Exploring the neurocognitive basis of age-related differences in an anxiety-linked bias in negative expectancy

Anxiety vulnerability refers to one's tendency to experience anxiety. There is evidence that people with high anxiety vulnerability show disproportionately high expectancy for negative relative to positive future events. However, the mechanisms that give rise to this 'anxiety-linked' bias in expectancy remain unclear. There is also a strong basis for anticipating that advanced age instead may be associated with disproportionately high expectancy for positive relative to negative future events. This 'age-linked' bias in expectancy is yet to be empirically established and it also remains uncertain as to whether such may be associated with additive or interactive effects with the established anxiety-linked bias in expectancy. Further, the contributions from age-related neuropsychological influences on observed patterns of emotional expectancy have not been previously explored. The current research was designed to address these four issues using a newly developed experimental task designed to measure relative expectancy for negative and positive future events.