Negative Age Stereotypes’ Effect On Working Memory:the Role Of Theory Of Ability

Working memory is an important indicator of cognitive aging.Although age-related decline in working memory is common,it may be exacerbated when older adults fall prey to negative age stereotypes.But researchers reported that some individuals may not be affected by negative age stereotypes,they speculated some personality traits(e.g.,incremental/entity theory of ability)are protective.However,there has been no research investigating the pattern of relationships among older adults’ negative age stereotypes,their theory of ability,and their working memory.To fill this gap,the present study measures 202 older adults of their age stereotypes,self-perception of aging,theory of memory,theory of general ability and working memory performance in order to know 1)how older adults’ negative age stereotypes influence their working memory performance,2)theory of ability’s effects on age stereotypes and working memory,and 3)if theory of ability’s effects on age stereotypes and working memory differ among domains.Our results show that:1.Age stereotypes and self-perception of aging become more negative with increased age;2.Self-perception of aging affects working memory performance:negative self-perception of aging could predict worse working memory performance;3.Age stereotypes affects working memory performance through self-perception of aging:negative age stereotypes could predict negative self-perception of aging,which in turn predicts worse working memory performance;4.Incremental theory of memory predicts better working memory performance through positive age stereotypes and positive self-perception of aging;5.Incremental theory of general ability predicts better working memory performance through positive age stereotypes and positive self-perception of aging.Taken together,these findings indicate that older adults’ working memory could be impaired by negative age stereotypes,and incremental theory of ability could be an important factor in protecting working memory from negative age stereotypes.