Chen Yiwei, Wang Jiaxi, Kirk Robert M, Pethtel Olivia L, Kiefner Allison E
Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, USA.
Educ Gerontol. 2014 Nov 1;40(11):825-833. doi: 10.1080/03601277.2014.900263.
The primary purposes of the present study were to examine age differences in adaptive decision making and to evaluate the role of numeracy in mediating the relationship between age and adaptive decision making. Adaptive decision making was assessed by the Cups task (Levin, Weller, Pederson, & Harshman, 2007). Forty-six younger (18 to 24 years old) and 37 older adults (61 to 89 years old) completed the Cups task. In addition, the Numeracy Scale (Lipkus, Samsa, & Rimer, 2001) was used to measure individual numeric ability. Adaptive decision making was operationalized by the Expected Value sensitivity (i.e., the product of probability and outcome magnitudes) across the gain and the loss domains. Older adults had significantly lower Expected Value sensitivity than young adults. In addition, older adults demonstrated significantly lower numeracy than younger adults. Finally, numeracy partially mediated the relationship between age and adaptive decision making. It is suggested that older adults' declined decision making may be partially due to their declined numeric abilities. Implications were discussed in numeracy education and public policies concerning older adults.
本研究的主要目的是检验适应性决策中的年龄差异，并评估数字能力在调节年龄与适应性决策之间关系中所起的作用。适应性决策通过杯子任务（Levin、Weller、Pederson和Harshman，2007年）进行评估。46名年轻人（18至24岁）和37名老年人（61至89岁）完成了杯子任务。此外，使用数字能力量表（Lipkus、Samsa和Rimer，2001年）来测量个体的数字能力。适应性决策通过收益和损失领域的期望值敏感性（即概率与结果大小的乘积）来操作化。老年人的期望值敏感性显著低于年轻人。此外，老年人的数字能力显著低于年轻人。最后，数字能力部分调节了年龄与适应性决策之间的关系。研究表明，老年人决策能力的下降可能部分归因于其数字能力的下降。文中讨论了数字能力教育和有关老年人的公共政策的意义。
