Investigating age differences in the influence of joint attention on working memory

Gregory, SEA; Kessler, K

Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated that older adults make limited use of social cues
as compared to younger adults. This has been investigated by testing the influence of gaze
cues on attentional processes, with findings showing significantly smaller gaze cuing effects
for older than younger adults. Here we aimed to investigate whether this would also result in
age related differences in the influence of gaze cues on working memory. We therefore tested
the effects of gaze cues from realistic human avatars on working memory across two
experiments using dynamic head turns and more subtle eye gaze movements. We compared
working memory for items looked at by the cue (congruent), looked away from by the cue
(incongruent), and items shown when the cue looked down (neutral). Results demonstrated
that for both older and younger adults, gaze cues influenced working memory processes,
though there were some important differences related to the nature of the cue. When the cue
made a dynamic head turn both younger and older adults showed an equivalent effect of gaze
on attention. However, when only the eyes moved, while both the younger and older adults
showed an effect of gaze on working memory, there appeared to be a difference in how the
participants interpreted the neutral cue, with the older adults appearing to interpret the neutral
cues in a similar way to the congruent cues. Overall, we provide important evidence that
sharing attention benefits cognition across the lifespan.
Keywords: gaze; social; attention; gaze cuing, joint attention

Citation

Gregory, S., & Kessler, K. (2022). Investigating age differences in the influence of joint attention on working memory. Psychology and Aging, https://doi.org/10.1037/pag0000694

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 14, 2022
• Publication Date: Jul 21, 2022
• Deposit Date: Jun 1, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 1, 2022
• Journal: Psychology and Aging
• Print ISSN: 0882-7974
• Electronic ISSN: 1939-1498
• Publisher: American Psychological Association
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/pag0000694
• Publisher URL: http://doi.org/10.1037/pag0000694
• Related Public URLs: https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/pag/index
• Additional Information: Additional Information : ©American Psychological Association, 2022. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. The final article is available, upon publication, at: http://doi.org/10.1037/pag0000694; Projects : Memory enrichment by social context: A virtual reality EEG research project.