A consistent finding in aging research is that older adults tend to perform worse than younger adults on tests of memory and cognitive function. These differences are often attributed to age-related declines in brain structure and function. However, adopting a purely biological approach to the study of cognitive aging overlooks the important role of social context in contributing to age differences in performance. For example, when older adults are tested in research or clinical settings, they may worry that their age has negatively affected their abilities or feel anxious about experiencing “senior moments”. They may also feel concerned that others expect them to perform poorly because of their age. In this talk, Dr. Barber will discuss how these concerns and negative stereotypes about aging can adversely impact cognitive performance as we grow older.
Featured Speaker:
Dr. Sarah Jane Barber
Associate Professor at Georgia State University
Dr. Barber completed her Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology at Stony Brook University in 2010. She then received postdoctoral training in cognitive aging at the Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California. She is now an Associate Professor and the Co-Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Psychology at Georgia State University. Her research on age-based stereotype threat has been supported by multiple grants from the NIA. Based upon this work, in 2019 she also received the J. Don Read Early Career Award from the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. This award recognizes the outstanding contributions of emerging scholars in the areas of applied memory and cognition. More recently, Dr. Barber was also named a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Barber also currently serves as an Associate Editor at Memory & Cognition.
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