Centre for Policy on Ageing



Age differences in decision making: to take a risk or not?
Author(s)	Itiel E Dror, Michelle Katona, Krishna Mungur
Journal title	Gerontology, vol 44, no 2, March-April 1998
Pages	pp 67-71
Keywords	Cognitive processes ; Reasoning ; Mental speed ; Older people ; Young people ; Comparison.
Annotation	This article reports on a controlled laboratory experiment which was used to assess the efficacy of the cognitive processes that underlie risk taking decision making in young and older people. Thirty-six participants took part in the study; half of the subjects were older people (mean age of 74) and the other half were young adults (mean age of 19). The older participants made equivalent decisions to those of the control young adults. Both age groups systematically and comparably changed their behaviour as a function of risk levels. Furthermore, the older participants, relative to young adults, did not exhibit any slowing down in the speed of processing the information involved in making risk taking decisions, reflecting that healthy older people are cognitively apt to making risk taking decisions. Both age groups took comparably less time on the easy trials (trials with either low or high levels of risk) and comparably more time on the difficult trials (trials with medium levels of risk).
Accession Number	CPA-980227411 A
Classmark	DA: DC: DG: B: SB: 48
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.