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Age and the Understanding of Emotions

Neuropsychological and Sociocognitive Perspectives

Psychology Department, Aberdeen University, Scotland, United Kingdom.

Address correspondence to Louise H. Phillips, Psychology Department, Aberdeen University, Aberdeen, AB24 2UB, Scotland, UK. E-mail: louise.phillips{at}abdn.ac.uk

Sociocognitive approaches suggest that the ability to understand emotions should be well maintained in adult aging. However, neuropsychological evidence suggests potential impairments in processing emotions in older adults. In the current study, 30 young adults (aged 20–40 years) and 30 older adults (aged 60–80 years) were tested on a range of emotional ability measures. There were no age effects on the ability to decode emotions from verbal material. Older people were less able to identify facial expressions of anger and sadness, and showed poorer ability to identify theory of mind from pictures of eyes. The results indicate specific age-related deficits in identifying some aspects of emotion from faces, but no age effects on the understanding of emotions in verbal descriptions.

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