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Eye movements reveal a similar positivity effect in Chinese and UK older adults

Eye movements reveal a similar positivity effect in Chinese and UK older adults
Eye movements reveal a similar positivity effect in Chinese and UK older adults

The “positivity effect” (PE) reflects an age-related increase in the preference for positive over negative information in attention and memory. The present experiment investigated whether Chinese and UK participants produce a similar PE. In one experiment, we presented pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral pictures simultaneously and participants decided which picture they liked or disliked on a third of trials, respectively. We recorded participants’ eye movements during this task and compared time looking at, and memory for, pictures. The results suggest that older but not younger adults from both China and UK participant groups showed a preference to focus on and remember pleasant pictures, providing evidence of a PE in both cultures. Bayes Factor analysis supported these observations. These findings are consistent with the view that older people preferentially focus on positive emotional information, and that this effect is observed cross-culturally.

Ageing and emotion bias, Eastern versus Western cultures, eye tracking methods
1747-0218
1921-1929
Wang, Jingxin
cb063077-a2a8-4f8f-81c2-c50df1fd2337
Xie, Fang
34413920-3836-4078-9119-6ff1f75f4c8c
He, Liyuan
522ad3d3-03ec-4f36-a5f1-2bf020c2120d
Meadmore, Katie L
4b63707b-4c44-486c-958e-e84645e7ed33
Paterson, Kevin B
4da4f2c5-542a-4a64-9b7e-f4f8380a60e1
Benson, Valerie
4827cede-6668-4e3d-bded-ade4cd5e5db5
Wang, Jingxin
cb063077-a2a8-4f8f-81c2-c50df1fd2337
Xie, Fang
34413920-3836-4078-9119-6ff1f75f4c8c
He, Liyuan
522ad3d3-03ec-4f36-a5f1-2bf020c2120d
Meadmore, Katie L
4b63707b-4c44-486c-958e-e84645e7ed33
Paterson, Kevin B
4da4f2c5-542a-4a64-9b7e-f4f8380a60e1
Benson, Valerie
4827cede-6668-4e3d-bded-ade4cd5e5db5

Wang, Jingxin, Xie, Fang, He, Liyuan, Meadmore, Katie L, Paterson, Kevin B and Benson, Valerie (2020) Eye movements reveal a similar positivity effect in Chinese and UK older adults. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 73 (11), 1921-1929. (doi:10.1177/1747021820935861).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The “positivity effect” (PE) reflects an age-related increase in the preference for positive over negative information in attention and memory. The present experiment investigated whether Chinese and UK participants produce a similar PE. In one experiment, we presented pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral pictures simultaneously and participants decided which picture they liked or disliked on a third of trials, respectively. We recorded participants’ eye movements during this task and compared time looking at, and memory for, pictures. The results suggest that older but not younger adults from both China and UK participant groups showed a preference to focus on and remember pleasant pictures, providing evidence of a PE in both cultures. Bayes Factor analysis supported these observations. These findings are consistent with the view that older people preferentially focus on positive emotional information, and that this effect is observed cross-culturally.

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Eye_movements_reveal_a_similar_Positivity_Effect_in_Chinese_and_UK_older_adults - Accepted Manuscript
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 27 April 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 6 July 2020
Published date: 1 November 2020
Keywords: Ageing and emotion bias, Eastern versus Western cultures, eye tracking methods

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 445802
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/445802
ISSN: 1747-0218
PURE UUID: 9353cf54-14a4-454a-b268-da89a41c46d8
ORCID for Katie L Meadmore: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-5378-8370

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 07 Jan 2021 17:35
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:03

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Contributors

Author: Jingxin Wang
Author: Fang Xie
Author: Liyuan He
Author: Kevin B Paterson
Author: Valerie Benson

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