The Comprehensive Affect Testing System-Abbreviated: Effects of Age on Performance

Deficits in the ability to recognize emotions in others have been noted in a wide variety of disorders, ranging from the psychiatric to the neurologic. Emotions are vital to social interactions, yet there are currently few standardized neuropsychological measures in common use to assess emotion perception abilities. This study examined the effects of age on performance of the Comprehensive Affect Testing System, a new assessment battery designed to measure perception of emotion via facial affect, prosody, and semantic content. Age was not associated with a significant decline in performance on facial tasks, although there was a significant age effect when discrete emotions were examined. Age was strongly associated with a decline in performance on prosody and cross-modal tasks, and this decline was independent of the decline in fluid ability that also accompanies the aging process. The results underscore the need for standardized instruments to assess emotion recognition abilities.