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Motivational and Cognitive Influences on Affective Priming in Adulthood

^a Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh

Thomas M. Hess, Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7801 E-mail: thomas_hess{at}ncsu.edu.

Decision Editor: Toni C. Antonucci, PhD

This research examined age differences in the impact of affective primes on judgments about neutral stimuli. When participants were unaware that the primes had been presented, age differences were nonexistent, with individuals of all ages producing likability judgments consistent with the valence of the prime. In contrast, when awareness of the primes was maximized, prime influences were virtually nonexistent in the youngest participants, but prime influences increased with participants' age. In addition, the impact of the primes was differentially affected by an individual's need for simple structure. Need for structure did not influence the performance of young and middle-aged participants, but prime effects increased with need in the oldest participants. It is argued that the stronger predictive validity of need for structure with age is due to aging-related changes in personal resources (both social and cognitive) and/or a closer mapping of individual characteristics onto need with age. Regardless of source, the results argue for closer consideration of motivational factors in determining age differences in performance.