No effect of age on emotion recognition after accounting for cognitive factors and depression
Open accessAbstract
A decline in emotion recognition ability across the lifespan has been well documented. However, whether age predicts emotion recognition difficulties after accounting for potentially confounding factors which covary with age remains unclear. Although previous research suggested that age-related decline in emotion recognition ability may be partly a consequence of cognitive (fluid intelligence, processing speed) and affective (e.g., depression) factors, recent theories highlight a potential role for alexithymia (difficulty identifying and describing one’s emotions) and interoception (perception of the body’s internal state). This study therefore aimed to examine the recognition of anger and disgust across the adult lifespan in a group of 140 20–90-year-olds to see whether an effect of age would remain after controlling for a number of cognitive and affective factors potentially impacted by age. In addition, using an identity recognition control task, the study aimed to determine whether the factors accounting for the effects of age on emotion discrimination also contribute towards generalised face processing difficulties. Results revealed that discrimination of disgust and anger across the lifespan was predicted by processing speed and fluid intelligence, and negatively by depression. No effect of age was found after these factors were accounted for. Importantly, these effects were specific to emotion discrimination; only crystallised intelligence accounted for unique variance in identity discrimination. Contrary to expectations, although interoception and alexithymia were correlated with emotion discrimination abilities, these factors did not explain unique variance after accounting for other variables.
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Emotion recognition abilities showed a small association with interoceptive accuracy in individuals age 20-90 years, but interoceptive accuracy did not uniquely predict emotion recognition abilities after multiple cognitive and affective factors were controlled for.
“more recent research found that whilst emotion recognition abilities showed a small association with interoceptive accuracy in individuals age 20–90 years, interoceptive accuracy did not uniquely predict emotion recognition abilities after multiple cognitive and affective factors were controlled for (Murphy, Millgate, et al., 2019).”
From Atypical interoception as a common risk factor for psychopathology: A review (2021) · cites this paper as Murphy, Millgate, et al., 2019
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Atypical interoception as a common risk factor for psychopathology: A review
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- Authors
- Murphy, J., Millgate, E., Geary, H., Catmur, C., & Bird, G.
- Affiliations
- King's College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Murphy, Jennifer
- Venue
- Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2019-07-05
- Volume
- 72
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 2690-2704
- ISSN
- 0033-555X (ISSN-L)
- 1747-0218
- 1747-0226
- OpenAlex
- W2950749945
- Cited by
- 26
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 2 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 1.60
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- kclpure.kcl.ac.uk
- Locations
- Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- University of Birmingham Research Portal (University of Birmingham) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- baily thomas charitable fund
- Economic and Social Research Council (1599941; ES/J500057/1)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Aging and Gerontology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- emotion recognition, age-related decline, lifespan development, anger, disgust, processing speed, fluid intelligence, crystallized intelligence, depression, alexithymia, interoception, face identification, emotion discrimination
- MeSH terms
- Facial Recognition, Disgust, Age Factors, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Anger, Cognition, Depression, Facial Expression, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Neuropsychological Tests, Reaction Time, Young Adult, Emotional Intelligence, Interoception
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