Emotion-enhanced source memory: effects of age and experimental setting

This preregistered research examined whether younger and older adults robustly show enhanced source memory for socio-emotional versus neutral sources in a lab- and online-based experimental setting. The Lab Experiment (<i>N</i> = 138) was conducted in a lab room with German-speaking younger and older adults, while the Online Experiment (<i>N</i> = 136) was run on Prolific with English-speaking younger and older samples. In both experiments, neutral faces (= items) were shown on positive, negative, or neutral scenes (= sources) and participants rated at encoding how (un)pleased the face appeared. All stimuli were selected based on valence and arousal norms, ensuring their intended socio-emotional character. Memory was measured with a multinomial model. Across experiments, participants rated faces as least pleased when paired with negative scenes, moderately pleased with neutral scenes, and most pleased with positive scenes. Lab-recruited older adults additionally exhibited a positivity bias, which, however, was absent online. Source memory results revealed that younger adults in both experiments did not benefit from emotional sources. In contrast, lab-recruited older adults showed better source memory for emotional, especially positive, sources; this benefit was, however, absent online. Lower compliance and distractibility in the Online Experiment are discussed as explanations for the diverging results.