Department of Psychology, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities.
Department of Psychology, University of Zurich.
Psychol Aging. 2018 Mar;33(2):297-314. doi: 10.1037/pag0000239.
Many decisions require sequentially searching through the available alternatives. In these tasks, older adults have been shown to perform worse than younger adults, but the reasons why age differences occur are still unclear. In the present research, we tackle this question by investigating which strategies older and younger adults adopt and how these strategies relate to individual differences in cognitive (mental speed, working memory capacity) and motivational (need for cognitive closure) variables. To achieve this goal, we conducted two studies in which older and younger adults performed a computerized sequential choice task. Study 1 indicated that older adults changed their decision-making strategies throughout the task by reducing the number of options they considered. This change in strategy did not decrease performance because searching less allowed older adults to choose more promising options. In the second study we manipulated whether a long or short search was optimal. In the beginning older adults performed worse than younger adults independent of whether short or long search was adaptive. However, in the second half of the task we found age differences in performance when long search was required, but not when short search was required. In both studies whether or not older adults changed their strategy depended on their need for cognitive closure, suggesting that avoiding cognitive closure facilitates adaptive flexibility. Together, the two studies provide evidence for compensatory strategy adaptations among older adults completing sequential choice tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record
许多决策需要依次搜索可用的选择。在这些任务中，老年人的表现不如年轻人，但为什么会出现年龄差异的原因仍不清楚。在本研究中，我们通过研究老年人和年轻人采用的策略以及这些策略与认知（心理速度、工作记忆容量）和动机（认知封闭需求）变量的个体差异之间的关系来解决这个问题。为了实现这一目标，我们进行了两项研究，老年人和年轻人在这两项研究中都完成了一项计算机化的顺序选择任务。研究 1 表明，老年人通过减少考虑的选项数量来改变他们在整个任务中的决策策略。这种策略的改变并没有降低性能，因为搜索较少的选项允许老年人选择更有希望的选项。在第二项研究中，我们操纵了长搜索还是短搜索是最优的。在开始时，无论短搜索还是长搜索是适应性的，老年人的表现都不如年轻人差。然而，在任务的后半部分，当需要长搜索时，我们发现了老年人在表现上的差异，但当需要短搜索时，没有发现差异。在这两项研究中，老年人是否改变了他们的策略取决于他们对认知封闭的需求，这表明避免认知封闭有助于适应性的灵活性。总之，这两项研究为完成顺序选择任务的老年人提供了补偿策略适应的证据。
