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OBJECTIVE	Intrusive thoughts and images are common across the adult lifespan , but vary in their consequences .
OBJECTIVE	Understanding age-related experiences with intrusive thoughts is important for identifying risk and protective factors for intrusive thought problems across the adult lifespan .
OBJECTIVE	This study characterized age trajectories for six aspects of experiences with intrusive thoughts using Internet data collection .
METHODS	Participants ( N = 1427 ; ages 18-87 ) were randomly assigned to suppress ( i.e. keep out of mind ) or monitor an intrusive thought for one minute , and then later to monitor the thought for a second minute .
METHODS	Participants tracked thought recurrences during each thinking period , then reported their positive and negative affects following each thinking period , as well as their effort expended in suppressing the thought and perceived difficulty controlling the intrusive thought .
METHODS	Multilevel modeling and generalized estimating equations modeled the continuous relationships between age and each dependent variable .
RESULTS	As expected , older age was associated with less decline in positive affect while engaging with an intrusive thought .
RESULTS	Interestingly , older age was also associated with a sharper rise and fall of negative affect .
RESULTS	Suppression effort increased linearly with age ( though perceived difficulty did not ) .
RESULTS	Finally , no age differences were found in either the frequency or duration of the thought 's recurrence , adding to previous evidence that older adults function similarly to younger adults in their control of intrusive thoughts , despite certain age-related declines in cognitive functioning .
CONCLUSIONS	These findings suggest a dissociation between age-related changes in emotional versus cognitive characteristics of engaging with intrusive thoughts .

