Final published version
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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Sources of Cognitive Conflict and Their Relevance to Theory-of-Mind Proficiency in Healthy Aging
T2 - A Preregistered Study
AU - Rahman, F.
AU - Kessler, K.
AU - Apperly, I.A.
AU - Hansen, P.C.
AU - Javed, S.
AU - Holland, C.A.
AU - Hartwright, C.E.
PY - 2021/12/1
Y1 - 2021/12/1
N2 - Age-related decline in theory of mind (ToM) may be due to waning executive control, which is necessary for resolving conflict when reasoning about other individuals’ mental states. We assessed how older (n = 50) and younger (n = 50) adults were affected by three theoretically relevant sources of conflict within ToM: competing self-other perspectives, competing cued locations, and outcome knowledge. We examined which best accounted for age-related difficulty with ToM. Our data show unexpected similarity between age groups when people are representing a belief incongruent with their own. Individual differences in attention and response speed best explained the degree of conflict experienced through incompatible self-other perspectives. However, older adults were disproportionately affected by managing conflict between cued locations. Age and spatial working memory were most relevant for predicting the magnitude of conflict elicited by conflicting cued locations. We suggest that previous studies may have underestimated older adults’ ToM proficiency by including unnecessary conflict in ToM tasks.
AB - Age-related decline in theory of mind (ToM) may be due to waning executive control, which is necessary for resolving conflict when reasoning about other individuals’ mental states. We assessed how older (n = 50) and younger (n = 50) adults were affected by three theoretically relevant sources of conflict within ToM: competing self-other perspectives, competing cued locations, and outcome knowledge. We examined which best accounted for age-related difficulty with ToM. Our data show unexpected similarity between age groups when people are representing a belief incongruent with their own. Individual differences in attention and response speed best explained the degree of conflict experienced through incompatible self-other perspectives. However, older adults were disproportionately affected by managing conflict between cued locations. Age and spatial working memory were most relevant for predicting the magnitude of conflict elicited by conflicting cued locations. We suggest that previous studies may have underestimated older adults’ ToM proficiency by including unnecessary conflict in ToM tasks.
KW - aging
KW - executive function
KW - mentalizing
KW - open data
KW - open materials
KW - preregistered
KW - social cognition
KW - theory of mind
U2 - 10.1177/09567976211017870
DO - 10.1177/09567976211017870
M3 - Journal article
VL - 32
SP - 1918
EP - 1936
JO - Psychological Science
JF - Psychological Science
SN - 0956-7976
IS - 12
ER -