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Memory Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/pmem20
Ageing-related stereotypes in memory: When the beliefs come true a
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Badiâa Bouazzaoui , Alice Follenfant , François Ric , Séverine Fay , Jean-Claude c
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Croizet , Thierry Atzeni & Laurence Taconnat a
UMR CNRS 7295, CeRCA «Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l’Apprentissage», University of Tours, Tours, France b
EA 4139, «Laboratoire de Psychologie, Santé et Qualité de vie», University of Bordeaux 2, Bordeaux, France c
UMR CNRS 7295, CeRCA «Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l’Apprentissage», University of Poitiers, Poitiers, France Published online: 09 Jun 2015.
Click for updates To cite this article: Badiâa Bouazzaoui, Alice Follenfant, François Ric, Séverine Fay, Jean-Claude Croizet, Thierry Atzeni & Laurence Taconnat (2015): Ageing-related stereotypes in memory: When the beliefs come true, Memory, DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2015.1040802 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2015.1040802
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Memory, 2015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2015.1040802
Ageing-related stereotypes in memory: When the beliefs come true Badiâa Bouazzaoui1, Alice Follenfant2, François Ric2, Séverine Fay1, Jean-Claude Croizet3, Thierry Atzeni2, and Laurence Taconnat1
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UMR CNRS 7295, CeRCA «Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l’Apprentissage», University of Tours, Tours, France 2 EA 4139, «Laboratoire de Psychologie, Santé et Qualité de vie», University of Bordeaux 2, Bordeaux, France 3 UMR CNRS 7295, CeRCA «Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l’Apprentissage», University of Poitiers, Poitiers, France (Received 12 September 2014; accepted 8 April 2015)
Age-related stereotype concerns culturally shared beliefs about the inevitable decline of memory with age. In this study, stereotype priming and stereotype threat manipulations were used to explore the impact of age-related stereotype on metamemory beliefs and episodic memory performance. Ninety-two older participants who reported the same perceived memory functioning were divided into two groups: a threatened group and a non-threatened group (control). First, the threatened group was primed with an ageing stereotype questionnaire. Then, both groups were administered memory complaints and memory self-efficacy questionnaires to measure metamemory beliefs. Finally, both groups were administered the Logical Memory task to measure episodic memory, for the threatened group the instructions were manipulated to enhance the stereotype threat. Results indicated that the threatened individuals reported more memory complaints and less memory efficacy, and had lower scores than the control group on the logical memory task. A multiple mediation analysis revealed that the stereotype threat effect on the episodic memory performance was mediated by both memory complaints and memory self-efficacy. This study revealed that stereotype threat impacts belief in one’s own memory functioning, which in turn impairs episodic memory performance.
Keywords: Stereotype threat; Ageing; Memory; Metamemory.
Stereotypes can be defined as beliefs about the characteristics shared by members of a group. Being in a situation in which a negative stereotype about one’s own group could be applied to oneself can be perceived as threatening and can lead to underperformance in the stereotyped domain. This phenomenon is known as the “stereotype threat effect” (Steele & Aronson, 1995). In this study, we focus on age-related stereotypes about memory.
Stereotype threat concerns a variety of domains, including race, gender, socioeconomic category and age. Research on this phenomenon dates back to the 1990s when Steele and Aronson (1995) investigated the academic difficulties of ethnic minorities such as Afro-Americans. Since then, countless studies have extended this stereotype threat effect to other groups suggesting that group differences could be artificial or at least accentuated by stereotype threat. For example,
Address correspondence to: Badiâa Bouazzaoui, Université François-Rabelais de Tours UMR 7295 CeRCA 3, rue des Tanneurs 37000 Tours, France. E-mail: [email protected]
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regarding age, a strong culturally shared stereotype concerns the inevitable decline of memory with increasing age (Hess, 2005; Stein, BlanchardFields, & Hertzog, 2002). This stereotype is supported by a robust effect of age on episodic memory reported in the ageing literature (for reviews, see Balota, Dolan, & Duchek, 2000; Craik & Jennings, 1992; Light, 1991; McDaniel, Einstein, & Jacoby, 2008; Zacks, Hasher, & Li, 2000), even if not all elderly people are affected. Recent studies have suggested that the declining memory performance of older participants could in part be due to a social construct, namely the negative beliefs which older people develop about their memory abilities. For example, older adults often report reduced memory capacity, a perceived change in memory functioning and anxiety related to memory performance (Dixon & Hultsch, 1983; Loewen, Shaw, & Craik, 1990; McDonald-Miszcak, Hertzog, & Hultsch, 1995). These beliefs refer to the concept of metamemory, which is cognition about memory (Flavell, 1979; Nelson, 1996) including beliefs about one’s own ability to remember and perceive change in performance over time. These beliefs could be sensitive to age-related stereotypes, which in turn could impact episodic memory. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of such metamemory beliefs on actual memory performance. Age-related stereotypes have been the subject of several studies demonstrating that stereotypes may disrupt memory performance. In their studies, Levy (1996) and Stein et al. (2002) subliminally primed their participants with negative and positive ageing stereotype cues. Both studies converge in showing that negative cues undermined memory performance of older participants. Other studies have examined the impact of stereotype threat using instruction manipulations and found that an emphasis on the memory component of the task was detrimental to the performance of older participants (Desrichard & Kopetz, 2005; Rahhal, Hasher, & Colcombe, 2001). Studies that have investigated the processes underlying the stereotype threat effect have proposed that stereotype threat creates intrusive thoughts which consume working memory capacities and reduce the ability to use memory strategies (Hess, Auman, Colcombe, & Rahhal, 2003; Mazerolle, Régner, Morisset, Rigalleau, & Huguet, 2012; Schmader, Johns, & Forbes, 2008). With regard to the memory performance of the elderly in particular, several
studies have focused on emotional variables (stress, anxiety) and cognitive resources affected by intrusive thoughts, with the same difficulty in showing mediation (Chasteen, Bhattacharyya, Horhota, & Hasher, 2005; Hess & Hinson, 2006; Hess, Hinson, & Hodges, 2009; Hess et al., 2003). For instance, Chasteen et al. (2005) found that the impact of age on memory performance (recall and recognition) is mediated by perceived stereotype threat (measured through five questions adapted from Steele & Aronson, 1995), but without manipulation of stereotype threat. Furthermore, they found that anxiety (evaluated by the short form of State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Spielberger, Gorsuch, Lushene, Vagg, & Jacobs, 1983) did not mediate the relationship between threat and performance. In line with other authors (e.g., Levy, 1996), this suggests that the effect of stereotype threat on memory performance in the elderly might rely more on cognitive components than on a general negative affective state. An alternative way to investigate the effect of stereotype threat on memory is to examine beliefs about memory and cognition as potential mediators. Given that the decrease in memory selfefficacy is particularly pronounced in older individuals and affects actual memory performance (Seeman, McAvay, Merril, Albert, & Rodin, 1996), the role of memory self-efficacy—which corresponds to perceived memory abilities—has been investigated to understand the possible mechanisms underlying the effect of stereotype threat on memory performance. Chasteen et al. (2005) attempted to test the hypothesis of memory self-efficacy as a mediator, but their results were inconclusive. Surprisingly, self-efficacy was correlated neither with age nor with memory performance (free-recall and recognition) but only with the instruction condition. It was therefore not possible with their data to examine selfefficacy as a mediator of the relationship between age and memory performance or between threat and memory performance. The memory selfefficacy measure used in their study was a questionnaire framed within the context of the experimental task and was thus not a global evaluation of memory self-efficacy. Testing the same hypothesis, Desrichard and Kopetz (2005) used an alternate form of the Memory SelfEfficacy Questionnaire (MSEQ; Berry, West, & Dennehy, 1989), which is a general evaluation of memory self-efficacy including laboratory tasks (word and digit recall) and everyday tasks
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(remembering phone numbers, a grocery list, etc.). They showed that self-efficacy was related to memory performance but not to the task instruction, and hence they concluded that selfefficacy plays a moderator role on the impact of task instruction on memory performance. Interestingly, they found that participants’ specific expectations (measured through a single item) about memory performance mediated the effect of stereotype threat on memory performance, but that general memory self-efficacy moderated this effect. Our study was designed to obtain clearer evidence about the potential mediating role of self-efficacy. Like Desrichard and Kopetz (2005), we used the MSEQ (French version) to measure self-efficacy because it is correlated with memory performance. Moreover, to optimise the possibility of observing a relationship between selfefficacy and group condition we used two ways to activate age-related stereotype, a stereotype priming technique (activation questionnaire) and a stereotype threat manipulation (an instructional manipulation). This was in accordance with Chasteen et al. (2005) who observed that instructional manipulation alone is not always sufficient to operate the stereotype threat effect. In the present study, together with memory self-efficacy, we examined another important potential mediator of the stereotype threat effect on memory performance, namely subjective memory complaints. This is a key variable in the ageing literature; complaints about memory increase with age and concern 41% of people aged between 55 and 65 and 52% of those between 70 and 85 (Commissaris, Ponds, & Jolles, 1998). Healthy older adults frequently report that their memory is impaired, even if they perform normally, and it may then be considered as a stress-related psychosomatic disorder. Metternich, Schmidtke, and Hüll (2009) suggested a “vicious circle”, whereby individuals who are conscious of their memory failure experience stress, which in turn may provoke memory lapses. They proposed a general model in which external or internal stressors are responsible for memory complaints, associated with increased negative thoughts and affect (anxiety, misinterpretations and fear of disease). Other studies have confirmed that subjective memory complaints are linked more to negative affect such as anxiety and depression than to actual memory performance (Khan, Zarit, Hilbert, & Niederehe, 1975; Pearman, Hertzog, & Gerstorf, 2014; Pearman & Storandt, 2004; Reid & MacLullich, 2006). More
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importantly for our objective, individuals’ memory complaints also seem to be sensitive to their implicit theories of ageing (Lineweaver & Hertzog, 1998; McFarland, Ross, & Giltrow, 1992). For example, memory complaints may increase if people monitor their memory on the basis of ageing stereotypes (Hummert, 2011). Thus, subjective memory complaints may be due more to stereotype threat than to effective changes in memory and accurate monitoring (Derouesné, 1989; Sindi et al., 2012). Given that memory is widely recognised to decline with age, most elderly people are likely to complain of memory loss, but those who are particularly conscious of the negative stereotype of ageing are likely to report more memory complaints. Indeed, endorsement of age-related stereotype is a reminder of actual age that make more difficult for older people to create distance with the normative decline of memory with age and then increase their memory complaints. This is in accordance with findings of Stephan, Caudroit, and Chalabaey (2011) who found that the older people feel the lower their satisfaction with life is; they also found that self-efficacy partly mediates this relationship between subjective age and life satisfaction. This result highlights the strong impact that a negative evaluation of memory can have on older individuals. Following the above-mentioned studies, our objective was to investigate subjective memory complaints as a mediator of the stereotype threat effect and to examine whether memory complaints and self-efficacy overlap in explaining this effect or whether they play separate roles. To that end, two groups of older adults were constituted and randomly allocated to one of two conditions: threatened and non-threatened. As a baseline, we used the Metamemory in Adulthood questionnaire (MIA, Dixon, Hultsch, & Hertzog, 1988) to make sure that the two groups reported the same perceived memory functioning. The MIA questionnaire was chosen as it offers an ecological measure which approximates the multidimensional nature of everyday memory (Dixon, 1989; Dixon, Hopp, Cohen, de Frias, & Bäckman, 2003). Under the non-threatened condition, participants were administered memory complaints and self-efficacy questionnaires and finally an episodic memory task in which the memory component was de-emphasised (strictly in that order). Under the threatened condition, participants were first primed using an ageing stereotype activation questionnaire, followed by the
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BOUAZZAOUI ET AL. TABLE 1 Participants’ characteristics by group Non-threatened group n = 46 M (SD)
Threatened group n = 46 M (SD)
t(90)
56 70.95 (5.84) 12.43 (2.66) 26.15 (5.20) 28.91 (1.13) 5.69 (3.00) 7.04 (3.09)
65 69.26 (7.74) 13.19 (2.65) 26.67 (5.16) 29.02 (1.20) 5.15 (3.50) 6.36 (3.69)
– −1.18ns 1.37ns 0.48ns 0.44ns −0.79ns −0.94ns
Females (%) Age (years) Education level (years) Vocabulary (Mill Hill) Cognitive function (MMSE) Anxiety (HADS A) Depression (HADS D)
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ns, not significant.
memory complaints and self-efficacy questionnaires and finally the episodic memory task in which the memory component was emphasised (strictly in that order). First, we expected episodic memory performance to be lower in the stereotype threatened group than in the non-threatened group (according to stereotype threat effect on performance). Second, we hypothesised that the ageing stereotype priming would increase memory complaints, because older people primed may experience stress and hence react more strongly to agerelated cognitive changes reporting more complaints than those in the non-threatened group. If so, subjective memory complaints could mediate the effect of stereotype threat on memory performance. We also expected that memory selfefficacy would be reduced in the threatened group, which would, in turn, impair their memory performance compared to the non-threatened group. Both mediations will be tested together in order to determine their respective effects on memory performance. Finally, given that the MIA questionnaire also measure memory beliefs, we will also explore the potential moderating role of MIA measures in the group-related effect on episodic memory performance and if confirmed we will examine MIA as potential moderator in our mediation model.
METHOD Participants A total of 92 older adults were recruited to participate via advertisements in local newspapers, contacts at local social or leisure clubs and through word of mouth. They were randomly assigned to either the non-threatened or the threatened condition. The participants’ characteristics by group
condition are summarised in Table 1. The mean age and the proportion of males to females were roughly equivalent in the two groups [χ2 (1) = 0.73, p = .39]. No statistical difference was found on educational level and vocabulary (Mill Hill Vocabulary Scale; Deltour, 1993) suggesting that the two groups had a similar level of general cultural knowledge. All participants were volunteers and none were taking medication likely to affect their intellectual abilities. They were screened for cognitive impairment with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE; Folstein, Folstein, & McHugh, 1975) and all achieved a score of over 27. They were also screened for anxiety-depression with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS; Zigmond & Snaith, 1983); all of them scored below the cut-off score of 11 for each dimension, and scores on the two subscales did not differ significantly between groups. Ethical approval for the research was obtained from the local ethics committee of the University of Tours, and all participants signed consent forms.
Materials and design First, the participants were invited to meet the researcher in charge of the experiment. At this first appointment, they were asked to complete the MMSE, the Mill Hill Vocabulary Scale and the HADS, as described above. They were also invited to complete the French version of the abridged MIA questionnaire (Boucheron, 1995; Dixon et al., 1988). This questionnaire consists of eight subscales describing memory functioning and general knowledge of memory processes. Participants had to rate 76 statements on a 5point scale. The statements were divided into the following subscales: knowledge of memory processes (Task subscale), perceived memory capacity (Capacity subscale), perceived change in
AGEING-RELATED STEREOTYPES IN MEMORY AND METAMEMORY
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TABLE 2 Means (and SD) of metamemory in adulthood questionnaire scores for each group Non-threatened group n = 46 M (SD) Task Capacity Change Anxiety Achievement Locus of control Internal strategy External strategy
50.10 35.36 36.69 25.10 29.84 24.76 22.78 26.80
(8.65) (6.18) (6.61) (5.93) (4.50) (3.42) (4.48) (4.52)
Threatened group n = 46 M (SD) 47.89 34.34 39.21 23.54 29.28 24.60 22.36 27.95
(10.62) (5.70) (8.783) (5.56) (4.05) (4.38) (4.22) (4.30)
t(90) −1.09ns −0.82ns 1.55ns −1.30ns −0.63ns −0.18ns −0.45ns 1.24ns
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ns, not significant.
memory functioning with age (Change subscale), perceived anxiety related to memory performance (Anxiety subscale), the importance of performing memory tasks well (Achievement subscale), sense of control over memory (Locus of control subscale), frequency of external strategy use and frequency of internal strategy use strategies. A mean score per subscale was calculated for each group, and no significant difference was found between the threatened and the nonthreatened group (Table 2), indicating that the two groups initially reported the same general memory functioning. A week later, participants returned to the laboratory for the second step. Participants in the threatened group were primed with an ageing stereotype questionnaire. The material was inspired by previous studies (Levy, 1996; Stein et al., 2002) and consisted of 14 adjectives describing older people, 7 positive and 7 negative. A mixed list of negative and positive adjectives was used to activate the ageing stereotype postulating that whatever the connotation of the adjectives, exposing older people to adjectives about ageing would activate the ageing stereotype and impact their metamemory beliefs and episodic memory performance (Chasteen et al., 2005; Stein et al., 2002). The participants rated the degree to which each adjective was relevant to an older adult on a 4-point scale ranging from “not at all relevant to an older adult” to “very relevant to an older adult”. The non-threatened group did not perform this task. Next, both groups completed the Cognitive Difficulties Scale (CDS, Derouesné et al., 1993; McNair & Kahn, 1983) to measure memory complaints. Among the 39 items we selected only the 15 designed to assess memory complaints. Participants are asked to rate on a 5-point scale several statements describing everyday
difficulties. A higher score indicates greater subjective memory complaints. Second, they completed the MSEQ (Questionnaire d’Auto-Efficacité Mnésique, QAEM; Beaudoin, Agrigoroaei, Desrichard, Fournet, & Roulin, 2008) to measure memory self-efficacy. It is a French version of the MSEQ (Berry et al., 1989) that comprises six questions designed for self-assessment of memory capacity. Participants have to imagine whether or not they would be able to recall information in situations involving five levels of difficulty proposed in decreasing order. Participants answer “yes” or “no”, and the score is the number of “yes” responses. A higher score indicates greater subjective memory selfefficacy. Finally, they were administered the Logical Memory test (Wechsler, 1981) to measure episodic memory. In the standard procedure, participants are read two short stories. They are asked to recall each story immediately after hearing it using as many of the words of the original text as possible (immediate recall). Thirty minutes after the initial presentation, they are asked to recall what they can of the first and then the second story (delayed recall). Three scores are calculated: the total number of correctly recalled words for the two stories during the immediate recall, the delayed recall and finally a total mean recall. The instructions were manipulated to either enhance or not the stereotype threat. For the threatened group, the memory component of the task was emphasised; participants were informed that the objective of the task was to evaluate their memory, a cognitive function that declines with age. Their task was to memorise the stories and to recall as much information as possible. For the non-threatened group, the memory component of the task was de-emphasised by informing participants that the objective of the task was to judge
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their understanding of the two stories. Their task was to listen to the stories and then retell them.
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RESULTS Three sets of analyses were conducted. First, t tests were used to determine the effect of stereotype threat on older adults’ perceived metamemory beliefs (memory complaints measured with the CDS and memory self-efficacy measured with the QAEM) and episodic memory performance (Logical Memory task). Our second objective was to test the mediating role of memory complaints and self-efficacy in the group-related effect on episodic memory performance. Beforehand computing theses mediation analyses, multiple regression analyses were conducted to test the potential moderating role of MIA measures in the grouprelated effect on episodic memory performance to take into account these measures in our mediation model. First, the analyses showed a main effect of group on metamemory beliefs and episodic memory. Compared to the non-threatened group, the threatened group reported more memory complaints [M = 29.17, SD = 6.53 vs. M = 33.60, SD = 8.10, respectively; t(90) = 2.88, p < .01, d = .60] and less memory efficacy [M =19.08, SD = 2.9 vs. M =17.41, SD = 4.29, respectively; t(90) = −2.19, p < .05, d = −.45]. They also scored lower on the logical memory task: immediate recall [M = 17.91, SD = 4.89 vs. M =15.95, SD = 4.30, respectively; t (90) = −2.03, p < .05, d = −.42], delayed recall [M = 17.19, SD = 5.18 vs. M =13.84, SD = 4.09, respectively; t(90) = −3.43, p < .01, d = −.71] and total mean recall [M = 17.5, SD = 5.06 vs. M =14.90, SD = 4.06, respectively; t(90) = −2.7,
p < .01, d = −.56]. Given that stereotype threat impacts significantly both immediate and delayed recalls, regression and mediation analyses were computed on the total mean recall. Second, we explored the potential moderating role of MIA measures in the group-related effect on episodic memory performance. Multiple regression analyses were performed to test interactions between group condition and standardised coefficients of the MIA subscales on memory performance. The results indicate that only MIA locus of control interacted with group condition but did not withstand Bonferroni correction (p .1) when controlling for both mediators. Complementary analyses confirmed that the direct effect of threat was substantially decreased by the inclusion of the two mediators, with a point estimate of .829 (95% CI = .299, 1.582), Preacher & Hayes, 2008). These results thus suggest that memory complaints and self-efficacy play separate roles in the effect of threat on memory performance. In order to know whether these two indirect effects differed in their magnitude, we defined the pairwise contrast and computed its confidence interval (95% CI = −1.08, .08). Because zero is contained in the interval, the two indirect effects cannot be considered as differing in magnitude.
DISCUSSION The objectives of this study were (1) to measure the effect of stereotype threat on the metamemory beliefs of older adults (memory complaints and memory self-efficacy), and on their episodic memory performance, (2) to test the mediating role of metamemory beliefs on the group-related effect on episodic memory performance and (3) to test the moderating role of MIA measures. We hypothesised that stereotype would affect metamemory beliefs, increasing memory complaints and reducing memory self-efficacy, which in turn would reduce episodic memory performance. We also postulated that the group effect on episodic memory performance would be moderated by MIA scores. Our results largely support these hypotheses. First, as predicted we observed that stereotype threat had a detrimental impact on older adults’ beliefs and performance. At a basal level, the two groups reported the same perceived memory functioning (MIA), but two differences emerged after priming one group with age-related stereotypes and manipulating instructions for the episodic memory task. Participants under threat reported more memory complaints and less memory self-efficacy and scored lower on the episodic memory task than the non-threatened group. With regard to the reduced episodic memory performance, our data support the stereotype interpretation of memory decline and are in line with studies that tested this hypothesis
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(Desrichard & Kopetz, 2005; Hess et al., 2003, 2009; Mazerolle et al., 2012; Rahhal et al., 2001). They are consistent with predictions based on the stereotype threat model and more precisely with the ageing stereotype threat literature (Hess et al., 2003). The novelty of our results concerns the impact of stereotype on the subjective evaluation of memory functioning. Prior to testing, no difference was found between groups on selfreported memory functioning (measured with the MIA), but after being primed, participants in the threatened group modified their self-appraisal, reporting more complaints and less self-efficacy. The impact of stereotype is supported by the fact that the CDS and QAEM measured memory complaints and self-efficacy, corresponding to a measure of memory change and capacity which was also measured by the MIA, and no significant difference was found between the two groups a week before testing, in other words prior to the stereotype priming. Consistent with their reports of greater memory difficulties and less self-efficacy, the threatened group scored lower on the episodic memory task than the non-threatened group. Second, mediation analyses, which were of more direct interest to this study, confirmed the link between metamemory beliefs and episodic memory. The results indicate that when both mediators (memory complaints and self-efficacy) are considered together in the same mediation model, both indirect effects remain significant. Our results demonstrate the important mediating role of memory complaints and are in line with research suggesting that memory complaints are sensitive to individuals’ implicit theories of ageing (Lineweaver & Hertzog, 1998; McFarland et al., 1992) and may increase if monitoring is based on ageing stereotypes (Derouesné, 1989; Hummert, 2011; Sindi et al., 2012). The mediating role of memory complaints in the relationship between the stereotype threat effect and memory performance is also consistent with the findings of Metternich et al. (2009) who proposed that complaints are determined by stressors and are associated with increased negative thoughts and affects. One may reasonably suppose that the threat situation is stressful and consequently increases memory complaints and reduces memory performance. Our study also demonstrated the involvement of memory self-efficacy in the processes underlying the stereotype threat effect. When the self-efficacy measure relates not only to the experimental task but also involves an overall
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evaluation of memory self-efficacy, and also when the stereotype threat is strongly manipulated, memory self-efficacy emerges as a powerful mediator of stereotype threat. We can thus suggest that stereotype threat has a general impact on cognition, disturbing the subjective and consequently the objective component. Regarding the effect of group on episodic memory performance, it is important to note that it was probably reduced by our experimental design. By measuring metamemory beliefs before episodic memory performance, we probably also exposed the non-threatened group to the stereotype effect. Indeed, the memory complaints and self-efficacy questionnaire were clearly identified as memory measures, and we know that using the word “memory” may directly impact the optimal performance of older participants (Rahhal et al., 2001). In the same vein, it is also important to stress that the effect of the priming technique (activation questionnaire) used to operate the stereotype threat differed from other studies in which negative and positive adjectives were used in separate groups (Levy, 1996; Stein et al., 2002). To be more realistic, we have used a mixed list of negative and positive adjectives, older adults being stereotyped in both positive and negative ways at the risk of decreasing the stereotype threat effect. The results were significant anyway suggesting that that stereotype threat may be activated using a mixed list of negative and positive adjectives, the main point being to make participants think actively about themselves as an older adult (Kang & Chasteen, 2009) and thus as an individual with a low memory capacity according to stereotypes about ageing. In future research it would be interesting to compare the three conditions, using only negative adjectives, only positive adjectives and both. Furthermore, the present study combined two techniques to induce stereotype effect. We first primed the participants before measuring their metamemory beliefs using an ageing stereotype questionnaire which increases elderly identity, and later, we threatened them before measuring their episodic memory using an instruction manipulation which emphasises the memory component of the task. Then, both techniques (priming and threat) may have impacted episodic memory performance. Another way to test more clearly the chain reaction hypothesised which is an impact of stereotype threat on metamemory beliefs which in turn impair episodic memory consists in using only a technique of threat at
the beginning of the process tested then, before measuring metamemory beliefs. Further studies should test this path more specifically. Finally none of the MIA subscales interacted with the group effect predicting memory performance. This suggests that measures provided by the MIA questionnaire are not relevant to the mechanism linking stereotype threat to memory performance. In sum, our study demonstrates that stereotype threat associated with memory decline affects self-beliefs about memory, which in turn impairs episodic memory performance. These findings suggest that studies on ageing should consider contextual and personal factors when assessing the memory performance of older people.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors thank Florie Mandrou for her help in collecting data and Elisabeth Yates for reviewing this article.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
FUNDING This work was supported by the French Agence National de la Recherche (ANR) [grant number 2013BSH2-0005-03]; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) [grant number PE/PS 2011: Role du contexte social dans les deficits mnésiques lies au vieillissement].
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Psychologie Appliquée/European Review of Applied Psychology, 45, 163–170. Chasteen, A. L., Bhattacharyya, S., Horhota, M., Tam, R., & Hasher, L. (2005). How feelings of stereotype threat influence older adults’ memory performance. Experimental Ageing Research, 31, 235–260. doi:10.1080/03610730590948177 Commissaris, C. J. A. M., Ponds, R. W. H. M., & Jolles, J. (1998). Subjective forgetfulness in a normal Dutch population: Possibilities for health education and other interventions. Patient Education and Counseling, 34(1), 25–32. doi:10.1016/S0738-3991(98)00040-8 Craik, F. I. M., & Jennings, J. M. (1992). Human memory. In F. I. M. Craik & T. A.Salthouse (Eds.), The handbook of ageing and cognition (pp. 51–110). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Deltour, J. J. (1993). Echelle de vocabulaire de Mill Hill de JC Raven. Adaptation française et normes comparées du Mill Hill et du Standard Progressive Matrice (PM 38) Manuel [JC Raven’s Mill Hill vocabulary scale. French adaptation and standards compared of Mill Hill and the Standard Progressive Matrix (PM 38)]. Braine-le-Château: Editions l’application des techniques modernes. Derouesné, C. (1989). Memory complaints in the elderly: A study of 367 community-dwelling individuals from 50 to 80 years old. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 1, 151–163. Derouesné, C, Dealberto, M. J., Boyer, P., Lubin, S., Sauron, B., Piette, F., … Alpérovitch, A. (1993). An empirical evaluation of the “Cognitive Difficulties Scale” for assessment of memory complaints in general practice. A study of 1628 cognitively normal subjects aged 45 to 75 years. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 8, 599–607. Desrichard, O., & Kopetz, C. (2005). A threat in the elder: The impact of task instructions, self-efficacy and performance expectations on memory performance in the elderly. European Journal of Social Psychology, 35, 537–552. doi:10.1002/ejsp.249 Dixon, R., Hultsch, D., & Hertzog, C. (1988). The Metamemory in Adulthood Questionnaire. Psychopharmacology Bulletin, 24, 671–688. Dixon, R. A. (1989). Questionnaire research on metamemory and ageing: Issues of structure and function. In L. W. Poon, D. C. Rubin, & B. A. Wilson (Eds.), Everyday cognition in adult and late life (pp. 394–415). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Dixon, R. A., Hopp, G. A., Cohen, A. L., de Frias, C. M., & Bäckman, L. (2003). Self-reported memory compensation: Similar patterns in Alzheimer’s disease and very old adult samples. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 25, 382–390. Dixon, R. A., & Hultsch, D. F. (1983). Structure and development of metamemory in adulthood. Journal of Gerontology, 38, 682–688. doi:10.1093/geronj/ 38.6.682 Flavell, J. H. (1979). Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: A new area of cognitive-developmental inquiry. American Psychologist, 34, 906–911. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.34.10.906 Folstein, M. F., Folstein, S. E., & McHugh, P. R. (1975). Mini-mental state: A practical method for
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grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12, 189– 198. doi:10.1016/0022-3956(75)90026-6 Hess, T. M. (2005). Memory and ageing in context. Psychological Bulletin, 131, 383–406. doi:10.1037/ 0033-2909.131.3.383 Hess, T. M., Auman, C., Colcombe, S. J., & Rahhal, T. A. (2003). The impact of stereotype threat on age differences in memory performance. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 58, 3–11. doi:10.1093/geronb/58.1.P3 Hess, T. M., & Hinson, J. T. (2006). Age-related variation in the influences of aging stereotypes on memory in adulthood. Psychology and Aging, 21, 621–625. doi:10.1037/0882-7974.21.3.621 Hess, T. M., Hinson, J. T., & Hodges, E. A. (2009). Moderators of and mechanisms underlying stereotype threat effects on older adults’ memory performance. Experimental Ageing Research, 35, 153– 177. doi:10.1080/03610730802716413 Hummert, M. (2011). Age stereotypes and aging. In K. Schaie & S. L. Willis (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of aging (7th ed., pp. 249–262). San Diego, CA: Elsevier Academic Press. Kang, S. K., & Chasteen, A. L. (2009). The moderating role of age group identification and perceived threat on stereotype threat among older adults. International Journal of Ageing & Human Development, 69, 201–220. doi:10.2190/AG.69.3 Khan, R. L., Zarit, S. H., Hilbert, N. M., & Niederehe, G. (1975). Memory complaint and impairment in the aged: The effect of depression and altered brain function. Archives of General Psychiatry, 32, 1569– 1573. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1975.01760300107009 Levy, B. (1996). Improving memory in old age through implicit selfstereotyping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 1092–1107. doi:10.1037/00223514.71.6.1092 Light, L. (1991). Memory and ageing: Four hypotheses in search of data. Annual Review of Psychology, 42, 333–376. doi:10.1146/annurev.ps.42.020191.002001 Lineweaver, T. T., & Hertzog, C. (1998). Adults’ efficacy and control beliefs regarding memory and aging: Separating general from personal beliefs. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 5, 264– 296. doi:10.1076/anec.5.4.264.771 Loewen, E. R., Shaw, R. J., & Craik, F. I. M. (1990). Age differences in components of metamemory. Experimental Ageing Research, 16(1), 43–48. doi:10.1080/03610739008253873 Mazerolle, M., Régner, I., Morisset, P., Rigalleau, F., & Huguet, P. 2012. Stereotype threat strengthens automatic recall and undermines controlled processes in older adults. Psychological Science, 23, 723–727. doi:10.1177/0956797612437607 McDaniel, M. A., Einstein, G. O., & Jacoby, L. L. (2008). New considerations in ageing and memory: The glass may be half full. In F. I. M. Craik & T. A. Salthouse (Eds.), Handbook of ageing and cognition (3rd ed., pp. 251–310). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. McDonald. McDonald-Miszcak, L., Hertzog, C., & Hultsch, D. F. (1995). Stability and accuracy of metamemory in adulthood and ageing: A longitudinal analysis.
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Psychology & Ageing, 10, 553–564. doi:10.1037/ 0882-7974.10.4.553 McFarland, C., Ross, M., & Giltrow, M. (1992). Biased recollections in older adults: The role of implicit theory of aging. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 837–850. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.62.5.837 McNair, D. M., & Kahn, R. J. (1983). Self-assessment of cognitive deficits scale. In T. Crook, S. Ferris, & R. Bartus (Eds.), Assessment in geriatric psychopharmacology (pp. 137–144). New Canaan, CT: Mark Powley. Metternich, B., Schmidtke, K., & Hüll, M. (2009). How are memory complaints in functional memory disorder related to measures of affect, metamemory and cognition? Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 66, 435–444. Nelson, T. O. (1996). Consciousness and metacognition. The American Psychologist, 51(2), 102–116. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.51.2.102 Pearman, A., Hertzog, C., & Gerstorf, D. (2014). Little evidence for links between memory complaints and memory performance in very old age: Longitudinal analyses from the Berlin aging study. Psychology and Aging, 29, 828–842. doi:10.1037/a0037141 Pearman, A., & Storandt, M. (2004). Predictors of subjective memory in older adults. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 59(1), 4–6. doi:10.1093/geronb/59.1.P4 Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40, 879–891. doi:10.3758/ BRM.40.3.879 Rahhal, T. A., Hasher, L., & Colcombe, S. J. (2001). Instructional manipulations and age differences in memory: Now you see them, now you don’t. Psychology and Ageing, 16, 697–706. doi:10.1037/ 0882-7974.16.4.697 Reid, L. M., & MacLullich, A. J. (2006). Subjective memory complaints and cognitive impairment in older people. Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, 22, 471–485. doi:10.1159/000096295
Schmader, T., Johns, M., & Forbes, C. (2008). An integrated process model of stereotype threat effects on performance. Psychological Review, 115, 336– 356. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.115.2.336 Seeman, T., McAvay, G., Merril, S., Albert, M., & Rodin, J. (1996). Self-efficacy beliefs and changes in cognitive performance: McArtur studies of successful aging. Psychology and Aging, 11, 538–551. doi:10.1037/0882-7974.11.3.538 Sindi, S., Juster, R. P., Wan, N., Nair, N. P. V., Kin, N. Y., & Lupien, S. J. (2012). Depressive symptoms, cortisol, and cognition during human aging: The role of negative aging perceptions. Stress, 15, 130–137. Spielberger, C. D., Gorsuch, R. L., Lushene, R., Vagg, P. R., & Jacobs, G. A. (1983). Manual for the StateTrait Anxiety Inventory. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press. Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 69, 97–811. Stein, R., Blanchard-Fields, F., & Hertzog, C. (2002). The effects of age-stereotype priming on the memory performance of older adults. Experimental Ageing Research, 28, 169–181. doi:10.1080/036107302528 00184 Stephan, Y., Caudroit, J., & Chalabaey, A. (2011). Subjective health and memory self-efficacy as mediators in the relation between subjective age and life satisfaction among older adults. Aging & Mental Health, 15, 428–436. doi:10.1080/13607863.2010. 536138 Wechsler, D. (1981). WAIS-R manual. New York, NY: The Psychological Corporation. Zacks, R. T., Hasher, L., & Li, K. Z. H. (2000). Human memory. In F. I. M. Craik & T. A. Salthouse (Eds.), The handbook of ageing and cognition (2nd ed., pp. 293–357). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Zigmond, A. S., & Snaith, R. P. (1983). The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 67, 361–370. doi:10.1111/j.16000447.1983.tb09716
Memory Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/pmem20
Ageing-related stereotypes in memory: When the beliefs come true a
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Badiâa Bouazzaoui , Alice Follenfant , François Ric , Séverine Fay , Jean-Claude c
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Croizet , Thierry Atzeni & Laurence Taconnat a
UMR CNRS 7295, CeRCA «Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l’Apprentissage», University of Tours, Tours, France b
EA 4139, «Laboratoire de Psychologie, Santé et Qualité de vie», University of Bordeaux 2, Bordeaux, France c
UMR CNRS 7295, CeRCA «Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l’Apprentissage», University of Poitiers, Poitiers, France Published online: 09 Jun 2015.
Click for updates To cite this article: Badiâa Bouazzaoui, Alice Follenfant, François Ric, Séverine Fay, Jean-Claude Croizet, Thierry Atzeni & Laurence Taconnat (2015): Ageing-related stereotypes in memory: When the beliefs come true, Memory, DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2015.1040802 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2015.1040802
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Memory, 2015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2015.1040802
Ageing-related stereotypes in memory: When the beliefs come true Badiâa Bouazzaoui1, Alice Follenfant2, François Ric2, Séverine Fay1, Jean-Claude Croizet3, Thierry Atzeni2, and Laurence Taconnat1
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UMR CNRS 7295, CeRCA «Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l’Apprentissage», University of Tours, Tours, France 2 EA 4139, «Laboratoire de Psychologie, Santé et Qualité de vie», University of Bordeaux 2, Bordeaux, France 3 UMR CNRS 7295, CeRCA «Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l’Apprentissage», University of Poitiers, Poitiers, France (Received 12 September 2014; accepted 8 April 2015)
Age-related stereotype concerns culturally shared beliefs about the inevitable decline of memory with age. In this study, stereotype priming and stereotype threat manipulations were used to explore the impact of age-related stereotype on metamemory beliefs and episodic memory performance. Ninety-two older participants who reported the same perceived memory functioning were divided into two groups: a threatened group and a non-threatened group (control). First, the threatened group was primed with an ageing stereotype questionnaire. Then, both groups were administered memory complaints and memory self-efficacy questionnaires to measure metamemory beliefs. Finally, both groups were administered the Logical Memory task to measure episodic memory, for the threatened group the instructions were manipulated to enhance the stereotype threat. Results indicated that the threatened individuals reported more memory complaints and less memory efficacy, and had lower scores than the control group on the logical memory task. A multiple mediation analysis revealed that the stereotype threat effect on the episodic memory performance was mediated by both memory complaints and memory self-efficacy. This study revealed that stereotype threat impacts belief in one’s own memory functioning, which in turn impairs episodic memory performance.
Keywords: Stereotype threat; Ageing; Memory; Metamemory.
Stereotypes can be defined as beliefs about the characteristics shared by members of a group. Being in a situation in which a negative stereotype about one’s own group could be applied to oneself can be perceived as threatening and can lead to underperformance in the stereotyped domain. This phenomenon is known as the “stereotype threat effect” (Steele & Aronson, 1995). In this study, we focus on age-related stereotypes about memory.
Stereotype threat concerns a variety of domains, including race, gender, socioeconomic category and age. Research on this phenomenon dates back to the 1990s when Steele and Aronson (1995) investigated the academic difficulties of ethnic minorities such as Afro-Americans. Since then, countless studies have extended this stereotype threat effect to other groups suggesting that group differences could be artificial or at least accentuated by stereotype threat. For example,
Address correspondence to: Badiâa Bouazzaoui, Université François-Rabelais de Tours UMR 7295 CeRCA 3, rue des Tanneurs 37000 Tours, France. E-mail: [email protected]
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regarding age, a strong culturally shared stereotype concerns the inevitable decline of memory with increasing age (Hess, 2005; Stein, BlanchardFields, & Hertzog, 2002). This stereotype is supported by a robust effect of age on episodic memory reported in the ageing literature (for reviews, see Balota, Dolan, & Duchek, 2000; Craik & Jennings, 1992; Light, 1991; McDaniel, Einstein, & Jacoby, 2008; Zacks, Hasher, & Li, 2000), even if not all elderly people are affected. Recent studies have suggested that the declining memory performance of older participants could in part be due to a social construct, namely the negative beliefs which older people develop about their memory abilities. For example, older adults often report reduced memory capacity, a perceived change in memory functioning and anxiety related to memory performance (Dixon & Hultsch, 1983; Loewen, Shaw, & Craik, 1990; McDonald-Miszcak, Hertzog, & Hultsch, 1995). These beliefs refer to the concept of metamemory, which is cognition about memory (Flavell, 1979; Nelson, 1996) including beliefs about one’s own ability to remember and perceive change in performance over time. These beliefs could be sensitive to age-related stereotypes, which in turn could impact episodic memory. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of such metamemory beliefs on actual memory performance. Age-related stereotypes have been the subject of several studies demonstrating that stereotypes may disrupt memory performance. In their studies, Levy (1996) and Stein et al. (2002) subliminally primed their participants with negative and positive ageing stereotype cues. Both studies converge in showing that negative cues undermined memory performance of older participants. Other studies have examined the impact of stereotype threat using instruction manipulations and found that an emphasis on the memory component of the task was detrimental to the performance of older participants (Desrichard & Kopetz, 2005; Rahhal, Hasher, & Colcombe, 2001). Studies that have investigated the processes underlying the stereotype threat effect have proposed that stereotype threat creates intrusive thoughts which consume working memory capacities and reduce the ability to use memory strategies (Hess, Auman, Colcombe, & Rahhal, 2003; Mazerolle, Régner, Morisset, Rigalleau, & Huguet, 2012; Schmader, Johns, & Forbes, 2008). With regard to the memory performance of the elderly in particular, several
studies have focused on emotional variables (stress, anxiety) and cognitive resources affected by intrusive thoughts, with the same difficulty in showing mediation (Chasteen, Bhattacharyya, Horhota, & Hasher, 2005; Hess & Hinson, 2006; Hess, Hinson, & Hodges, 2009; Hess et al., 2003). For instance, Chasteen et al. (2005) found that the impact of age on memory performance (recall and recognition) is mediated by perceived stereotype threat (measured through five questions adapted from Steele & Aronson, 1995), but without manipulation of stereotype threat. Furthermore, they found that anxiety (evaluated by the short form of State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Spielberger, Gorsuch, Lushene, Vagg, & Jacobs, 1983) did not mediate the relationship between threat and performance. In line with other authors (e.g., Levy, 1996), this suggests that the effect of stereotype threat on memory performance in the elderly might rely more on cognitive components than on a general negative affective state. An alternative way to investigate the effect of stereotype threat on memory is to examine beliefs about memory and cognition as potential mediators. Given that the decrease in memory selfefficacy is particularly pronounced in older individuals and affects actual memory performance (Seeman, McAvay, Merril, Albert, & Rodin, 1996), the role of memory self-efficacy—which corresponds to perceived memory abilities—has been investigated to understand the possible mechanisms underlying the effect of stereotype threat on memory performance. Chasteen et al. (2005) attempted to test the hypothesis of memory self-efficacy as a mediator, but their results were inconclusive. Surprisingly, self-efficacy was correlated neither with age nor with memory performance (free-recall and recognition) but only with the instruction condition. It was therefore not possible with their data to examine selfefficacy as a mediator of the relationship between age and memory performance or between threat and memory performance. The memory selfefficacy measure used in their study was a questionnaire framed within the context of the experimental task and was thus not a global evaluation of memory self-efficacy. Testing the same hypothesis, Desrichard and Kopetz (2005) used an alternate form of the Memory SelfEfficacy Questionnaire (MSEQ; Berry, West, & Dennehy, 1989), which is a general evaluation of memory self-efficacy including laboratory tasks (word and digit recall) and everyday tasks
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AGEING-RELATED STEREOTYPES IN MEMORY AND METAMEMORY
(remembering phone numbers, a grocery list, etc.). They showed that self-efficacy was related to memory performance but not to the task instruction, and hence they concluded that selfefficacy plays a moderator role on the impact of task instruction on memory performance. Interestingly, they found that participants’ specific expectations (measured through a single item) about memory performance mediated the effect of stereotype threat on memory performance, but that general memory self-efficacy moderated this effect. Our study was designed to obtain clearer evidence about the potential mediating role of self-efficacy. Like Desrichard and Kopetz (2005), we used the MSEQ (French version) to measure self-efficacy because it is correlated with memory performance. Moreover, to optimise the possibility of observing a relationship between selfefficacy and group condition we used two ways to activate age-related stereotype, a stereotype priming technique (activation questionnaire) and a stereotype threat manipulation (an instructional manipulation). This was in accordance with Chasteen et al. (2005) who observed that instructional manipulation alone is not always sufficient to operate the stereotype threat effect. In the present study, together with memory self-efficacy, we examined another important potential mediator of the stereotype threat effect on memory performance, namely subjective memory complaints. This is a key variable in the ageing literature; complaints about memory increase with age and concern 41% of people aged between 55 and 65 and 52% of those between 70 and 85 (Commissaris, Ponds, & Jolles, 1998). Healthy older adults frequently report that their memory is impaired, even if they perform normally, and it may then be considered as a stress-related psychosomatic disorder. Metternich, Schmidtke, and Hüll (2009) suggested a “vicious circle”, whereby individuals who are conscious of their memory failure experience stress, which in turn may provoke memory lapses. They proposed a general model in which external or internal stressors are responsible for memory complaints, associated with increased negative thoughts and affect (anxiety, misinterpretations and fear of disease). Other studies have confirmed that subjective memory complaints are linked more to negative affect such as anxiety and depression than to actual memory performance (Khan, Zarit, Hilbert, & Niederehe, 1975; Pearman, Hertzog, & Gerstorf, 2014; Pearman & Storandt, 2004; Reid & MacLullich, 2006). More
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importantly for our objective, individuals’ memory complaints also seem to be sensitive to their implicit theories of ageing (Lineweaver & Hertzog, 1998; McFarland, Ross, & Giltrow, 1992). For example, memory complaints may increase if people monitor their memory on the basis of ageing stereotypes (Hummert, 2011). Thus, subjective memory complaints may be due more to stereotype threat than to effective changes in memory and accurate monitoring (Derouesné, 1989; Sindi et al., 2012). Given that memory is widely recognised to decline with age, most elderly people are likely to complain of memory loss, but those who are particularly conscious of the negative stereotype of ageing are likely to report more memory complaints. Indeed, endorsement of age-related stereotype is a reminder of actual age that make more difficult for older people to create distance with the normative decline of memory with age and then increase their memory complaints. This is in accordance with findings of Stephan, Caudroit, and Chalabaey (2011) who found that the older people feel the lower their satisfaction with life is; they also found that self-efficacy partly mediates this relationship between subjective age and life satisfaction. This result highlights the strong impact that a negative evaluation of memory can have on older individuals. Following the above-mentioned studies, our objective was to investigate subjective memory complaints as a mediator of the stereotype threat effect and to examine whether memory complaints and self-efficacy overlap in explaining this effect or whether they play separate roles. To that end, two groups of older adults were constituted and randomly allocated to one of two conditions: threatened and non-threatened. As a baseline, we used the Metamemory in Adulthood questionnaire (MIA, Dixon, Hultsch, & Hertzog, 1988) to make sure that the two groups reported the same perceived memory functioning. The MIA questionnaire was chosen as it offers an ecological measure which approximates the multidimensional nature of everyday memory (Dixon, 1989; Dixon, Hopp, Cohen, de Frias, & Bäckman, 2003). Under the non-threatened condition, participants were administered memory complaints and self-efficacy questionnaires and finally an episodic memory task in which the memory component was de-emphasised (strictly in that order). Under the threatened condition, participants were first primed using an ageing stereotype activation questionnaire, followed by the
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BOUAZZAOUI ET AL. TABLE 1 Participants’ characteristics by group Non-threatened group n = 46 M (SD)
Threatened group n = 46 M (SD)
t(90)
56 70.95 (5.84) 12.43 (2.66) 26.15 (5.20) 28.91 (1.13) 5.69 (3.00) 7.04 (3.09)
65 69.26 (7.74) 13.19 (2.65) 26.67 (5.16) 29.02 (1.20) 5.15 (3.50) 6.36 (3.69)
– −1.18ns 1.37ns 0.48ns 0.44ns −0.79ns −0.94ns
Females (%) Age (years) Education level (years) Vocabulary (Mill Hill) Cognitive function (MMSE) Anxiety (HADS A) Depression (HADS D)
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ns, not significant.
memory complaints and self-efficacy questionnaires and finally the episodic memory task in which the memory component was emphasised (strictly in that order). First, we expected episodic memory performance to be lower in the stereotype threatened group than in the non-threatened group (according to stereotype threat effect on performance). Second, we hypothesised that the ageing stereotype priming would increase memory complaints, because older people primed may experience stress and hence react more strongly to agerelated cognitive changes reporting more complaints than those in the non-threatened group. If so, subjective memory complaints could mediate the effect of stereotype threat on memory performance. We also expected that memory selfefficacy would be reduced in the threatened group, which would, in turn, impair their memory performance compared to the non-threatened group. Both mediations will be tested together in order to determine their respective effects on memory performance. Finally, given that the MIA questionnaire also measure memory beliefs, we will also explore the potential moderating role of MIA measures in the group-related effect on episodic memory performance and if confirmed we will examine MIA as potential moderator in our mediation model.
METHOD Participants A total of 92 older adults were recruited to participate via advertisements in local newspapers, contacts at local social or leisure clubs and through word of mouth. They were randomly assigned to either the non-threatened or the threatened condition. The participants’ characteristics by group
condition are summarised in Table 1. The mean age and the proportion of males to females were roughly equivalent in the two groups [χ2 (1) = 0.73, p = .39]. No statistical difference was found on educational level and vocabulary (Mill Hill Vocabulary Scale; Deltour, 1993) suggesting that the two groups had a similar level of general cultural knowledge. All participants were volunteers and none were taking medication likely to affect their intellectual abilities. They were screened for cognitive impairment with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE; Folstein, Folstein, & McHugh, 1975) and all achieved a score of over 27. They were also screened for anxiety-depression with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS; Zigmond & Snaith, 1983); all of them scored below the cut-off score of 11 for each dimension, and scores on the two subscales did not differ significantly between groups. Ethical approval for the research was obtained from the local ethics committee of the University of Tours, and all participants signed consent forms.
Materials and design First, the participants were invited to meet the researcher in charge of the experiment. At this first appointment, they were asked to complete the MMSE, the Mill Hill Vocabulary Scale and the HADS, as described above. They were also invited to complete the French version of the abridged MIA questionnaire (Boucheron, 1995; Dixon et al., 1988). This questionnaire consists of eight subscales describing memory functioning and general knowledge of memory processes. Participants had to rate 76 statements on a 5point scale. The statements were divided into the following subscales: knowledge of memory processes (Task subscale), perceived memory capacity (Capacity subscale), perceived change in
AGEING-RELATED STEREOTYPES IN MEMORY AND METAMEMORY
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TABLE 2 Means (and SD) of metamemory in adulthood questionnaire scores for each group Non-threatened group n = 46 M (SD) Task Capacity Change Anxiety Achievement Locus of control Internal strategy External strategy
50.10 35.36 36.69 25.10 29.84 24.76 22.78 26.80
(8.65) (6.18) (6.61) (5.93) (4.50) (3.42) (4.48) (4.52)
Threatened group n = 46 M (SD) 47.89 34.34 39.21 23.54 29.28 24.60 22.36 27.95
(10.62) (5.70) (8.783) (5.56) (4.05) (4.38) (4.22) (4.30)
t(90) −1.09ns −0.82ns 1.55ns −1.30ns −0.63ns −0.18ns −0.45ns 1.24ns
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ns, not significant.
memory functioning with age (Change subscale), perceived anxiety related to memory performance (Anxiety subscale), the importance of performing memory tasks well (Achievement subscale), sense of control over memory (Locus of control subscale), frequency of external strategy use and frequency of internal strategy use strategies. A mean score per subscale was calculated for each group, and no significant difference was found between the threatened and the nonthreatened group (Table 2), indicating that the two groups initially reported the same general memory functioning. A week later, participants returned to the laboratory for the second step. Participants in the threatened group were primed with an ageing stereotype questionnaire. The material was inspired by previous studies (Levy, 1996; Stein et al., 2002) and consisted of 14 adjectives describing older people, 7 positive and 7 negative. A mixed list of negative and positive adjectives was used to activate the ageing stereotype postulating that whatever the connotation of the adjectives, exposing older people to adjectives about ageing would activate the ageing stereotype and impact their metamemory beliefs and episodic memory performance (Chasteen et al., 2005; Stein et al., 2002). The participants rated the degree to which each adjective was relevant to an older adult on a 4-point scale ranging from “not at all relevant to an older adult” to “very relevant to an older adult”. The non-threatened group did not perform this task. Next, both groups completed the Cognitive Difficulties Scale (CDS, Derouesné et al., 1993; McNair & Kahn, 1983) to measure memory complaints. Among the 39 items we selected only the 15 designed to assess memory complaints. Participants are asked to rate on a 5-point scale several statements describing everyday
difficulties. A higher score indicates greater subjective memory complaints. Second, they completed the MSEQ (Questionnaire d’Auto-Efficacité Mnésique, QAEM; Beaudoin, Agrigoroaei, Desrichard, Fournet, & Roulin, 2008) to measure memory self-efficacy. It is a French version of the MSEQ (Berry et al., 1989) that comprises six questions designed for self-assessment of memory capacity. Participants have to imagine whether or not they would be able to recall information in situations involving five levels of difficulty proposed in decreasing order. Participants answer “yes” or “no”, and the score is the number of “yes” responses. A higher score indicates greater subjective memory selfefficacy. Finally, they were administered the Logical Memory test (Wechsler, 1981) to measure episodic memory. In the standard procedure, participants are read two short stories. They are asked to recall each story immediately after hearing it using as many of the words of the original text as possible (immediate recall). Thirty minutes after the initial presentation, they are asked to recall what they can of the first and then the second story (delayed recall). Three scores are calculated: the total number of correctly recalled words for the two stories during the immediate recall, the delayed recall and finally a total mean recall. The instructions were manipulated to either enhance or not the stereotype threat. For the threatened group, the memory component of the task was emphasised; participants were informed that the objective of the task was to evaluate their memory, a cognitive function that declines with age. Their task was to memorise the stories and to recall as much information as possible. For the non-threatened group, the memory component of the task was de-emphasised by informing participants that the objective of the task was to judge
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their understanding of the two stories. Their task was to listen to the stories and then retell them.
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RESULTS Three sets of analyses were conducted. First, t tests were used to determine the effect of stereotype threat on older adults’ perceived metamemory beliefs (memory complaints measured with the CDS and memory self-efficacy measured with the QAEM) and episodic memory performance (Logical Memory task). Our second objective was to test the mediating role of memory complaints and self-efficacy in the group-related effect on episodic memory performance. Beforehand computing theses mediation analyses, multiple regression analyses were conducted to test the potential moderating role of MIA measures in the grouprelated effect on episodic memory performance to take into account these measures in our mediation model. First, the analyses showed a main effect of group on metamemory beliefs and episodic memory. Compared to the non-threatened group, the threatened group reported more memory complaints [M = 29.17, SD = 6.53 vs. M = 33.60, SD = 8.10, respectively; t(90) = 2.88, p < .01, d = .60] and less memory efficacy [M =19.08, SD = 2.9 vs. M =17.41, SD = 4.29, respectively; t(90) = −2.19, p < .05, d = −.45]. They also scored lower on the logical memory task: immediate recall [M = 17.91, SD = 4.89 vs. M =15.95, SD = 4.30, respectively; t (90) = −2.03, p < .05, d = −.42], delayed recall [M = 17.19, SD = 5.18 vs. M =13.84, SD = 4.09, respectively; t(90) = −3.43, p < .01, d = −.71] and total mean recall [M = 17.5, SD = 5.06 vs. M =14.90, SD = 4.06, respectively; t(90) = −2.7,
p < .01, d = −.56]. Given that stereotype threat impacts significantly both immediate and delayed recalls, regression and mediation analyses were computed on the total mean recall. Second, we explored the potential moderating role of MIA measures in the group-related effect on episodic memory performance. Multiple regression analyses were performed to test interactions between group condition and standardised coefficients of the MIA subscales on memory performance. The results indicate that only MIA locus of control interacted with group condition but did not withstand Bonferroni correction (p .1) when controlling for both mediators. Complementary analyses confirmed that the direct effect of threat was substantially decreased by the inclusion of the two mediators, with a point estimate of .829 (95% CI = .299, 1.582), Preacher & Hayes, 2008). These results thus suggest that memory complaints and self-efficacy play separate roles in the effect of threat on memory performance. In order to know whether these two indirect effects differed in their magnitude, we defined the pairwise contrast and computed its confidence interval (95% CI = −1.08, .08). Because zero is contained in the interval, the two indirect effects cannot be considered as differing in magnitude.
DISCUSSION The objectives of this study were (1) to measure the effect of stereotype threat on the metamemory beliefs of older adults (memory complaints and memory self-efficacy), and on their episodic memory performance, (2) to test the mediating role of metamemory beliefs on the group-related effect on episodic memory performance and (3) to test the moderating role of MIA measures. We hypothesised that stereotype would affect metamemory beliefs, increasing memory complaints and reducing memory self-efficacy, which in turn would reduce episodic memory performance. We also postulated that the group effect on episodic memory performance would be moderated by MIA scores. Our results largely support these hypotheses. First, as predicted we observed that stereotype threat had a detrimental impact on older adults’ beliefs and performance. At a basal level, the two groups reported the same perceived memory functioning (MIA), but two differences emerged after priming one group with age-related stereotypes and manipulating instructions for the episodic memory task. Participants under threat reported more memory complaints and less memory self-efficacy and scored lower on the episodic memory task than the non-threatened group. With regard to the reduced episodic memory performance, our data support the stereotype interpretation of memory decline and are in line with studies that tested this hypothesis
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(Desrichard & Kopetz, 2005; Hess et al., 2003, 2009; Mazerolle et al., 2012; Rahhal et al., 2001). They are consistent with predictions based on the stereotype threat model and more precisely with the ageing stereotype threat literature (Hess et al., 2003). The novelty of our results concerns the impact of stereotype on the subjective evaluation of memory functioning. Prior to testing, no difference was found between groups on selfreported memory functioning (measured with the MIA), but after being primed, participants in the threatened group modified their self-appraisal, reporting more complaints and less self-efficacy. The impact of stereotype is supported by the fact that the CDS and QAEM measured memory complaints and self-efficacy, corresponding to a measure of memory change and capacity which was also measured by the MIA, and no significant difference was found between the two groups a week before testing, in other words prior to the stereotype priming. Consistent with their reports of greater memory difficulties and less self-efficacy, the threatened group scored lower on the episodic memory task than the non-threatened group. Second, mediation analyses, which were of more direct interest to this study, confirmed the link between metamemory beliefs and episodic memory. The results indicate that when both mediators (memory complaints and self-efficacy) are considered together in the same mediation model, both indirect effects remain significant. Our results demonstrate the important mediating role of memory complaints and are in line with research suggesting that memory complaints are sensitive to individuals’ implicit theories of ageing (Lineweaver & Hertzog, 1998; McFarland et al., 1992) and may increase if monitoring is based on ageing stereotypes (Derouesné, 1989; Hummert, 2011; Sindi et al., 2012). The mediating role of memory complaints in the relationship between the stereotype threat effect and memory performance is also consistent with the findings of Metternich et al. (2009) who proposed that complaints are determined by stressors and are associated with increased negative thoughts and affects. One may reasonably suppose that the threat situation is stressful and consequently increases memory complaints and reduces memory performance. Our study also demonstrated the involvement of memory self-efficacy in the processes underlying the stereotype threat effect. When the self-efficacy measure relates not only to the experimental task but also involves an overall
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evaluation of memory self-efficacy, and also when the stereotype threat is strongly manipulated, memory self-efficacy emerges as a powerful mediator of stereotype threat. We can thus suggest that stereotype threat has a general impact on cognition, disturbing the subjective and consequently the objective component. Regarding the effect of group on episodic memory performance, it is important to note that it was probably reduced by our experimental design. By measuring metamemory beliefs before episodic memory performance, we probably also exposed the non-threatened group to the stereotype effect. Indeed, the memory complaints and self-efficacy questionnaire were clearly identified as memory measures, and we know that using the word “memory” may directly impact the optimal performance of older participants (Rahhal et al., 2001). In the same vein, it is also important to stress that the effect of the priming technique (activation questionnaire) used to operate the stereotype threat differed from other studies in which negative and positive adjectives were used in separate groups (Levy, 1996; Stein et al., 2002). To be more realistic, we have used a mixed list of negative and positive adjectives, older adults being stereotyped in both positive and negative ways at the risk of decreasing the stereotype threat effect. The results were significant anyway suggesting that that stereotype threat may be activated using a mixed list of negative and positive adjectives, the main point being to make participants think actively about themselves as an older adult (Kang & Chasteen, 2009) and thus as an individual with a low memory capacity according to stereotypes about ageing. In future research it would be interesting to compare the three conditions, using only negative adjectives, only positive adjectives and both. Furthermore, the present study combined two techniques to induce stereotype effect. We first primed the participants before measuring their metamemory beliefs using an ageing stereotype questionnaire which increases elderly identity, and later, we threatened them before measuring their episodic memory using an instruction manipulation which emphasises the memory component of the task. Then, both techniques (priming and threat) may have impacted episodic memory performance. Another way to test more clearly the chain reaction hypothesised which is an impact of stereotype threat on metamemory beliefs which in turn impair episodic memory consists in using only a technique of threat at
the beginning of the process tested then, before measuring metamemory beliefs. Further studies should test this path more specifically. Finally none of the MIA subscales interacted with the group effect predicting memory performance. This suggests that measures provided by the MIA questionnaire are not relevant to the mechanism linking stereotype threat to memory performance. In sum, our study demonstrates that stereotype threat associated with memory decline affects self-beliefs about memory, which in turn impairs episodic memory performance. These findings suggest that studies on ageing should consider contextual and personal factors when assessing the memory performance of older people.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors thank Florie Mandrou for her help in collecting data and Elisabeth Yates for reviewing this article.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
FUNDING This work was supported by the French Agence National de la Recherche (ANR) [grant number 2013BSH2-0005-03]; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) [grant number PE/PS 2011: Role du contexte social dans les deficits mnésiques lies au vieillissement].
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