Effects Of Daily Stereotype Experiences On Cognitive Failure In Older Adults And Its Mechanisms

As the process of population aging continues to accelerate,the quality of elderly's life has attracted more and more attention from researchers.With the growth of age,the cognitive function of the elderly gradually declines,and cognitive failure is prone to occur in their life.These small mistakes seem irrelevant,but they may interfere with the smooth running of daily activities of the elderly,and may even cause hidden dangers and harm the healthy life of the elderly.Therefore,it is of great significance to explore the influencing factors of cognitive failures in the elderly.Previous studies have shown that stereotype threat can cause poor cognitive-performance of the elderly,and because negative aging stereotypes are common in life,the elderly's negative stereotype experience in daily lives is very likely to be an important factor in cognitive failure.At the same time,previous studies have also shown that emotion is closely related to stereotypes and cognitive failures,so the daily affect of the elderly is likely to be a mediating role for negative stereotypes to affect elderly's cognitive failures.In addition,this study also proposed the concept of stereotype diversity to quantify the distribution of stereotype experiences in the elderly on different negative stereotypes within a given life cycle.The diversity of stereotypes reflects the abundance and evenness of stereotype experiences in the elderly,which may be a regulator of the emotional and cognitive effects of stereotype experiences in the elderly,and plays a unique role in their daily affect and cognitive failures.This study consisted of two parts.Study 1 used an open questionnaire(n=50,mean age=61.72)to collect stereotypes that elderly often experience in their daily lives.The results showed that negative stereotypes are prevalent in the daily lives of the elderly.The stereotypes that elderly generally experienced in daily lives were ten types:nagging,forgetfulness,backwardness,stubborn,easy to be deceived,taking advantage of one's seniority,loneliness or solitude,slowness,paying no attention to hygiene,keen on gaining petty advantages.Study 2 used the method of diary study.53 elderly subjects(mean age=66.45)completed the daily stereotype experience questionnaire,positive and negative affect scale,and cognitive failure diary questionnaire for one week.The results of multilevel data analysis showed that:1)the elderly's negative stereotype experiences in daily lives positively predicted their negative affect and cognitive failures.Negative affect played a mediating role on the effect of negative stereotype experiences on elderly's cognitive failures.Neither the negative stereotype experiences nor the cognitive failures were significantly associated with positive affect.2)The diversity of negative stereotypes positively moderated the relationship between negative stereotype experiences and cognitive failures in the elderly,and the relationship between negative stereotype experiences and negative affect,and positively moderated the mediating role of negative affect on the relationship between negative stereotype experiences and cognitive failures.That is,the higher the negative stereotypes diversity in the elderly,the stronger the direct effect of negative stereotype experiences on cognitive failures and the mediating effect of negative affect.This study showed that negative affect may be the internal mediating mechanism of the effect of daily negative stereotype experiences on cognitive failures in the elderly,and stereotype diversity may be the moderating mechanism of daily negative stereotype experiences' direct and indirect effects on cognitive failures in the elderly.These findings may enrich the theory of stereotype threat,provide new ideas for the study of stereotypes,and provide theoretical guidance for future intervention research on cognitive and emotional health of the elderly,thereby helping to promote healthy aging of the elderly.