Resigning yourself to old age may produce the very mental lapses that most people fear will strike them in their golden years.

In a paper appearing in the current issue of the journal Social Cognition, psychologists report that men and women in late middle age underperformed on a standard memory test when told they were part of a study including people over age 70.

Inclusion with an older group — an indirect reminder of the link between age and memory slippage — was enough to affect their scores, especially for those who were most concerned about getting older, the authors concluded. 

Researchers refer to this self-undermining as a stereotype effect, and they have documented it in many groups. In studies, women perform less well on math exams after reading that men tend to perform better on them. Similarly, white men perform less well when they are told that they are competing in math against Asian students. 

People over 65 also slump on memory tests when they are reminded of the link between age and mental decline. The new study, financed by the National Institute on Aging, is the first to show the effect so clearly in a borderline group, experts say — middle age is certainly not young, but it is well short of “senior.” 

“This study is a very nice extension of previous work into this in-between age group,” said Becca Levy, an associate professor of epidemiology and psychology at the Yale University School of Public Health. 

The findings, she added, “show how negative images of aging on TV, in other media and in jokes reinforce negative stereotypes that can affect performance even before” people reach retirement age. 

Laurie O’Brien of Tulane University in New Orleans and Mary Lee Hummert of the University of Kansas in Lawrence recruited 85 men and women from age 48 to 62 and split them into three groups. The researchers told one group that they would be testing their memory against others ages 70 and over, and informed another group that they would be competing against people in their 20’s. The third group, who took the tests without being told of any competition, acted as a control. 

All the participants took a standard word-recall exam, in which they studied a list of 30 words for two minutes and then wrote down as many as they could remember. 
Surprisingly, those who believed they were competing against younger adults did fine, remembering an average of more than 14 words — the same score as the control group. 

They showed none of the anxiety that other studies have found in people competing against others who, according to stereotype, are more capable.

But the participants who believed that they were being tested against much older people faltered, remembering just over 12 words, a significant difference from the controls. 

Being included with an “older group” by itself was apparently enough to provoke an unconscious acceptance of the stereotype that advancing age must sap memory — and the test scores to reflect it.

Poor performance on the test was especially evident in men and women who, on psychological tests, betrayed concerns about old age, even if they were in their late 40’s or early 50’s, the authors reported. 

“The implication is that some of the things we say about ourselves in conversation — joking about ‘senior moments’ is a perfect example — these kinds of comments may in fact undermine our own memory at the time we’re saying them,” Dr. Hummert said. 

“And the fear is that it has a cumulative effect, that it becomes a negative feedback cycle.”