Development of Individual Differences in Decision Biases, Phase II: Decision Making Competence in Children

决策偏差的个体差异的发展，第二阶段：儿童的决策能力。 爱荷华州大学这里提出的研究将建立在现有研究人员和其他人以前的研究基础上，以帮助我们更好地了解儿童如何做出决定。我们专注于风险决策，因为青春期前和青少年的过度冒险行为可能是成瘾，交通安全和无保护性行为等领域的社会问题的原因。我们已经开发出通过控制实验任务来测量决策能力的技术，并使用这些技术来比较不同年龄的儿童和成人所做的决定。例如，我们发现，考虑风险选择的可能结果及其可能性的能力随着年龄的增长而增加。 在拟议的研究的核心是一个纵向研究中，我们测量在不同的时间点的决策能力的一组前青少年之间的个体差异。我们预计在3年的时间内，能力将稳步提高，但将能够确定“处于危险之中”的儿童的概况，并跟踪他们的缺陷如何影响他们在日常生活中做出的决定。这里有可能为那些最有可能出现适应不良行为的人确定决策的具体组成部分，例如缺乏对风险水平的关注或不愿意考虑长期后果。然后，这些因素可以被分离出来进行进一步的研究，以确定在多大程度上可以通过反馈和经验来改变任何特定的孩子。

SES - 0721103 Development of Individual Differences in Decision Biases , Phase II: Decision Making Competence in ChildrenLevin, Irwin P. University of Iowa The research proposed here will build onto previous research by the present investigators and others to help us gain a better understanding of how children make decisions. We focus on risky decision making because excessive risk-taking behavior by pre-adolescents and adolescents can be a cause of societal problems in areas such as addiction, traffic safety, and unprotected sex. We have developed techniques for measuring decision making competence through controlled experimental tasks and we use these to compare decisions made by children of different ages and adults. For example, we showed that the ability to take into account the possible outcomes of a risky choice and their likelihoods increases with age. At the heart of the proposed research is a longitudinal study in which we measure at various points in time individual differences in decision making competence among a group of pre-adolescents. We expect steady increases in competence over a 3-year period but will be able to identify profiles of "at risk" children and track how their deficits affect decisions made in their everyday lives. There is potential here for identifying specific components of decision making for those most at risk for maladaptive behavior, such as lack of attention to risk levels or unwillingness to factor in long-term consequences. These factors can then be isolated for further study to determine the extent to which they can be changed through feedback and experience for any given child.