The aging decision maker: Cognitive aging and the adaptive selection of decision strategies.

TLDR

Older adults’ decision abilities may be compromised by age‑related cognitive decline. The study investigates whether older adults can adaptively select decision strategies. A sample of 163 participants performed decisions in two environments that favored either information‑intensive or information‑frugal strategies. Older adults searched for less information, used simpler strategies, and their performance differences were linked to fluid intelligence, yet both age groups adjusted strategy use to environment structure, indicating that older adults remain adaptive decision makers.

Abstract

Are older adults' decision abilities fundamentally compromised by age-related cognitive decline? Or can they adaptively select decision strategies? One study (N = 163) investigated the impact of cognitive aging on the ability to select decision strategies as a function of environment structure. Participants made decisions in either an environment that favored the use of information-intensive strategies or one favoring the use of simple, information-frugal strategies. Older adults tended to (a) look up less information and take longer to process it and (b) use simpler, less cognitively demanding strategies. In accordance with the idea that age-related cognitive decline leads to reliance on simpler strategies, measures of fluid intelligence explained age-related differences in information search and strategy selection. Nevertheless, both young and older adults seem to be equally adapted decision makers in that they adjust their information search and strategy selection as a function of environment structure, suggesting that the aging decision maker is an adaptive one.