Browsing by Author "Bruno, Davide"

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Citation - WoS: 10
Citation - Scopus: 15
Cognitive Reserve and Emotional Stimuli in Older Individuals: Level of Education Moderates the Age-Related Positivity Effect
(TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC, 2014) Davide Bruno; Adam D. Brown; Aycan Kapucu; Charles R. Marmar; Nunzio Pomara; Pomara, Nunzio; Marmar, Charles R.; Bruno, Davide; Kapucu, Aycan; Brown, Adam D.
Background/Study Context: A frequently observed age-related effect is a preference in older individuals for positive stimuli. The cognitive control model proposes that this positivity effect may be mediated by executive functions. We propose that cognitive reserve operationally defined as years of education which tempers cognitive decline and has been linked to executive functions should also influence the age-related positivity effect especially as age advances. Methods: An emotional free recall test was administered to a group of 84 cognitively intact individuals aged 60 to 88 who varied in years of education. As part of a larger test battery data were obtained on measures of executive functioning and depression. Results: Multiple regression and moderation analyses were performed controlling for general cognitive function severity of depressive symptoms and executive function. In our data years of education appeared to moderate the effect of age on the positivity effect, age was negatively associated with recall of positive words in participants with fewer years of education whereas a nonsignificant positive correlation was observed between age and positivity in participants with more education. Conclusion: Cognitive reserve appears to play a role in explaining individual differences in the positivity effect in healthy older individuals. Future studies should investigate whether cognitive reserve is also implicated in the ability to process a wide range of emotional stimuli and whether greater reserve is reflected in improved emotional regulation.
Citation - WoS: 40
Citation - Scopus: 42
Memory bias for negative emotional words in recognition memory is driven by effects of category membership
(ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2014) Corey N. White; Aycan Kapucu; Davide Bruno; Caren M. Rotello; Roger Ratcliff; White, Corey N.; Ratcliff, Roger; Kapucu, Aycan; Bruno, Davide; Rotello, Caren M.
Recognition memory studies often find that emotional items are more likely than neutral items to be labelled as studied. Previous work suggests this bias is driven by increased memory strength/familiarity for emotional items. We explored strength and bias interpretations of this effect with the conjecture that emotional stimuli might seem more familiar because they share features with studied items from the same category. Categorical effects were manipulated in a recognition task by presenting lists with a small medium or large proportion of emotional words. The liberal memory bias for emotional words was only observed when a medium or large proportion of categorised words were presented in the lists. Similar though weaker effects were observed with categorised words that were not emotional (animal names). These results suggest that liberal memory bias for emotional items may be largely driven by effects of category membership.