Age Differences in Decision Making: A Process Methodology for Examining Strategic Information Processing

Johnson, Mitzi M. S.

doi:10.1093/geronj/45.2.p75

Cited by 202 publications

(253 citation statements)

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“…For example, Johnson (1990) demonstrated that older adults use heuristic-type decision strategies (i.e., so-called noncompensatory decision strategies) to arrive at the same decision as do young adults who used more analytic strategies. As well, there is some evidence that the engagement of analytic processes may actually impair performance on attraction-type tasks (e.g., Simonson, 1989;Wedell & Pettibone, 1996) at least to judge by the increase in the size of the attraction effect seen when participants were asked to provide a justification for their decisions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Attraction Effect in Decision Making: Superior Performance by Older Adults

Kim

Hasher

2005

The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A

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Previous work showed that older adults' choice performance can be wiser than that of younger adults (Tentori, Osherson, Hasher, & May, 2001). We contrasted two possible interpretations: a general expertise/wisdom view that suggests that older adults are generally more skilled at making decisions than younger adults and a domain-specific expertise view that suggests that older adults are more skilled decision makers only in domains in which they have greater knowledge. These hypotheses were contrasted using attraction effect tasks in two different domains: earning extra credit in a course and grocery shopping, domains presumed to be of different levels of knowledge to younger and older adults. Older adults showed consistent choice for both domains; younger adults showed consistent choice only for the extra credit problem. Several explanations of these findings are considered, including Damasio's somatic marker theory and age differences in reliance on heuristic versus analytic styles.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Attraction Effect in Decision Making: Superior Performance by Older Adults

Kim

Hasher

2005

The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A

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“…Do older and younger adults also differ in decision strategy selections and are they equally able to adjust their decision strategies to changing environmental structures? Johnson (1990Johnson ( , 1993 has provided evidence that when asked to select an apartment or a car older adults examined less information, reevaluated information more frequently, reviewed the information for longer time periods, and used more simplified search strategies. Others (Mata, von Helversen, & Rieskamp, 2010;Mata, Schooler, & Rieskamp, 2007) have investigated the effect of aging on the ability to select adaptive decision strategies in relation to different environmental structures.…”

Section: Age Decision Making and Strategy Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Choosing the right medicare prescription drug plan: The effect of age, strategy selection, and choice set size.

et al. 2011

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Objective-The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 (better known as Medicare Part D) represents the most important change to Medicare since its inception in the mid-1960s. The large number of drug plans being offered has raised concern over the complex design of the program. The purposes of this article are to examine the effect of age and choice set size (three vs. nine drug plans) on decision processes, strategy selection, and decision quality within the Medicare Part D program.Methods-One hundred and fifty individuals completed a MouselabWeb study, a computer based program that allowed us to trace the information acquisition process, designed to simulate the official Medicare website.Results-The data reveal that participants identified the lowest cost plan only 46% of the time. As predicted, an increase in choice set size (3 vs. 9) was associated with 0.25 times the odds of correctly selecting the lowest cost plan, representing an average loss of $48.71. Older participants, likewise, tended to make poorer decisions. Conclusion-The study provides some indication that decision strategy mediates the association between age and choice quality, and provides further insight regarding how to better design a choice environment that will improve the performance of older consumers. KeywordsAttribute/alternative processing; choice; prescription drugs; Medicare; older adultsThe Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 (better known as Medicare Part D) represents the most important change to Medicare since its inception in the mid-1960s. The program offers millions of older adults the ability to purchase subsidized prescription drug coverage. One feature that has attracted much attention (Hanoch & Rice, 2006) is the large number of drug plans being offered (a median number of 48 among the states; Kaiser Family Foundation, * Send correspondence to: Yaniv Hanoch, University of Plymouth, School of Psychology, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK, Tel. 44 (0) 1752-662779, yaniv.hanoch@plymouth.ac.uk. HHS Public AccessAuthor manuscript Health Psychol. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2017 September 12. ). This large choice set, however, is only one factor rendering the Medicare Part D program one of the most complex health decision environments ever designed (Frank, 2004). As drug plans can also differ in their key features, such as which drugs are included in the formulary, premiums, and cost-sharing requirements, beneficiaries find it difficult to choose among the dozens of drug plans available.The purposes of this article are to examine the effect of age and choice set size (three vs. nine drug plans) on decision processes, strategy selection, and decision quality by using a process-tracing method, Mouselab (Bettman, Johnson, & Payne 1990;Payne, Bettman, & Johnson, 1993). Mouselab allows us to examine the information being sought, the time spent on each piece of information -both the total amount of information and the order in which information is acquired -as well as how age and the decision environment (3 vs. 9 plans) a...

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“…For instance, older adults deliberate less when solving problems and have lower working memory capacity, short-term memory capacity, and speed of information processing (Johnson, 1990;Kim et al, 2002;MacPherson et al, 2002;Salthouse, 1996;Schaie & Willis, 1999). Lower working memory capacity or reduced deliberation / reflection time when making decisions are associated with impulsive decisions (Finn et al, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Older adults make less advantageous decisions than younger adults: Cognitive and psychological correlates

Fein

McGillivray

Finn

2007

J. Inter. Neuropsych. Soc.

138

114

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This study tested the hypotheses that older adults make less advantageous decisions than younger adults on the Iowa gambling task (IGT). Less advantageous decisions, as measured by the IGT, are characterized by choices that favor larger versus smaller immediate rewards, even though such choices may result in long-term negative consequences. The IGT, and measures of neuropsychological function, personality, and psychopathology were administered to 164 healthy adults 18-85 years of age. Older adults performed less advantageously on the IGT compared with younger adults. Additionally, a greater number of older adult's IGT performances were classified as 'impaired' when compared to younger adults. Less advantageous decisions were associated with obsessive symptoms in older adults and with antisocial symptoms in younger adults. Performance on the IGT was positively associated with auditory working memory and psychomotor function in young adults, and in immediate memory in older adults.

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Age Differences in Decision Making: A Process Methodology for Examining Strategic Information Processing

Cited by 202 publications

References 0 publications

The Attraction Effect in Decision Making: Superior Performance by Older Adults

The Attraction Effect in Decision Making: Superior Performance by Older Adults

Choosing the right medicare prescription drug plan: The effect of age, strategy selection, and choice set size.

Older adults make less advantageous decisions than younger adults: Cognitive and psychological correlates

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