Age-Related Changes in Decision Making: Comparing Informed and Noninformed Situations

• Published in: Developmental psychology 2012-01, Vol.48 (1), p.192-203
• Main Authors: Van Duijvenvoorde, Anna C. K., Jansen, Brenda R. J., Bredman, Joren C., Huizenga, Hilde M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescent Development; Adult; Adult Development; Adulthood; Age Differences; Age groups; Aging; Ambiguity; Ambiguity (Context); Analysis of Variance; Attention - physiology; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child development; Childhood Development; Children; Choice Behavior; Cognitive Development; Comparative Analysis; Decision Making; Decision Making - physiology; Development; Developmental psychology; Feedback (Response); Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Games, Experimental; Gender Differences; Human; Humans; Inhibition; Inhibitory processes; Knowledge; Learning; Long Term Memory; Male; Mathematics; Mathematics Skills; Memory; Memory, Short-Term - physiology; Neuropsychological Tests; Probability; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reaction Time; Risk; Scores; Sex Characteristics; Short Term Memory; Task Analysis; Working memory; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0012-1649; 1939-0599
• DOI: 10.1037/a0025601

Advantageous decision making progressively develops into early adulthood, most specifically in complex and motivationally salient decision situations in which direct feedback on gains and losses is provided (Figner & Weber, 2011). However, the factors that underlie this developmental improvement in decision making are still not well understood. The current study therefore investigates 2 potential factors, long-term memory and working memory, by assigning a large developmental sample (7-29 years of age) to a condition with either high or low demands on long-term and working memory. The first condition featured an age-adapted version of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT; Bechara, Damasio, Damasio, & Anderson, 1994; i.e., a noninformed situation), whereas the second condition provided an external store where explicit information on gains, losses, and probabilities per choice option was presented (i.e., an informed situation). Consistent with previous developmental IGT studies, children up to age 12 did not learn to prefer advantageous options in the noninformed condition. In contrast, all age groups learned to prefer the advantageous options in the informed conditions, although a slight developmental increase in advantageous decision making remained. These results indicate that lowering dependence on long-term and working memory improves children's advantageous decision making. The results additionally suggest that other factors, like inhibitory control processes, may play an additional role in the development of advantageous decision making.