Badham Stephen P, Hamilton Calum A
Department of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom.
Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle, United Kingdom.
Eur J Psychol. 2020 May 29;16(2):280-299. doi: 10.5964/ejop.v16i2.1958. eCollection 2020 May.
Leading theory hypothesizes that age deficits in decision making may rise as the complexity of decision-related information increases. This suggests that older adults would benefit relative to young adults from simplification of information used to inform decision making. Participants indicated political, nutritional and medical preferences and then chose between politicians, foods and medicines. The amount of information presented was systematically varied but age differences were largely similar for simple and complex trials. Paradoxically, the data showed that decisions based on simpler information could be less aligned with participant's preferences than decisions based on more complex information. Further analyses suggested that participants may have been responding purely on the basis of their most valued preferences and that when information about those preferences was not presented, decision making became poorer. Contrary to our expectations, simplification of information by exclusion may therefore hinder decision making and may not particularly help older adults.
主流理论假设，随着决策相关信息复杂性的增加，决策方面的年龄差异可能会增大。这表明，相对于年轻人而言，老年人将从用于决策的信息简化中受益。参与者表明了他们在政治、营养和医疗方面的偏好，然后在政治家、食物和药物之间进行选择。所呈现的信息量系统地变化，但在简单和复杂试验中，年龄差异大致相似。矛盾的是，数据表明，基于较简单信息做出的决策可能比基于较复杂信息做出的决策更不符合参与者的偏好。进一步的分析表明，参与者可能纯粹是根据他们最看重的偏好做出反应，并且当关于这些偏好的信息未呈现时，决策会变得更差。因此，与我们的预期相反，通过排除进行信息简化可能会阻碍决策，并且可能对老年人没有特别的帮助。
