Age differences in learning emerge from an insufficient representation of uncertainty in older adults.
Healthy aging can lead to impairments in learning that affect many laboratory and real-life tasks. These tasks often involve the acquisition of dynamic contingencies, which requires adjusting the rate of learning to environmental statistics. For example, learning rate should increase when expectations are uncertain (uncertainty), outcomes are surprising (surprise) or contingencies are more likely to change (hazard rate). In this study, we combine computational modelling with an age-comparative behavioural study to test whether age-related learning deficits emerge from a failure to optimize learning according to the three factors mentioned above. Our results suggest that learning deficits observed in healthy older adults are driven by a diminished capacity to represent and use uncertainty to guide learning. These findings provide insight into age-related cognitive changes and demonstrate how learning deficits can emerge from a failure to accurately assess how much should be learned.
Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA.
Matthew R
MR
Nassar
International Max Planck Research School LIFE, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, 14195 Berlin, Germany.|Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
Rasmus
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3033-6299
R
Bruckner
Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
Joshua I
JI
Gold
Department of Psychology, TU Dresden, 01069 Dresden, Germany.
Shu-Chen
SC
Li
Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
Hauke R
HR
Heekeren
Department of Psychology, TU Dresden, 01069 Dresden, Germany.
Ben
B
Eppinger
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D035501:Uncertainty; D055815:Young Adult