Mechanisms underlying age-based stereotype threat effects

项目总结。关于老年人的能力，普遍存在负面的刻板印象，这些 使老年人容易受到偏见、歧视和刻板印象的影响，从而阻碍了成功的老龄化 威胁。该项目特别侧重于基于年龄的陈规定型威胁的不利影响。我们定义 当人们处于使他们担心可能发生的情况时， 确认(或根据)基于年龄的负面刻板印象。有问题的是，现在有超过 二十年的研究表明，当老年人经历ABST时，他们在认知测试中表现不佳， 包括在临床环境中用于评估认知能力下降和痴呆症的测试，这很可能 导致对老年人早期痴呆症或轻度认知障碍的过度诊断。Abst也是 与健康状况较差、孤独和抑郁增加以及老年人更多依赖有关。 迫切需要制定有效的ABST干预措施。在这样做的过程中，NIH阶段模型 行为干预研究表明，干预发展应借鉴初级研究 这就确定了利率效应背后的机制(S)。不幸的是，尽管不利的影响 ABST的证据充分且无处不在，但对其潜在机制存在争议，这构成了 干预发展的障碍。在文献中，目前存在对两个竞争ABST的支持 理论模型--即行政控制干预账户和监管焦点账户。在一个 为了更好地理解ABST机制，研究人员经常从以下几个方面进行相互矛盾的预测 两个账户相互抵触。然而，这种方法排除了既有理论上的 这些说法是正确的，而且ABST效应的发生有多种原因。为了解决这种可能性，我们将成为 首先使用一个经过充分验证的计算模型(即漂移扩散模型)来研究ABST如何影响 老年人工作记忆绩效的成分加工(即发生ABST效应的领域 最有力的)。在这种创新的方法中，来自两个ABST理论账户的预测并不 相互矛盾，因此有可能获得其中一个或两个的支持。解开纠缠 来自这些账户的假设是我们方法的一个关键优势，因此这个项目将提供最大的 到目前为止对为什么会发生ABST效应的细微差别的理解。这种方法的另一个优点是认识到 ABST效应可能不能用任何单一的机械论解释，而可能是由于级联 包括注意力、生理、情感和动机过程，这些过程共同影响表现。 从NIH第0阶段(基础研究)项目中获得的关于为什么会发生ABST效应的知识将会 直接通知未来的ABST干预工作。例如，如果该项目的调查结果支持监管机构 ABST的焦点和执行控制干预说明，那么理想的干预应该借鉴 两个理论框架；因此，该项目为未来NIH第一阶段干预开发奠定了基础。

PROJECT SUMMARY. There are pervasive negative stereotypes about older adults’ competence, and these pose a barrier to successful aging by making older adults vulnerable to prejudice, discrimination, and stereotype threat. This project focuses specifically on the adverse effects of age-based stereotype threat (ABST). We define ABST as occurring when people are placed in situations that cause them to worry about the possibility of confirming (or being judged in light of) a negative age-based stereotype. Problematically, there is now more than two decades of research showing that when older adults experience ABST they underperform on cognitive tests, including on the tests used in clinical settings to assess for cognitive decline and dementia, and this likely contributes to an overdiagnosis of early dementia or mild cognitive impairment in older adults. ABST is also associated with poorer health, increased loneliness and depression, and greater dependency in older adults. There is a critical need to develop effective ABST interventions. In doing so, the NIH Stage Model of Behavioral Intervention Research suggests that intervention development should draw upon primary research that identifies the mechanism(s) underlying the effect of interest. Unfortunately, even though the adverse effects of ABST are well-documented and ubiquitous, there is debate about their underlying mechanisms, which poses a barrier to intervention development. Within the literature, there is currently support for two competing ABST theoretical models – namely, the executive control interference account and the regulatory focus account. In an effort to better understand ABST mechanisms, researchers have often pitted competing predictions from these two accounts against one another. However, this approach precludes the possibility that both theoretical accounts are correct, and that ABST effects occur for multiple reasons. To address this possibility, we will be the first to use a well-validated computation model (i.e., the drift diffusion model) to examine how ABST affects the component processes of older adults’ working memory performance (i.e., the domain where ABST effects occur most robustly). Within this innovative approach, predictions from the two ABST theoretical accounts do not contradict one another, and it is therefore possible to obtain support for one, or both, of them. Disentangling hypotheses from these accounts is a key strength of our approach, and this project will thus provide the most nuanced understanding to date of why ABST effects occur. Another strength of this approach is the recognition that ABST effects may not be explained by any single mechanistic account, and may instead be due to a cascade of attentional, physiological, affective, and motivational processes that together impact performance. The knowledge gained from this NIH Stage 0 (basic research) project about why ABST effects occur will directly inform future ABST intervention work. For instance, if this project’s findings support both the regulatory focus and the executive control interference accounts of ABST, then the ideal intervention should draw upon both theoretical frameworks; thus, this project sets the stage for future NIH Stage 1 intervention development.