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

Fein, George; McGillivray, Shannon; Finn, Peter R.

doi:10.1017/s135561770707052x

Cited by 138 publications

(154 citation statements)

References 38 publications

(43 reference statements)

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“…Indeed, variability in the IGT performances is a classical finding in healthy controls and inter-individual differences in brain mechanisms related to gender [12], age [20] or personality traits [16,41] may possibly explain this phenomenon. However, the association between IGT performances and DEX scores in stable patients might also reflect such behavioral variability in the MS population.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preserved decision making ability in early multiple sclerosis

et al. 2008

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BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to assess decision making in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) at the earliest clinically detectable time point of the disease. METHODS: Patients with definite MS (n = 109) or with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS, n = 56), a disease duration of 3 months to 5 years, and no or only minor neurological impairment (Expanded Disability Status Scale [EDSS] score 0-2.5) were compared to 50 healthy controls using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). RESULTS: The performance of definite MS, CIS patients, and controls was comparable for the two main outcomes of the IGT (learning index: p = 0.7; total score: p = 0.6). The IGT learning index was influenced by the educational level and the co-occurrence of minor depression. CIS and MS patients developing a relapse during an observation period of 15 months dated from IGT testing demonstrated a lower learning index in the IGT than patients who had no exacerbation (p = 0.02). When controlling for age, gender and education, the difference between relapsing and non-relapsing patients was at the limit of significance (p = 0.06). CONCLUSION: Decision making in a task mimicking real life decisions is generally preserved in early MS patients as compared to controls. A possible consequence of MS relapsing activity in the impairment of decision making ability is also suspected in the early phase of MS

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preserved decision making ability in early multiple sclerosis

et al. 2008

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“…Immediate recall has been shown to be important for a variety of outcomes, ranging from financial decisionmaking to the risk of developing dementia (20)(21)(22)(23). Moreover, technological advances and changes in working procedures imply that the importance of the ability to learn and remember is increasing (24).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Variation in cognitive functioning as a refined approach to comparing aging across countries

Skirbekk

Loichinger

Weber

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

138

105

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Comparing the burden of aging across countries hinges on the availability of valid and comparable indicators. The Old Age Dependency Ratio allows only a limited assessment of the challenges of aging, because it does not include information on any individual characteristics except age itself. Existing alternative indicators based on health or economic activity suffer from measurement and comparability problems. We propose an indicator based on age variation in cognitive functioning. We use newly released data from standardized tests of seniors' cognitive abilities for countries from different world regions. In the wake of long-term advances in countries' industrial composition, and technological advances, the ability to handle new job procedures is now of high and growing importance, which increases the importance of cognition for work performance over time. In several countries with older populations, we find better cognitive performance on the part of populations aged 50+ than in countries with chronologically younger populations. This variation in cognitive functioning levels may be explained by the fact that seniors in some regions of the world experienced better conditions during childhood and adult life, including nutrition, duration and quality of schooling, lower exposure to disease, and physical and social activity patterns. Because of the slow process of cohort replacement, those countries whose seniors already have higher cognitive levels today are likely to continue to be at an advantage for several decades to come.

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“…In addition, deficits in judgment ability and decision making have been equally found in this population, showing more disadvantageous choices in the elderly when compared with young individuals (Deakin, Aitken, Robbins, & Sahakian, 2004;Fein, McGillivray, & Finn, 2007;Denburg, Tranel, & Bechara, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Executive functions in the young elderly and oldest old: A preliminary comparison emphasizing decision making.

Bakos

Couto

Melo

et al. 2008

Psychology & Neuroscience

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This study aimed at investigating differences in the performance of the young elderly and oldest old in tasks evaluating cognitive flexibility/inhibition (Stroop test), selective attention/working memory (Digit Span Subtest), premorbid intelligence/semantic knowledge (Vocabulary Subtest), and decision making (Iowa Gambling Task -IGT). Twenty healthy individuals were divided into two groups: 10 young elderly (M = 62 years, SD = 2.1) and 10 oldest old (M = 80 years, SD = 3.3), both with high educational level (M = 14 years of study, SD = 2.5). Results showed that the groups were only different in terms of decision making. There was also a difference in the learning process of each group; the young elderly reached more favorable scores in the IGT.

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

Cited by 138 publications

References 38 publications

Preserved decision making ability in early multiple sclerosis

Preserved decision making ability in early multiple sclerosis

Variation in cognitive functioning as a refined approach to comparing aging across countries

Executive functions in the young elderly and oldest old: A preliminary comparison emphasizing decision making.

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