Discounting of Delayed Rewards: A Life-Span Comparison

1994 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonard Green ◽  
Astrid F Fry ◽  
Joel Myerson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Delay Discounting ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Developmental Trend ◽  
Monetary Rewards ◽  
Delayed Reward ◽  
Single Function ◽  
Sensitive Parameters

In this study, children, young adults, and older adults chose between immediate and delayed hypothetical monetary rewards The amount of the delayed reward was held constant while its delay was varied All three age groups showed delay discounting, that is, the amount of an immediate reward judged to be of equal value to the delayed reward decreased as a function of delay The rate of discounting was highest for children and lowest for older adults, predicting a life-span developmental trend toward increased self-control Discounting of delayed rewards by all three age groups was well described by a single function with age-sensitive parameters (all R2s > 94) Thus, even though there are quantitative age differences in delay discounting, the existence of an age-invariant form of discount function suggests that the process of choosing between rewards of different amounts and delays is qualitatively similar across the life span

Conflict Monitoring Across the Life Span

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 124-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Czernochowski
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Conflict Detection ◽  
Response Conflict ◽  
Conflict Monitoring ◽  
Subsequent Performance ◽  
Additional Control ◽  
Performance Response ◽  
Conflict Detection And Resolution

Errors can play a major role for optimizing subsequent performance: Response conflict associated with (near) errors signals the need to recruit additional control resources to minimize future conflict. However, so far it remains open whether children and older adults also adjust their performance as a function of preceding response conflict. To examine the life span development of conflict detection and resolution, response conflict was elicited during a task-switching paradigm. Electrophysiological correlates of conflict detection for correct and incorrect responses and behavioral indices of post-error adjustments were assessed while participants in four age groups were asked to focus on either speed or accuracy. Despite difficulties in resolving response conflict, the ability to detect response conflict as indexed by the Ne/ERN component was expected to mature early and be preserved in older adults. As predicted, reliable Ne/ERN peaks were detected across age groups. However, only for adults Ne/ERN amplitudes associated with errors were larger compared to Nc/CRN amplitudes for correct trials under accuracy instructions, suggesting an ongoing maturation in the ability to differentiate levels of response conflict. Behavioral interference costs were considerable in both children and older adults. Performance for children and older adults deteriorated rather than improved following errors, in line with intact conflict detection, but impaired conflict resolution. Thus, participants in all age groups were able to detect response conflict, but only young adults successfully avoided subsequent conflict by up-regulating control.

scholarly journals DEATH ANXIETY AND FINANCIAL DECISION-MAKING IN AGING: A STUDY FROM THE HUMAN CONNECTOME PROJECT AGING (HCP-A)

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S907-S907
Author(s):  
Timothy K Ly ◽  
Mirella Diaz-Santos ◽  
Liam Campbell ◽  
Marcela Caldera ◽  
Taylor Kuhn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Death Anxiety ◽  
Late Life ◽  
Financial Decision Making ◽  
Monetary Rewards ◽  
Delayed Reward ◽  
Human Connectome Project ◽  
Financial Decision ◽  
Delayed Reward Discounting

Abstract While research addressing late-life death anxiety (the fear of death or the dying process) has focused on end-of-life care decision-making, few have studied the effect of late-life death anxiety on financial decision-making. This is particularly relevant to financial decision-making as older adults are more vulnerable to fraud and deception. The aim of this study was to determine how age and death anxiety affect financial decision-making in a sample of older adults of 60-93 years of age (N = 102), who participated in the HCP-A project at UCLA. To study this relationship, we used a delayed reward discounting task to model financial decision-making, where higher rates of discounting indicate a greater preference for immediate, smaller monetary rewards and lower rates of discounting indicate more future-oriented planning. To account for age-related cognitive decline, cognitive functioning was assessed using the NIH Toolbox. We hypothesized that the presence of death anxiety will increase discounting of future rewards in older adults. Results from a univariate ANOVA showed an interaction between age, death anxiety, and delayed reward discounting. Specifically, older adults with self-reported death anxiety showed greater preference for immediate, smaller monetary rewards. By controlling for cognition, these findings suggest that death anxiety moderates decision-making in late-life adults and may add to our understanding of why older adults are more susceptible to financial abuse. These results suggest a need to consider death anxiety as a moderating variable when developing and implementing policies and services that are geared towards older adults.

scholarly journals Temporal delay discounting in acutely ill and weight-recovered patients with anorexia nervosa

2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 1229-1239 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Ritschel ◽  
J. A. King ◽  
D. Geisler ◽  
L. Flohr ◽  
F. Neidel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anorexia Nervosa ◽  
Delay Discounting ◽  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Temporal Discounting ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Hyperbolic Model ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Monetary Rewards ◽  
Cross Sectional Design ◽  
Age Range

Background.Patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) are characterized by a very low body weight but readily give up immediate rewards (food) for long-term goals (slim figure), which might indicate an unusual level of self-control. This everyday clinical observation may be quantifiable in the framework of the anticipation-discounting dilemma.Method.Using a cross-sectional design, this study compared the capacity to delay reward in 34 patients suffering from acute AN (acAN), 33 weight-recovered AN patients (recAN) and 54 healthy controls. We also used a longitudinal study to reassess 21 acAN patients after short-term weight restoration. A validated intertemporal choice task and a hyperbolic model were used to estimate temporal discounting rates.Results.Confirming the validity of the task used, decreased delay discounting was associated with age and low self-reported impulsivity. However, no group differences in key measures of temporal discounting of monetary rewards were found.Conclusions.Increased cognitive control, which has been suggested as a key characteristic of AN, does not seem to extend the capacity to wait for delayed monetary rewards. Differences between our study and the only previous study reporting decreased delay discounting in adult AN patients may be explained by the different age range and chronicity of acute patients, but the fact that weight recovery was not associated with changes in discount rates suggests that discounting behavior is not a trait marker in AN. Future studies using paradigms with disorder-specific stimuli may help to clarify the role of delay discounting in AN.

Frequency of Public Smiling across the Life Span

1997 ◽  
Vol 85 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1326-1326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark S. Chapell
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Middle Aged Adults

This study of the frequency of public smiling in a sample of 15,824 children, adolescents, young adults, middle-aged adults, and older adults yielded a significant decrease in public smiling across age groups. Females smiled significantly more than males.

scholarly journals Relation of Metacognitive Monitoring and Control Processes across the Life-Span

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 86
Author(s):  
Nicole Von der Linden ◽  
Elisabeth Löffler ◽  
Wolfgang Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Monitoring And Control ◽  
Metacognitive Monitoring ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
And Control ◽  
First Time

The two studies presented here were conducted to explore the relationship between metacognitive monitoring and control processes across the life-span. Monitoring processes often guide control processes (goal-oriented learning), yet more recent work also documents that control processes can also be based on feedback from monitoring processes (data-oriented learning). Study 1 provided first evidence for data-oriented learning in older adults and in a life-span perspective. Participants of four age groups (third-grade children, adolescents, younger and older adults) were able to adapt their Judgments-Of-Learning (JOLs) based on their Study Time (ST). Effects were most pronounced for younger and older adults. Study 2 investigated the flexible interplay between goal- and data-oriented learning within one learning task for the first time in older adults and from a life-span perspective. Adolescents and younger adults were able to switch between models while elementary children and older adults hat greater difficulties to do so. Possible causes for developmental trends are discussed. In sum, the integration of both goal- and data-oriented learning within one task seems to be a complex process.

scholarly journals The neurodevelopment of delay discounting for monetary rewards in pre-adolescent children

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mei Yu ◽  
Tongran Liu ◽  
Jiannong Shi
Keyword(s):  
Delay Discounting ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Monetary Rewards ◽  
Detection And Identification ◽  
Reward Amount ◽  
Electrophysiological Findings ◽  
Identification Phase ◽  
Two Age Groups

AbstractChildren are found to exhibit high degrees of delay discounting compared with adults in many delay discounting studies. However, the temporal dynamics of the differences behind the behaviors are not well known. In this study, we chose two age groups of participants and adopted event-related potential (ERP) techniques to investigate the neural dynamic differences between children and adults during delay discounting processes. Behavioral findings showed that children discounted more than adults and chose more immediate choices. Electrophysiological findings revealed that children exhibited longer neural processing (longer P2 latency) than adults during the early detection and identification phase. Children showed less cognitive control (smaller N2 amplitude) than adults over the middle frontal areas, and they devoted more neural effort (larger P3 amplitudes) to making final choices than adults. The factors of reward amount and time delay could influence the development of delay discounting in male children.

scholarly journals Introduction to the special section on loneliness across the life span

2021 ◽  
pp. 016502542110297
Author(s):  
Luc Goossens ◽  
Christina Victor ◽  
Pamela Qualter
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Special Section ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
Holistic Research ◽  
The Life Course

We provide an overview of the topics included in the special section of the International Journal of Behavioral Development on Loneliness Across the Life Span. We highlight the use of a life span approach to understanding loneliness and the different methodological approaches adopted by researchers. This special issue contributes toward the development of a holistic research agenda addressing loneliness across the life course and away from a focus solely upon specific age groups such as adolescents, young adults, or older adults who have been the focus of most loneliness research until comparatively recently.

New Directions in Theories of Emotion and Aging

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph A. Mikels ◽  
Nathaniel A. Young
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Adult Life Span ◽  
Functional Perspective ◽  
Control Versus

The adult life span is characterized as a time of divergent trajectories. It is a time of compounding losses (such as physical, sensory, and cognitive declines) and is also a time of surprising growth (such as improvements in well-being and emotion regulation). These divergent trajectories present theorists with the paradox of aging: in the face of accumulating losses, how is it that as people age, they generally feel good and experience greater well-being? Theorists have grappled with this paradox and have focused on how motivational, cognitive, control, and social factors impact emotional development across the adult life span. These foundational theories have paved the way to a deeper understanding of adult life-span development, but they do not draw as deeply from theories in affective science. Some of the latest perspectives on emotion and aging offer integrative views, such as how older adults may experience different discrete emotion (i.e., anger versus sadness) from an evolutionary functional perspective. Other perspectives consider how an array of appraisal processes may change across adulthood (such as shifts in evaluations of self-control versus other-control for younger versus older adults). These newer approaches dig deeper into mechanistic explanations and underscore the need for greater theoretical integration. Later life is clearly a time of increased well-being, but the field is only on the cusp of understanding the mysteries of emotional experience in later life.

Age neutrality of the Young Schema Questionnaire in patients with a substance use disorder

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (8) ◽  
pp. 1317-1326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Els Pauwels ◽  
Laurence Claes ◽  
Eva Dierckx ◽  
Inge Debast ◽  
S.P.J. (Bas) Van Alphen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Substance Use ◽  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Clinical Sample ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Face Validity ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Young Schema Questionnaire ◽  
Schema Questionnaire

ABSTRACTBackground:Young's Schema Focused Therapy (SFT) is gaining popularity in the treatment of older adults. In the context of this therapy, the Young Schema Questionnaire (YSQ) was developed to assess the early maladaptive schemas (EMS). EMS are considered to be relatively stable over time, but research shows that questionnaires often lack face validity in older adults, which makes it difficult to investigate EMS in older adults and their stability across the lifespan.Methods:In the present cross-sectional study, we investigated the age neutrality of the Young Schema Questionnaire – Long Form in young (aged 18–34 years), middle-aged (aged 35–59 years), and older (aged 60–75 years) adults in a clinical sample of substance use disorders (N= 321) by examining potential differential item functioning (DIF). While investigating the stability of the schemas, we controlled for substance dependency and clinical symptoms by means of, respectively, the Drug Use Screening Inventory – Revised and the Symptom Checklist-90-R.Results:The Bonferroni-adjusted Liu–Agresti Cumulative Common Log-Odds Ratio confirmed large DIF for six items, divided across five schema scales (Mistrust/Abuse, Subjugation, Entitlement, Enmeshment and Self-sacrifice). Of the six items that presented DIF, only one item showed differential test functioning (Entitlement). Overall results show only 3% DIF, implying age neutrality of the questionnaire.Conclusions:Current results corroborate that most EMS scales are equally measured across age, and reliable comparisons can be made across the lifespan, allowing for good clinical practice and further research on SFT in older adults. Only for Entitlement, Enmeshment, and Insufficient Self-control, caution is needed when comparing mean scores across the age groups.

Cognitive Load Affects Speech Motor Performance Differently in Older and Younger Adults

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 1258-1277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan K. MacPherson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Motor Performance ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Incongruent Condition ◽  
Sentence Production ◽  
Movement Duration ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Speech Motor

PurposeThe aim of this study was to determine the impact of cognitive load imposed by a speech production task on the speech motor performance of healthy older and younger adults. Response inhibition, selective attention, and working memory were the primary cognitive processes of interest.MethodTwelve healthy older and 12 healthy younger adults produced multiple repetitions of 4 sentences containing an embedded Stroop task in 2 cognitive load conditions: congruent and incongruent. The incongruent condition, which required participants to suppress orthographic information to say the font colors in which color words were written, represented an increase in cognitive load relative to the congruent condition in which word text and font color matched. Kinematic measures of articulatory coordination variability and movement duration as well as a behavioral measure of sentence production accuracy were compared between groups and conditions and across 3 sentence segments (pre-, during-, and post-Stroop).ResultsIncreased cognitive load in the incongruent condition was associated with increased articulatory coordination variability and movement duration, compared to the congruent Stroop condition, for both age groups. Overall, the effect of increased cognitive load was greater for older adults than younger adults and was greatest in the portion of the sentence in which cognitive load was manipulated (during-Stroop), followed by the pre-Stroop segment. Sentence production accuracy was reduced for older adults in the incongruent condition.ConclusionsIncreased cognitive load involving response inhibition, selective attention, and working memory processes within a speech production task disrupted both the stability and timing with which speech was produced by both age groups. Older adults' speech motor performance may have been more affected due to age-related changes in cognitive and motoric functions that result in altered motor cognition.

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