Specificity of Understanding of Deception at Presenile and Senile Age

The article shows that since the age of 61-74, partial changes are observed in the understanding of deception with a predominance of an emotional-egocentric shift. There are no difficulties in understanding the social situation and the ability to draw conclusions about the false beliefs of only one person (“first-order” representations). At presenile (61-74 years) and senile (75-90 years) age, there is a shortage of representations of the "second" order of the mental model. The phenomenon of denial of socio-cognitive changes or specific cognitive anosognosia (i.e. most people at senile age do not notice a change in understanding of fraud) is described. General predictors of the deception understanding are highlighted: socio-demographic (level of education) and psychological (symptoms of depression, solitude, satisfaction with the quality of life, subjective age) as well was age-specific predictors: changes in family, work status, cognitive functioning and polymorbidity.

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