Beliefs about aging influence how we interpret and respond to changes within and around us. Essentialist beliefs about aging are defined as views that link chronological age with inherent and immutable properties underlying aging-related changes. These beliefs may influence the experience of aging-related changes and shape people's outlook of the…

Most people believe that time seems to pass more quickly as they age. Building on assumptions of socioemotional selectivity theory, we investigated whether awareness that one's future lifetime is limited is associated with one's experience of time during everyday activities across adulthood in 3 studies. In the first 2 studies (Study 1: N = 608;…

As a group, older adults report positive affective lives. The extent to which there are subgroups of older adults whose moods are less positive, however, is unclear. Our aim in the present study was to identify and characterize different subgroups of adults who exhibit distinct trajectories of mood change across a relatively short time period.…

Normative adult age-related decrements are well documented for many diverse forms of effortful cognitive processing. However, it is currently unclear whether each of these decrements reflects a distinct and independent developmental phenomenon, or, in part, a more global phenomenon. A number of studies have recently been published that show…

Explored the roles chronological age and gender play in subjective time experience (STE). Found STE to vary widely among individuals, some being "accurate,""retarded," or "advanced." Suggests males were more retarded in STE, and chronological age plays a key role in transitions in STE. (Author/RC)

No age difference was observed on the temporal task, but older adults performed worse on the spatial task. Results indicate normal aging is not associated with poor encoding or retention of all types of information, but affects retention of some information often assumed to be encoded automatically. (Author)

Research in aging has placed considerable faith in data collected from the recollections and reminiscences of older people. Retrospective reports were verified against previously collected data to determine the accuracy of topical information provided by anamnestic reports as well as the types of persons most likely to be accurate reporters.…

The effect of time-related mean differences on estimates of association in cross-sectional studies has not been widely recognized in developmental and aging research. Cross-sectional studies of samples varying in age have found moderate to high levels of shared age-related variance among diverse age-related measures. These findings may be…

The model of aging that people construct influences interpretations of and responses to actual situations when they occur, as well as preparatory actions that people take. Thus the question of what people foresee for themselves and the process by which they construct and revise this subjective aging trajectory has implications for such issues as…