Journal
JOURNALS OF GERONTOLOGY SERIES B-PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Volume 63, Issue 4, Pages P219-P226Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
DOI: 10.1093/geronb/63.4.P219
Keywords
disinhibition; age differences; theory of mind
Funding
- Australian Research Council
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Older adults have a reduced capacity to take the perspective of another, and it has been suggested that disinhibition may he one mechanism contributing to this difficulty. To test this possibility, we had behavioral measures that were sensitive to inhibitory failure and to theory of mind (ToM) administered to younger and older adults. One of the measures of ToM directly manipulated inhibitory demands, involving either high or low levels of self-perspective inhibition. The results indicated that older adults were selectively impaired on the high-inhibition condition. Further, of the various aspects of cognitive functioning that we assessed, including memory, mental flexibility, and cognitive speed, only cognitive disinhibition mediated age-related differences in ToM. These results suggest that inhibitory control is an important mediator of ToM in late adulthood.
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