Younger and older adults' cognitive and physical functioning in a virtual reality age manipulation

Objectives: Age group stereotypes (AGS), especially those targeting old age, affect an individual's behavior and long-term cognitive and physiological functioning. Conventional paradigms investigating the related mechanisms lack validity and stability. Our novel approach for the activation of self-relevant AGS uses a virtual reality (VR) ageing experience, measuring relevant effects on performance parameters. Methods: In a between-subjects experimental design, young participants embodied either a younger or older avatar in a 3D virtual environment to capture the effects on physical (Study 1; N = 68) and cognitive performance (Study 2; N = 45). In Study 3 (N = 117), the paradigm was applied to older participants. Results: For the younger participants, embodying older avatars was associated with declines in memory and physical performance when compared to the younger avatar age group. Furthermore, the manipulations' main effects were moderated by negative explicit AGS that matched the respective performance domains. For the older participants, we found no significant performance differences in the two domains investigated. Discussion: The experimental manipulation demonstrated an impact on relevant performance parameters on a motivational and strategic level, especially for strong performance-related AS, but for young participants only. Possible reasons and mechanisms for the differences in younger and older samples' results are discussed

Development as action in changing contexts: perspectives from six countries

"In diesem Artikel werden fünf aktuelle Beiträge besprochen, die sich empirisch mit der Interaktion zwischen wandelnden sozio-historischen Kontexten und der individuellen Anpassung und Entwicklung auseinander setzen. Die Beiträge von John Bynner, Rand Conger und Mitarbeitern, Cigndem Kagitcibasi, Jungsik Kim und Mitarbeitern sowie von Ingrid Schoon werden auf dem Hintergrund eines Modells zur Entwicklung im sozialen Wandel diskutiert. Es wird argumentiert, dass Forschung zum sozialen Wandel den politischen und sozialen Kontext berücksichtigen muss und dass es dabei notwendig ist, die für die Interaktion zwischen Makro und Mikro stehenden Bedingungen zu identifizieren und zu untersuchen. Solche Forschung ist dann nicht nur geeignet um die Disziplin als solche zu bereichern oder um das Modell der Entwicklung im Kontext voranzutreiben. Sie ist auch von Relevanz um sozialpolitische Interventionen in Zeiten des raschen sozialen Wandels zu begründen." (Autorenreferat)"This paper reviews five recent contributions that empirically investigate the interaction between changing socio-historical contexts and individual adaptation and development. The contributions by John Bynner, Rand Conger and colleagues, Cigdem Kagitcibasi, Jungsik Kim and colleagues and Ingrid Schoon are discussed against the backdrop of a generic model of social change and human development. It is argued that research on social change has to consider the larger political and social context and needs to identify and to study conditions that represent the processes of macro-micro-interaction. Such research will not only enrich the scientific inquiry in this field and promote theorizing about development-in-context, but also is of relevance for social policies in times of rapid social change." (author's abstract

Digitalization in psychology: A bit of challenge and a byte of success

Digitalization affects research in almost every scientific discipline. This becomes apparent in new approaches of data analysis and management, such as machine learning, but also in new therapeutic approaches using digital and virtual technologies in patient care. Thus, digitalization can be considered a promising area in the field of evidence-based health care. However, a glance at the history of such applications reveals that the interaction between psychology and digital technologies has a long tradition. This perspective gives a brief overview on how digital technologies have emerged into psychological science in the past and what future challenges and opportunities are