full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Laura Carstensen: Older people are happier

Unscramble the Blue Letters


But as social scientists, we cinuotne to ask about possible alternatives. We've said, well, maybe older people report more positive emotions because they're cognitively impaired.

(lthugear)

We've said, could it be that positive emotions are slpimy easier to process than nivatege emotions, and so you switch to the positive emotions? Maybe our neural centers in our brain are degraded such that we're unable to process negative emotions anymore. But that's not the case. The most mentally sharp oledr adults are the ones who show this positivity effect the most. And under conditions where it really matters, older people do process the negative iinrmoafton just as well as the positive information.

Open Cloze


But as social scientists, we ________ to ask about possible alternatives. We've said, well, maybe older people report more positive emotions because they're cognitively impaired.

(________)

We've said, could it be that positive emotions are ______ easier to process than ________ emotions, and so you switch to the positive emotions? Maybe our neural centers in our brain are degraded such that we're unable to process negative emotions anymore. But that's not the case. The most mentally sharp _____ adults are the ones who show this positivity effect the most. And under conditions where it really matters, older people do process the negative ___________ just as well as the positive information.

Solution


  1. information
  2. simply
  3. continue
  4. negative
  5. laughter
  6. older

Original Text


But as social scientists, we continue to ask about possible alternatives. We've said, well, maybe older people report more positive emotions because they're cognitively impaired.

(Laughter)

We've said, could it be that positive emotions are simply easier to process than negative emotions, and so you switch to the positive emotions? Maybe our neural centers in our brain are degraded such that we're unable to process negative emotions anymore. But that's not the case. The most mentally sharp older adults are the ones who show this positivity effect the most. And under conditions where it really matters, older people do process the negative information just as well as the positive information.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
older people 14
younger people 7
life expectancy 3
longer lives 2
improve quality 2
slight downturn 2
positive information 2
positive emotions 2
time horizons 2
blind dates 2


Important Words


  1. adults
  2. alternatives
  3. anymore
  4. brain
  5. case
  6. centers
  7. cognitively
  8. conditions
  9. continue
  10. degraded
  11. easier
  12. effect
  13. emotions
  14. impaired
  15. information
  16. laughter
  17. matters
  18. mentally
  19. negative
  20. neural
  21. older
  22. people
  23. positive
  24. positivity
  25. process
  26. report
  27. scientists
  28. sharp
  29. show
  30. simply
  31. social
  32. switch
  33. unable