title: Myopia for the future or hypersensitivity to reward? Age-related changes in decision making on the Iowa Gambling Task.
abstract: It has been shown that older adults perform less well than younger adults on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), a real-world type decision-making task that factors together reward, punishment, and uncertainty. To explore the reasons behind this age-related decrement, we administered to an adult life span sample of 265 healthy participants (Mdn age = 62.00 +/- 16.17 years; range [23-88]) 2 versions of the IGT, which have different contingencies for successful performance: A'B'C'D' requires choosing lower immediate reward (paired with lower delayed punishment); E'F'G'H' requires choosing higher immediate punishment (paired with higher delayed reward). There was a significant negative correlation between age and performance on the A'B'C'D' version of the IGT (r = -.16, p = .01), while there was essentially no correlation between age and performance on the E'F'G'H' version (r = -.07, p = .24). In addition, the rate of impaired performance in older participants was significantly higher for the A'B'C'D' version (23%) compared with the E'F'G'H' version (13%). A parsimonious account of these findings is an age-related increase in hypersensitivity to reward, whereby the decisions of older adults are disproportionately influenced by prospects of receiving reward, irrespective of the presence or degree of punishment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology Division of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience University of Iowa College of Medicine.
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Bauer
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology Division of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience University of Iowa College of Medicine.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Timpe
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Sciences Rush University Medical Center.
authors.forename: E C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Edmonds
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology University of Southern California.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bechara
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology Division of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience University of Iowa College of Medicine.|Department of Psychology University of Iowa.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tranel
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology Division of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience University of Iowa College of Medicine.
authors.forename: N L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Denburg
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005544:Forecasting; D005715:Gambling / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011678:Punishment / Q000523:psychology; D012201:Reward; D035501:Uncertainty; D055815:Young Adult