-age family members, familiar service workers, unfamiliar service workers, and friends. RESULTS: Participants, regardless of age, rated benevolent ageism to be more acceptable than hostile ageism. Young adults were more accepting of hostile ageist acts than middle-aged and older adults were. However, overall acceptability of hostile ageist acts was low. Familiarity with the perpetrator also affected perceptions of the acceptability of ageist acts. DISCUSSION: Perceptions of the acceptability of ageism targeting older adults differed as a function of participant age, ageism type, and relationship type. Findings are discussed in light of social identity theory and intergroup contact theory.

Effects of Information Visualization on Older Adults' Decision-Making Performance in a Medicare Plan Selection Task: A Comparative Usability Study.

BACKGROUND: Technology gains have improved tools for evaluating complex tasks by providing environmental supports (ES) that increase ease of use and improve performance outcomes through the use of information visualizations (info-vis). Complex info-vis emphasize the need to understand individual differences in abilities of target users, the key cognitive abilities needed to execute a decision task, and the graphical elements that can serve as the most effective ES. Older adults may be one such target user group that would benefit from increased ES to mitigate specific declines in cognitive abilities. For example, choosing a prescription drug plan is a necessary and complex task that can impact quality of life if the wrong choice is made. The decision to enroll in one plan over another can involve comparing over 15 plans across many categories. Within this context, the large amount of complex information and reduced working memory capacity puts older adults' decision making at a disadvantage. An intentionally designed ES, such as an info-vis that reduces working memory demand, may assist older adults in making the most effective decision among many options. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to examine whether the use of an info-vis can lower working memory demands and positively affect complex decision-making performance of older adults in the context of choosing a Medicare prescription drug plan. METHODS: Participants performed a computerized decision-making task in the context of finding the best health care plan. Data included quantitative decision-making performance indicators and surveys examining previous history with purchasing insurance. Participants used a colored info-vis ES or a table (no ES) to perform the decision task. Task difficulty was manipulated by increasing the number of selection criteria used to make an accurate decision. A repeated measures analysis was performed to examine differences between the two table designs. RESULTS: Twenty-three older adults between the ages of 66 and 80 completed the study. There was a main effect for accuracy such that older adults made more accurate decisions in the color info-vis condition than the table condition. In the low difficulty condition, participants were more successful at choosing the correct answer when the question was about the gap coverage attribute in the info-vis condition. Participants also made significantly faster decisions in the info-vis condition than in the table condition. CONCLUSIONS: Reducing the working memory demand of the task through the use of an ES can improve decision accuracy, especially when selection criteria is only focused on a single attribute of the insurance plan.