To Choose or to Avoid: Age Differences in Learning from Positive and Negative Feedback
To Choose or to Avoid: Age Differences in Learning from Positive and Negative Feedback
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DOI：
10.1162/jocn.2009.21364
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发表时间：
2011-01-01
影响因子：
3.2
通讯作者：
Kray, Jutta
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Eppinger, Ben;Kray, Jutta
在这项研究中，我们调查了老年人是否比年轻人从糟糕的选择中学到了更多的东西，以及这是否反映在与错误相关的消极情绪(ERN)中。我们采用了基于反馈的学习任务，包括两个学习条件。在积极的学习条件下，参与者可以学会选择导致金钱收益的反应，而在消极的学习条件下，他们可以学习避免导致金钱损失的反应。为了测试学习偏好的稳定性，这项任务包括一个颠倒阶段，在这个阶段，刺激反应分配被颠倒。消极学习者被定义为在消极学习条件下比积极学习条件下表现更好的个体(积极学习者则相反)。行为数据显示，在从积极和消极的结果中学习的过程中存在着强烈的个体差异，这些结果在整个逆转阶段都持续存在，而且老年人比年轻人更明显。年龄较大的消极学习者比年龄较小的消极学习者更倾向于避免消极结果。然而，与年轻人相反，这种负性学习偏向与较大的ERN无关，这表明年长负性学习者的回避学习可能与错误处理脱钩。此外，与年轻人相比，老年人表现出学习障碍。企业资源规划的分析表明，这些减损反映了缺乏建立模糊结果的关系表示的能力。
In this study, we investigated whether older adults learn more from bad than good choices than younger adults and whether this is reflected in the error-related negativity (ERN). We applied a feedback-based learning task with two learning conditions. In the positive learning condition, participants could learn to choose responses that lead to monetary gains, whereas in the negative learning condition, they could learn to avoid responses that lead to monetary losses. To test the stability of learning preferences, the task involved a reversal phase in which stimulus-response assignments were inverted. Negative learners were defined as individuals that performed better in the negative than in the positive learning condition (and vice versa for positive learners). The behavioral data showed strong individual differences in learning from positive and negative outcomes that persisted throughout the reversal phase and were more pronounced for older than younger adults. Older negative learners showed a stronger tendency to avoid negative outcomes than younger negative learners. However, contrary to younger adults, this negative learning bias was not associated with a larger ERN, suggesting that avoidance learning in older negative learners might be decoupled from error processing. Furthermore, older adults showed learning impairments compared to younger adults. The ERP analyses suggest that these impairments reflect deficits in the ability to build up relational representations of ambiguous outcomes.