Experiment 2

The sample of older people from the city of Pachuca and nearby locations (administrative university workers, grandparents, or acquaintances of participant students) was made of 28 Old Females (OF; 68.41 ± 8.19) and 18 Old Males (OM; 68.12 ± 7.45). There were no significant differences between the two groups concerning age, education, or results of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), Short Anxiety Screening Test (SATS), or Katz Daily Activities Scale in their Spanish versions (Ugalde, 2010; Table ​Table1).1). Education ranged from 3 analphabet subjects to 15 years of education. Some of the subjects wore glasses or auditory devices.

Mean and standard deviation of age; education MMSE, Mini-Mental State Examination; GDS, Geriatric Depression Scale; SATS, Short Anxiety Screening Test and Katz scale for Old Aged subjects.

Level of significance set at p < 0.05.

Black and white Stern photomontages were exhibited on a computer screen. Old Adults (OA) viewed similar manikins as in Figure ​Figure33 with the four scales. In contrast to Young Adults (YA), OA evaluated one image per sheet of paper, but the scales were enlarged in order to facilitate visualization and evaluation. Depending on the individual capacity for execution or proneness to become tired, 10–40 pictures were shown. These were selected from the study with the college students with mean evaluations of 2, 3, or 4 (bizarre) or 6 or 7 (normal). The values for the first 10 images are presented. The photomontages judged as bizarre by YF were “Love without illusion,” “On the platform,” “Idilio 3,” “Idilio 16,” “Idilio 20,” and “Idilio 25.” The “normal” images were “At this hour,” “Idilio 8,” and “Idilio 23” by the group of YM and “Idilio 7” by YF (Figure ​(Figure44).

Stern photomontages evaluated with the extreme values of 3 as “bizarre” or 7 as “normal” by most of the four groups. Of the 10 photomontages rated by young and old subjects, “Idilio 16” was bizarre for young adults. Only “Idilio 20” was bizarre for old and young women. Old male subjects rated neither of them as extremely bizarre or normal. Photomontages from Stern et al. (2012) are reproduced with permission.

The instruction manual and the format for evaluating IAPS were used, both modified to include the bizarreness scale. After instructions, each one of the Stern photomontages was presented on the center of the screen, but was not time restricted to avoid visual or speed difficulties. Two different sequences balanced the position to a particular series of images. To diminish possible effects of unfamiliar settings and techniques (Lupien et al., 2007), OA were evaluated at their homes and photomontages were shown on personal computers or laptops.

Since a differential evaluation was observed for each image considering valence, arousal, dominance, and the bizarreness scales, analyses were carried out according to the mean of each of the 10 images for the two groups and each variable and their frequencies were submitted to Pearson's chi-square tests. Later, chi-square tests were used for each scale to compare the distribution of responses along the four groups.