The role of automatic and controlled processes in the positivity effect for older adults

Abstract Background The positivity effect can be defined as an age-related attentional preference for positive information. The age differences are due to an attentional bias in which the young focused more intently on the negative stimuli, whereas the older attend to capture positive stimuli. There are two cognitive-emotional models that can explain the positivity effect: the socio-emotional selectivity theory (SST) and the dynamic integration theory (DIT). The SST states that in the older the positivity effect is related to controlled attentional processes, on the opposite, the DIT states that the positivity effect is related to automatic processes. Aims The main aim of the present study was to examine automatic and controlled attentional orienting of young and older adults in the positivity effect. Methods To reach these goals and to verify the generalization of the previous results, we used two experimental paradigms: the dot-probe task and the visual discrimination task with facial stimuli with positive (happy and surprise), negative (fair and angry) and neutral emotional expressions. 50 older and 35 young adults participated in this study. Results The older adults reacted faster to positive emotions than neutral or negative ones. They had similar RTs for the three types of emotions in both automatic and controlled attention. Discussion The findings are discussed in light of SST and DIT theories. Conclusions This study confirms the positivity effect for the older subjects and support the idea that both automatic and controlled processes play a key role in this effect. Keywords Positivity effect · Automatic processes · Controlled processes