Age Differences in Risky Choice
Age Differences in Risky Choice

Author: Rui Mata

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 12

ISBN-13:

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Does risk taking change as a function of age? We conducted a systematic literature search and found 29 comparisons between younger and older adults on behavioral tasks thought to measure risk taking (N = 4,093). The reports relied on various tasks differing in several respects, such as the amount of learning required or the choice framing (gains vs. losses). The results suggest that age-related differences vary considerably as a function of task characteristics, in particular the learning requirements of the task. In decisions from experience, age-related differences in risk taking were a function of decreased learning performance: older adults were more risk seeking compared to younger adults when learning led to risk-avoidant behavior, but were more risk averse when learning led to risk-seeking behavior. In decisions from description, younger adults and older adults showed similar risk-taking behavior for the majority of the tasks, and there were no clear age-related differences as a function of gain/loss framing. We discuss limitations and strengths of past research and provide suggestions for future work on age-related differences in risk taking.

Affective and Deliberative Processes in Risky Choice
Affective and Deliberative Processes in Risky Choice

Author: Bernd Figner

Publisher:

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

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The authors investigated risk taking and underlying information use in 13 to 16 and 17 to 19 year old adolescents and in adults in 4 experiments, using a novel dynamic risk-taking task, the Columbia Card Task (CCT). The authors investigated risk taking under differential involvement of affective versus deliberative processes with 2 versions of the CCT, constituting the most direct test of a dual-system explanation of adolescent risk taking in the literature so far. The "hot" CCT was designed to trigger more affective decision making, whereas the "cold" CCT was designed to trigger more deliberative decision making. Differential involvement of affective versus deliberative processes in the 2 CCT versions was established by self-reports and assessment of electrodermal activity. Increased adolescent risk taking, coupled with simplified information use, was found in the hot but not the cold condition. Need-for-arousal predicted risk taking only in the hot condition, whereas executive functions predicted information use in the cold condition. Results are consistent with recent dual-system explanations of risk taking as the result of competition between affective processes and deliberative cognitive-control processes, with adolescents' affective system tending to override the deliberative system in states of heightened emotional arousal.

Age Differences in Risky Decision Making
Age Differences in Risky Decision Making

Author: Meagan Michelle Wood

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 79

ISBN-13:

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In the current study, we examined the effects of priming and personality on risky decision making while playing the Game of Dice Task (GDT). Participants were randomly assigned to one of three priming conditions: Risk Aversive, Risk-Seeking, or Control. In the Risk Seeking condition, a fictional character benefited from risky behavior while in the Risk Aversive condition, a fictional character benefited from exercising caution. In the GDT, participants decide how risky they wish to be on each trial. To optimize performance, one should make "safe" rather than risky choices. Although older adults self-reported being more cautious than younger adults, older adults made riskier decisions than younger adults on the GDT. However, there were no longer significant age differences on the GDT after controlling for working memory. More than likely, the aforementioned age differences were due to age-related changes in effective strategy usage, rather than age-related changes in the propensity to take risks. In addition, for young adults, certain personality traits significantly predicted risky decision making on the GDT. The findings from this study have implications for older adults' decision making in everyday situations. Older adults may make risky decisions and thereby jeopardize their financial and other resources, not because they intentionally want "to roll the dice," but because of an inability to strategize and fully comprehend the consequences of their decisions.

Aging and Decision Making
Aging and Decision Making

Author: Thomas M. Hess

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2015-02-17

Total Pages: 429

ISBN-13: 0124171559

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Decisions large and small play a fundamental role in shaping life course trajectories of health and well-being: decisions draw upon an individual's capacity for self-regulation and self-control, their ability to keep long-term goals in mind, and their willingness to place appropriate value on their future well-being. Aging and Decision Making addresses the specific cognitive and affective processes that account for age-related changes in decision making, targeting interventions to compensate for vulnerabilities and leverage strengths in the aging individual. This book focuses on four dominant approaches that characterize the current state of decision-making science and aging - neuroscience, behavioral mechanisms, competence models, and applied perspectives. Underscoring that choice is a ubiquitous component of everyday functioning, Aging and Decision Making examines the implications of how we invest our limited social, temporal, psychological, financial, and physical resources, and lays essential groundwork for the design of decision supportive interventions for adaptive aging that take into account individual capacities and context variables. Divided into four dominant approaches that characterize the current state of decision-making science and aging neuroscience Explores the impact of aging on the linkages between cortical structures/functions and the behavioral indices of decision-making Examines the themes associated with behavioral approaches that attempt integrations of methods, models, and theories of general decision-making with those derived from the study of aging Details the changes in underlying competencies in later life and the two prevailing themes that have emerged—one, the general individual differences perspective, and two, a more clinical focus

When I'm 64
When I'm 64

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2006-02-13

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 0309164915

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By 2030 there will be about 70 million people in the United States who are older than 64. Approximately 26 percent of these will be racial and ethnic minorities. Overall, the older population will be more diverse and better educated than their earlier cohorts. The range of late-life outcomes is very dramatic with old age being a significantly different experience for financially secure and well-educated people than for poor and uneducated people. The early mission of behavioral science research focused on identifying problems of older adults, such as isolation, caregiving, and dementia. Today, the field of gerontology is more interdisciplinary. When I'm 64 examines how individual and social behavior play a role in understanding diverse outcomes in old age. It also explores the implications of an aging workforce on the economy. The book recommends that the National Institute on Aging focus its research support in social, personality, and life-span psychology in four areas: motivation and behavioral change; socioemotional influences on decision-making; the influence of social engagement on cognition; and the effects of stereotypes on self and others. When I'm 64 is a useful resource for policymakers, researchers and medical professionals.

Age Differences in Risky Decision Making
Age Differences in Risky Decision Making

Author: Meagan Michelle Wood

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 77

ISBN-13:

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In the current study, I examined the effects of age, explicitness of instructional materials, and personality differences on risky decision making while playing the Game of Dice Task (GDT). Participants were randomly assigned to one of two instruction conditions: Explicit vs. Standard. In the explicit condition, the instructions were very straightforward, with respect to risk, while the instructions in the standard condition were not. To describe this game in more detail, in the GDT, participants decide how risky they wish to be on each trial. To optimize performance, participants should make "safe" rather than risky choices. Overall, older adults were riskier than younger adults on the GDT even though they self-report being more risk averse than younger adults in several different risk domains except for social. In regards to the instruction condition, there were no significant age differences in the standard condition. Younger and older adults perform similarly. However, there were age differences in the explicit condition. Older adults were riskier in the explicit condition than younger adults were. In addition, a 3-way interaction between age, instruction, and conscientiousness was discovered. Older adults who are low in conscientiousness perform similar to regular older adults in the standard and explicit conditions. However, the effect of instruction condition disappears for those who are high in conscientiousness.

Behavioural Economics: A Very Short Introduction
Behavioural Economics: A Very Short Introduction

Author: Michelle Baddeley

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017-01-19

Total Pages: 169

ISBN-13: 019107117X

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Traditionally economists have based their economic predictions on the assumption that humans are super-rational creatures, using the information we are given efficiently and generally making selfish decisions that work well for us as individuals. Economists also assume that we're doing the very best we can possibly do - not only for today, but over our whole lifetimes too. But increasingly the study of behavioural economics is revealing that our lives are not that simple. Instead, our decisions are complicated by our own psychology. Each of us makes mistakes every day. We don't always know what's best for us and, even if we do, we might not have the self-control to deliver on our best intentions. We struggle to stay on diets, to get enough exercise and to manage our money. We misjudge risky situations. We are prone to herding: sometimes peer pressure leads us blindly to copy others around us; other times copying others helps us to learn quickly about new, unfamiliar situations. This Very Short Introduction explores the reasons why we make irrational decisions; how we decide quickly; why we make mistakes in risky situations; our tendency to procrastination; and how we are affected by social influences, personality, mood and emotions. The implications of understanding the rationale for our own financial behaviour are huge. Behavioural economics could help policy-makers to understand the people behind their policies, enabling them to design more effective policies, while at the same time we could find ourselves assaulted by increasingly savvy marketing. Michelle Baddeley concludes by looking forward, to see what the future of behavioural economics holds for us. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Modeling Age Differences in Risky Decision Making
Modeling Age Differences in Risky Decision Making

Author: Joshua W. Pollock

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 151

ISBN-13:

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The current study analyzed age and other potential predictors for risky decision making. Forty younger adults (19-25 years) and 40 older adults (63-86 years) made risk based decisions related to health, nutrition and finance. Variables hypothesized to influence risky decision making were measured and investigated as possible predictors across each of the domains and in total. Contrary to what was hypothesized, older adults did not make riskier decisions in any domain or in total. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that age did not account for significant variance in the risky decision making domains. Stepwise regression analyses revealed response time on the Tower of Hanoi as a predictor of risky financial decision making. Stepwise regression analyses also revealed Iowa Gambling Task scores, gender, extroversion, and errors on the Tower of Hanoi as predictors of nutritional risky decision making scores. They also revealed scores on the Iowa Gambling Task and average response time on the Tower of Hanoi to be predictors of overall risky decision making scores. Age was not a significant predictor of any of the domains of risky decision making, however moderated regression analyses revealed age-related influences on cognitive regulation components for risky financial decision making. It is hypothesized that aspects of cognitive dynamics (cognitive regulation and emotional regulation), along with age influences in the financial domain, are responsible for differences in risky decision making.

The Aging Mind
The Aging Mind

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2000-04-18

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 0309172195

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Possible new breakthroughs in understanding the aging mind that can be used to benefit older people are now emerging from research. This volume identifies the key scientific advances and the opportunities they bring. For example, science has learned that among older adults who do not suffer from Alzheimer's disease or other dementias, cognitive decline may depend less on loss of brain cells than on changes in the health of neurons and neural networks. Research on the processes that maintain neural health shows promise of revealing new ways to promote cognitive functioning in older people. Research is also showing how cognitive functioning depends on the conjunction of biology and culture. The ways older people adapt to changes in their nervous systems, and perhaps the changes themselves, are shaped by past life experiences, present living situations, changing motives, cultural expectations, and emerging technology, as well as by their physical health status and sensory-motor capabilities. Improved understanding of how physical and contextual factors interact can help explain why some cognitive functions are impaired in aging while others are spared and why cognitive capability is impaired in some older adults and spared in others. On the basis of these exciting findings, the report makes specific recommends that the U.S. government support three major new initiatives as the next steps for research.

The Development of Judgment and Decision Making in Children and Adolescents
The Development of Judgment and Decision Making in Children and Adolescents

Author: Janis E. Jacobs

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2006-04-21

Total Pages: 379

ISBN-13: 1135633525

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In recent years, newspaper articles, television specials, and other media events have focused on the numerous hard decisions faced by today's youth, often pointing to teen pregnancy, drug use, and delinquency as evidence of faulty judgment. Over the past 10 years, many groups - including parents, educators, policymakers, and researchers - have become concerned about the decision-making abilities of children and adolescents, asking why they make risky choices, how they can be taught to be better decision makers, and what types of age-related changes occur in decision making. This book serves as a starting point for those interested in considering new ways of thinking about the development of these issues. The purpose is to bring together the voices of several authors who are conducting cutting-edge research and developing new theoretical perspectives related to the development of judgment and decision making. The Development of Judgment and Decision Making in Children and Adolescents is divided into three parts: Part I presents three distinctive developmental models that offer different explanations of "what develops" and the relative importance of different cognitive components and experiential components that may be important for developing judgment and decision making skills. Part II emphasizes the emotional, cultural, and social aspects of decision making--three topics that have been influential in the adult literature on judgment and decision making but are just beginning to be explored in the developmental area. Part III provides three examples of research that applies developmental and decision making models to practical research questions. This book is intended for the professional market or for graduate courses on decision making or cognitive or social development.