Garon Nancy, Moore Chris
Department of Pediatrics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Dev Neuropsychol. 2007;31(1):39-59. doi: 10.1207/s15326942dn3101_3.
A child version of the Iowa Gambling task was used to explore the development of decision-making during the preschool period in two experiments. One hundred eighty-one children, 3.5 and 4.5 years of age, were asked to choose between a bad deck with higher immediate but lower long-term rewards and a good deck with lower immediate but higher long-term rewards. Experiment 1 explored age differences and the association of the gambling task with a delay of gratification task. Age differences in performance were found, supporting previous findings (Kerr & Zelazo, 2004) of a development difference between 3- and 4-year-old children in future-oriented decision making. Performance on the gambling task was found to be significantly associated with delay of gratification for 3.5-year-old children only. Experiment 2 explored the effect of labeling and symbol use on performance. Although having 4.5-year-old children label decks as good or bad improved their performance on the task, this labeling had no effect on 3.5-year-old childrens performance. However, having 3.5-year-old children place a symbol representing good and bad next to the decks did improve performance, but only for those children who were able to correctly label the decks. These results suggest an interaction between conscious awareness, symbol use, and making advantageous future-oriented decisions during the preschool period.
在两项实验中，使用了爱荷华赌博任务的儿童版本来探究学前阶段决策能力的发展。181名3.5岁和4.5岁的儿童被要求在一种即时奖励较高但长期奖励较低的坏牌组和一种即时奖励较低但长期奖励较高的好牌组之间做出选择。实验1探究了年龄差异以及赌博任务与延迟满足任务之间的关联。研究发现了表现上的年龄差异，支持了之前克尔和泽拉左（2004年）关于3岁和4岁儿童在面向未来的决策方面存在发展差异的研究结果。仅在3.5岁儿童中发现赌博任务的表现与延迟满足显著相关。实验2探究了标记和符号使用对表现的影响。虽然让4.5岁儿童将牌组标记为好或坏提高了他们在任务中的表现，但这种标记对3.5岁儿童的表现没有影响。然而，让3.5岁儿童在牌组旁边放置代表好与坏的符号确实提高了表现，但仅对那些能够正确标记牌组的儿童有效。这些结果表明在学前阶段，意识觉知、符号使用和做出有利的面向未来的决策之间存在相互作用。
