Jin Menghan, Ji Lingling, Peng Huamao
Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Front Psychol. 2019 Aug 14;10:1892. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01892. eCollection 2019.
This study investigated the relationship between cognitive abilities and age differences in information search and the moderating role of task self-relevance by measuring the decision-making processes of participants in both high and low self-relevance decision-making tasks. The sample included 57 young and 65 older adults. They viewed five-alternative × five-attribute decision matrices that required them to open, with a mouse click, the information cells that interested them. Processing speed, verbal fluency, working memory, and vocabulary were measured as cognitive abilities. The dependent variables were search engagement (including time-related engagement and frequency-related engagement) and search pattern (calculated based on alternative-based or attribute-based search). The results from structured equation modeling showed that age negatively predicted these cognitive abilities (processing speed, verbal fluency, working memory, and vocabulary) and positively predicted information search engagement. Processing speed mediated the effect of age on study time per cell under tasks with both high and low self-relevance. Verbal fluency, meanwhile, mediated the total search time and checking time per cell when the task was highly self-related but not when the task had low self-relevance. These results suggest that self-relevance can moderate the mediation effect of verbal fluency on the relationship between age and information search time; this means that older adults whose verbal fluency was limited require relatively more time to search information to make an informed decision. However, this effect is only sufficient when the decision-making task is highly self-related and provokes more engagement motivation toward it.
本研究通过测量参与者在高自我相关性和低自我相关性决策任务中的决策过程，调查了认知能力与信息搜索中的年龄差异之间的关系，以及任务自我相关性的调节作用。样本包括57名年轻人和65名老年人。他们观看了五选项×五属性的决策矩阵，要求他们用鼠标点击打开感兴趣的信息单元格。将处理速度、语言流畅性、工作记忆和词汇量作为认知能力进行测量。因变量为搜索参与度（包括与时间相关的参与度和与频率相关的参与度）和搜索模式（基于基于选项或基于属性的搜索计算得出）。结构方程模型的结果表明，年龄对这些认知能力（处理速度、语言流畅性、工作记忆和词汇量）有负向预测作用，对信息搜索参与度有正向预测作用。在高自我相关性和低自我相关性任务中，处理速度介导了年龄对每个单元格学习时间的影响。同时，当任务高度自我相关时，语言流畅性介导了每个单元格的总搜索时间和检查时间，但当任务自我相关性较低时则不然。这些结果表明，自我相关性可以调节语言流畅性对年龄与信息搜索时间关系的中介作用；这意味着语言流畅性有限的老年人需要相对更多的时间来搜索信息以做出明智的决策。然而，只有当决策任务高度自我相关并激发更多参与动机时，这种影响才足够明显。
