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Interaction Between Affect and Cognition as a Function of Aging: Testing the Positivity Bias in Indian Population

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Abstract

Previous studies have marked the importance of affective prioritization across ageing population in support of the cognitive reserve. The idea of ageing is complex in India since the benefits differ from the west in various aspects like financial and social security, one’s idea of being productive in the community, future purpose, role in family and society, etc. Therefore, these differences could influence the existence of affective bias for positive emotions among elderly, which is well established in the Western population. Little work has been done to explore affective bias in the elderly as a function of healthy ageing in the Indian context. The idea in the current review is to mark out the importance of affective bias particularly among ageing adults and to examine how early in time does this process begin when older adults’ performance is compared to that of middle-aged or younger adults? In addition, the structural and functional changes in the brain as a function of ageing may contribute to the behavioural and cognitive effects of ageing and may interact with affect processing. Prevalent and alternate methodologies including lab-based behavioural experiments, neuroimaging and experience-sampling measures are expected to improve our understanding of the existence and mechanisms underlying the cognition–emotion interaction in healthy ageing. Positive affect bias is also expected to support cognitive reserve in healthy older adults.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Main effect of age: F(2, 71) = 1.06, p = 0.35, ηp2 = 0.029; main effect of emotion: F(2, 142) = 1.75, p = 0.17, ηp2 =  0.024, respectively. Age x emotion: F(4, 142) = 0.96, p = 0.42, ηp2 = 0.27.

  2. 2.

    Comparison of attention bias score for Happy and Sad emotion: Main effect age: F(2, 71) = 0.569, p = 0.56, ηp2 =  0.16; main effect of emotion: F(1, 71) = 3.064, p = 0.08, ηp2 = 0.041. Age x Emotion: F(2, 71) = 1.396, p = 0.25, ηp2 = 0.0038. Attention bias score for happy versus angry emotion: Main effect of age: F(2, 71) = 1.356, p = 0.26, ηp2 = 0.037 and emotion: F(1, 71) = 0.003, p = 0.95, ηp2 = 0.000. Age x emotion: F(2, 71) = 0.305, p = 0.73, ηp2 = 0.009.

  3. 3.

    Happy versus Neutral comparison: Main effect of age: F(2, 71) = 3.893, p = 0.02, ηp2 = 0.100; main effect of emotion: F(1, 71) = 22.723, p = 0.00, ηp2 = 0.242; Age x emotion: F(2, 71) = 0.488, p = 0.61, ηp2 = 0.014 (see Fig. 4a).

  4. 4.

    Sad versus Neutral comparison: Effect of age: F(2, 71) = 8.673, p = 0.000, ηp2 = 0.198; Effect of emotion: F(1, 71) = 39.230, p = 0.00, ηp2 = 0.356 Age x emotion: F(2, 71) = 1.142, p = 0.32, ηp2 = 0.031.

  5. 5.

    Angry versus Neutral comparison: Effect of age: F(2, 71) = 5.215, p = 0.008, ηp2 = 0.130; effect of emotion: F(1, 71) = 17.597, p = 0.000, ηp2 = 0.199; Age x emotion: F(2, 71) = 1.306, p = 0.27, ηp2 = 0.036.

  6. 6.

    Effect of age: F(2, 71) = 7.49, p = 0.001, ηp2 = 0.176; effect of emotion: F(2, 142) = 6.16, p = 0.003, ηp2 = 0.080; Age x emotion: F(4, 142) = 0.81, p = 0.52, ηp2 = 0.017.

  7. 7.

    Within-group planned comparisons: Young adults Sad < Happy: t(24) = 3.02, p = 0.006; Happy < Angry: t(24) = 2.10, p = 0.04; older adults: Sad < happy: t(24) = 1.95, p = 0.06.

  8. 8.

    Young adults < middle aged adults for sad, t(47) = −2.91, p = 0.005 and angry emotions t(47) = −2.29, p = 0.031; young adults < older adults across Happy, t(48) = -3.05, p = 0.004, Sad t(48) = −3.83, p < 0.001 and Angry emotions t(48) = −3.71, p = 0.001.

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  1. Centre of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences, University of Allahabad, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Richa Nigam & Bhoomika R. Kar

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  1. Richa Nigam
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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Allahabad, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India

    R.C. Tripathi

  2. Centre of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences, University of Allahabad, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Bhoomika R. Kar

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Allahabad, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Namita Pande

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Nigam, R., Kar, B.R. (2022). Interaction Between Affect and Cognition as a Function of Aging: Testing the Positivity Bias in Indian Population. In: Tripathi, R., Kar, B.R., Pande, N. (eds) Towards an Integrative Psychological Science. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9565-0_5

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