TY - JOUR
T1 - Social priming improves cognitive control in elderly adults - Evidence from the Simon task
AU - Aisenberg, Daniela
AU - Cohen, Noga
AU - Pick, Hadas
AU - Tressman, Iris
AU - Rappaport, Michal
AU - Shenberg, Tal
AU - Henik, Avishai
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Aisenberg et al.
PY - 2015/1/30
Y1 - 2015/1/30
N2 - We examined whether social priming of cognitive states affects the inhibitory process in elderly adults, as aging is related to deficits in inhibitory control. Forty-eight elderly adults and 45 young adults were assigned to three groups and performed a cognitive control task (Simon task), which was followed by 3 different manipulations of social priming (i.e., thinking about an 82 year-old person): 1) negative - characterized by poor cognitive abilities, 2) neutral - characterized by acts irrelevant to cognitive abilities, and 3) positive-excellent cognitive abilities. After the manipulation, the Simon task was performed again. Results showed improvement in cognitive control effects in seniors after the positive manipulation, indicated by a significant decrease in the magnitude of the Simon and interference effects, but not after the neutral and negative manipulations. Furthermore, a healthy pattern of sequential effect (Gratton) that was absent before the manipulation in all 3 groups appeared after the positive manipulation. Namely, the Simon effect was only present after congruent but not after incongruent trials for the positive manipulation group. No influence of manipulations was found in young adults. These meaningful results were replicated in a second experiment and suggest a decrease in conflict interference resulting from positive cognitive state priming. Our study provides evidence that an implicit social concept of a positive cognitive condition in old age can affect the control process of the elderly and improve cognitive abilities.
AB - We examined whether social priming of cognitive states affects the inhibitory process in elderly adults, as aging is related to deficits in inhibitory control. Forty-eight elderly adults and 45 young adults were assigned to three groups and performed a cognitive control task (Simon task), which was followed by 3 different manipulations of social priming (i.e., thinking about an 82 year-old person): 1) negative - characterized by poor cognitive abilities, 2) neutral - characterized by acts irrelevant to cognitive abilities, and 3) positive-excellent cognitive abilities. After the manipulation, the Simon task was performed again. Results showed improvement in cognitive control effects in seniors after the positive manipulation, indicated by a significant decrease in the magnitude of the Simon and interference effects, but not after the neutral and negative manipulations. Furthermore, a healthy pattern of sequential effect (Gratton) that was absent before the manipulation in all 3 groups appeared after the positive manipulation. Namely, the Simon effect was only present after congruent but not after incongruent trials for the positive manipulation group. No influence of manipulations was found in young adults. These meaningful results were replicated in a second experiment and suggest a decrease in conflict interference resulting from positive cognitive state priming. Our study provides evidence that an implicit social concept of a positive cognitive condition in old age can affect the control process of the elderly and improve cognitive abilities.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84922354493&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0117151
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0117151
M3 - Article
C2 - 25635946
AN - SCOPUS:84922354493
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 10
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 1
M1 - e0117151
ER -