Three studies investigated age-related differences in the surprise reaction. Study 1
revealed that children and seniors showed a more pronounced action delay in response
to a simple, hedonically neutral surprising event than young adults that could not
be attributed to a general slowing of information processing. Studies 2 and 3
provided evidence that these age-related differences in action delay between
children and young adults were due to children’s greater difficulties to
”nd an explanation for the occurrence of the surprising event and to
decide on its relevance for action. These results support the idea that the core
mechanism of surprise is evolutionary-based and age-invariant, but its eliciting
conditions and consequences depend on developmental changes of knowledge structures.
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