title: Framing matters: Effects of framing on older adults' exploratory decision-making.
abstract: We examined framing effects on exploratory decision-making. In Experiment 1 we tested older and younger adults in two decision-making tasks separated by one week, finding that older adults' decision-making performance was preserved when maximizing gains, but it declined when minimizing losses. Computational modeling indicates that younger adults in both conditions, and older adults in gains maximization, utilized a decreasing threshold strategy (which is optimal), but older adults in losses were better fit by a fixed-probability model of exploration. In Experiment 2 we examined within-subject behavior in older and younger adults in the same exploratory decision-making task, but without a time separation between tasks. We replicated the older adult disadvantage in loss minimization from Experiment 1 and found that the older adult deficit was significantly reduced when the loss-minimization task immediately followed the gains-maximization task. We conclude that older adults' performance in exploratory decision-making is hindered when framed as loss minimization, but that this deficit is attenuated when older adults can first develop a strategy in a gains-framed task. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin.
authors.forename: Jessica A
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5373-1945
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin.
authors.forename: Nathaniel J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Blanco
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin.
authors.forename: W Todd
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Maddox
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003657:Decision Making; D005106:Exploratory Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D010808:Physical Examination; D011336:Probability; D011337:Probability Learning; D011340:Problem Solving; D018910:Video Games; D055815:Young Adult