Symposium – Social Cognition

Thursday 8th of May 15.00 – 16.30

Aula Magna

Social cognition in old age: evidence on possible mechanisms and influence on everyday behavior

Age changes in cognitive processing extend into social realm. Although we now understand more about the pattern of age differences in social cognition, there is still a lack of knowledge about the mechanisms that might be important in patterns of aging and the influence of social cognitive shifts on everyday behaviour. In this symposium we hear about : (1) links between neural integrity, life experiences and social cognition across the lifespan (Isemia et al.), (2) diary-based evidence on associations between reading habits and social cognition in later life (Biskas et al.), (3) ecological momentary assessment of social cognition and its links to social relationships in younger and older adults (Cavallini et al.), and (4) the relationship between age-based social impressions and intergenerational relationships (Pang & Phillips). These different methodological approaches shed light on some of the factors that might influence social cognition in older age, and the possible consequences for everyday behaviour. 

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Abstracts

Talk 1 – The role of neural integrity and experiential factors in reserve mechanisms for social abilities resilience: a lifespan perspective.

by Sara Isernia

Authors: Sara Isernia, Federica Rossetto, Giulia Smecca, Beatrice Mento, Diego Michael Cacciatore, Francesca Baglio

IRCCS Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi ONLUS

Recently the role of lifetime experiential factors, such as cognitive-stimulating activities, in influencing cognitive performance has been reported in old age, likely compensating for the neural decline. However, while current evidence demonstrated a link between experiential factors and global cognitive level, little is known about this link in the social cognition framework. The present study explores if and when experiential factors contribute to sustaining social abilities over and above neural integrity. A cohort of healthy adults (young, 20-39y, adult, 40-59y, and old age, 60y+) underwent an MRI examination, a social cognition evaluation, and a questionnaire on cognitive-stimulating activities during life. By testing the link between social cognition performance and experiential factors, age emerged as a confounding variable, and an association was observed only when controlling for age. In the whole group, both neural integrity and experiential factors predicted social cognition performance. Interestingly, only long-life experiential factors (work; leisure time) were implicated. By considering age groups separately, the exclusive role of neural integrity was highlighted only at a young age, while the role of experience came up from the adult age replacing the neural integrity. The findings open up to the role of early cognitive reserve mechanisms for social abilities resilience.

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Talk 2 – The link between fiction consumption and Theory of Mind in older adults: a diary study.

By Marios Biskas¹

Authors: Marios Biskas¹, Min Young¹, Louise Phillips², Jemma Healey² & Hio Tong Pang²

¹ University of Bradford

² University of Aberdeen

Research suggests that fiction consumption enhances theory of mind (ToM), that is the ability to understand others’ social communication, in younger adults. However, few studies have explored this link in older adults, despite evidence that this group has poor ToM ability, impacting cognitive and social functioning. Therefore, this study aimed to (i) explore how older adults engage with fiction and (ii) examine whether this engagement predicts ToM. To test this, we asked 62 participants aged over 60 to complete a diary for 21 consecutive days in-paper or online. Specifically, they completed measures assessing their daily fiction engagement, such as frequency, type, and modality, and three ToM tasks, that is the Eyes Test, Faux Pas task, and Social Stories Questionnaire. The results showed that participants commonly engaged with fiction by reading books and watching TV, favouring genres such as crime fiction and drama. Additionally, those who read more fiction had higher ToM accuracy, but this was unrelated to viewing and listening to fiction, b = 2.94, SE = 1.08, t(41) = 2.70, p = .010. These findings suggest that reading fiction relates to ToM in older adults, highlighting the potential of this activity for promoting social cognitive function and healthy aging.

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Talk 3 – Theory of Mind in aging: an ecological momentary assessment study.

by Elena Cavallini¹

Authors: Elena Cavallini¹, Federico Curzel¹, Chiara Barattieri di San Pietro², Lara Fracassi¹, Valentina Bambini², and Serena Lecce¹

¹ Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Italy

² University School for Advanced Studies IUSS Pavia, Italy

Theory of Mind abilities (ToM) are crucial in social relationships. Decline in ToM, with difficulties in inferring others’ thoughts, feelings, and intentions, has been observed in the aging population. Despite the importance of these abilities in everyday life, their investigation is limited to the assessment in lab setting. To overcome this hurdle, Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) methodology has recently started to be employed. 

Aim of the present study was to assess age-related differences in the use of ToM and its association with wellbeing and social relationships via EMA. One hundred and sixty-two participants (82 young adults, aged 20-35, and 80 older adults, aged +65) were recruited. Participants answered a series of open and closed questions through an ad-hoc EMA protocol for seven days, five times a day. In addition, traditional tasks, assessing ToM performance, and questionnaires on wellbeing and social relationships were administered. 

ToM use significantly predicted the wellbeing and satisfaction with social relationships, with a modulating effect of age. A different pattern of results emerged in the lab assessment, revealing a greater decline in ToM performance than in the ToM use. 

Overall, our findings highlight the importance of EMA methodology for a deeper investigation of ToM in aging. 

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Talk 4 – The relationship between age-based meta-stereotypes, face impressions, and intergenerational relationships.

by Hio Tong Pang

Authors: Hio Tong Pang & Louise Phillips 

University of Aberdeen.

The beliefs about how people from another age group view us are called age-based meta-stereotypes. Recent studies indicated that first impressions reflect overgeneralised stereotypes of specific social groups to novel faces with similar features. This study explored whether age-based meta-stereotypes link to first impressions of faces and anticipated contact experiences. Age-based meta-stereotypes were manipulated (N = 260) for younger (17-30 years) and older (65-81 years) participants by reading paragraphs which conveyed positive or negative views from another age group. We assessed the effects of this meta-stereotype manipulation on participants’ intergenerational anxiety, anticipated experience of intergenerational contact and first impressions of faces from different age groups. Results showed that the meta-stereotype manipulation influenced inter-generational anxiety and anticipated intergenerational contact in both younger and older adults. However, the meta-stereotype manipulation did not influence the impressions of age-outgroup faces. Our findings indicate that the valence of age-based meta-stereotypes induced by reading brief paragraphs can influence attitudes towards intergenerational contact, but not the impressions of faces. This has implications for our understanding of how age-based meta-stereotypes link to intergenerational relationships and for the design of future intergenerational interventions.