Journal article
Information Use in Risky Decision Making: Do Age Differences Depend on Affective Context?
Psychology and aging, Vol.34(7), pp.1005-1020
11/2019
DOI: 10.1037/pag0000397
PMID: 31580088
Abstract
The current study focused on the degree to which decision context (deliberative vs. affective) differentially impacted the use of available information about uncertainty (i.e., probability, positive and negative outcome magnitudes, expected value, and variance/risk) when older adults were faced with decisions under risk. In addition, we examined whether individual differences in general mental ability and executive function moderated the associations between age and information use. Participants (N = 96) completed a neuropsychological assessment and the hot (affective) and cold (deliberative) versions of an explicit risk task. Our results did not find a significant Age × Hot/Cold Condition interaction on overall risk-taking. However, we found that older adults were less likely to use the full decision information available regardless of the decision context. This finding suggested more global age differences in information use. Moreover, older adults were less likely to make expected-value sensitive decisions, regardless of the hot/cold context. Finally, we found that low performance on measures of executive functioning, but not general mental ability, appears to be a risk factor for lower information use. This pattern appears in middle age and progressively becomes stronger in older age. The current work provides evidence that common underlying decision processes may operate in risk tasks deemed either affective or deliberative. It further suggests that underlying mechanisms such as information use may be paramount, relative to differences in the affective context. Additionally, individual differences in neuropsychological function may act as a moderator in the tendency to use available information across affective context.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Information Use in Risky Decision Making: Do Age Differences Depend on Affective Context?
- Creators
- Joshua A Weller - Department of Developmental Psychology, Tilburg UniversityMarcie L King - Department of Neurology, Carver College of Medicine and Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of IowaBernd Figner - Behavioural Science Institute and Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud UniversityNatalie L Denburg - Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa
- Contributors
- Elizabeth A. L Stine-Morrow (Editor)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Psychology and aging, Vol.34(7), pp.1005-1020
- DOI
- 10.1037/pag0000397
- PMID
- 31580088
- NLM abbreviation
- Psychol Aging
- ISSN
- 0882-7974
- eISSN
- 1939-1498
- Publisher
- American Psychological Association
- Grant note
- name: National Science Foundation, award: SES08-20585; DOI: 10.13039/100000049, name: National Institute on Aging, award: K01 AG022033
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 11/2019
- Academic Unit
- Neurology; Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
- Record Identifier
- 9984070264502771
Metrics
33 Record Views