It remains uncertain, both theoretically and empirically, whether older adults undergo age-related decline in the capability to process emotion words. By employing a valence judgment task with two subtypes of appraisal emotion words, namely, sensory-quality appraisal emotion words and intrinsic-quality appraisal emotion words, matched with positive or negative valence, the present study undertook an investigation into this issue. It was found that aging effect did occur. Older adults exhibited a general slowing in processing speed, and they also showed a significantly stronger processing advantage towards positivity words relative to young adults.
Jiang et al. (Tue,) studied this question.