| |
Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
 | |
|
Age and forgetfulness
— can stereotypes be modified? | | Author(s) | Xiaohui Guo, Joan T Erber, Lenore T Szuchman |
| Journal title | Educational Gerontology, vol 25, no 5, July-August 1999 |
| Pages | pp 457-466 |
| Keywords | Memory and Reminiscence ; Age groups [elderly] ; Young adults [20-25] ; Attitudes to the old of general public ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | There is much support for the idea that people hold a stereotype of older people being forgetful. Moreover, there is evidence that this stereotype affects how forgetful older people are perceived. In this study, young and older perceivers read an article stating that memory declines with age, or an article stating that memory is constant across the adult years, or read no article. 90 young (age 17-24) and 73 older (age 60-89) perceivers then read an interview script with a forgetful young target or a forgetful older target. Perceivers rated their opinions of the target's memory, and also the extent to which they would attribute the target's memory failures to lack of ability or lack of effort. Young perceivers who read the memory decline article attributed memory failure to lack of ability more for the old than the young target. This result suggests that the stereotype held by young perceivers about memory and age can be modified by exposure to written information. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-991005233 A |
| Classmark | DB: BB: SD6: TOB: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
|
| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
| |
|