Issues relating to decision-making competence are of increasing interest in the field of gerontology as the average lifespan increases, along with the number of older individuals who are faced with important life decisions having to do with health care, finances, end-of-life care, and housing. One focus of research in this realm is the assessment of the ability to both comprehend and make decisions in people who may be experiencing initial stages of dementia or whose health problems are in danger of impairing their mental abilities. It is also critical, however, that we understand how judgment and decision-making processes in healthy older adults are affected by factors associated with aging. Changes in our society have resulted in these individuals being faced with increasingly complex choices in a wide-variety of domains with important implications for physical and financial well-being, and continued independence. It is also the case that as families become more widely dispersed and the rate of technological change accelerates, older adults may be faced with making decisions without adequate social and knowledge-based supports. Finally, older adults are increasingly and disproportionately targeted for marketing scams. Thus, it is important to understand the impact that aging has on the ability to be effective evaluators of information and to make adaptive choices. The proposed research will systematically examine decision-making and aging through a series of seven studies in which individuals aged from 25 to 85 will be tested. The specific focus of the research is on the interaction between cognitive ability, emotion, experience, and motivation in determining age differences in performance. Research on judgment and decision-making processes will also help us understand the adaptive processes underlying many older adults'ability to maintain effective skills in these domains in the face of normative declines in ability.

Public Health Relevance

Effective decision-making is an important adaptive skill that is essential to older adults'ability to function independently in an increasingly complex world. The results of this research will assist us in maximizing such capabilities in later life by identifying those factors that make older adults most vulnerable to poor judgment, which in turn should assist us in structuring decision contexts to minimize their impact. This, in turn, should serve to boost well-being in later life.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
2R01AG005552-20A2
Application #
7648316
Study Section
Social Psychology, Personality and Interpersonal Processes Study Section (SPIP)
Program Officer
Nielsen, Lisbeth
Project Start
1985-08-01
Project End
2014-02-28
Budget Start
2009-03-15
Budget End
2010-02-28
Support Year
20
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$268,186
Indirect Cost
Name
North Carolina State University Raleigh
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
042092122
City
Raleigh
State
NC
Country
United States
Zip Code
27695
Queen, Tara L; Hess, Thomas M (2018) Linkages between Resources, Motivation, and Engagement in Everyday Activities. Motiv Sci 4:26-38
Hess, Thomas M; Growney, Claire M; Lothary, Allura F (2018) Motivation moderates the impact of aging stereotypes on effort expenditure. Psychol Aging :
Hess, Thomas M; Growney, Claire M; O'Brien, Erica L et al. (2018) The role of cognitive costs, attitudes about aging, and intrinsic motivation in predicting engagement in everyday activities. Psychol Aging 33:953-964
Hess, Thomas M; O'Brien, Erica L; Growney, Claire M et al. (2018) Use of descriptive and experiential information in decision making by young and older adults. Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn 25:500-519
Hess, Thomas M; Popham, Lauren E; Growney, Claire M (2017) Age-Related Effects on Memory for Social Stimuli: The Role of Valence, Arousal, and Emotional Responses. Exp Aging Res 43:105-123
Hess, Thomas M; Smith, Brian T; Sharifian, Neika (2016) Aging and effort expenditure: The impact of subjective perceptions of task demands. Psychol Aging 31:653-660
Smith, Brian T; Hess, Thomas M (2015) The Impact of Motivation and Task Difficulty on Resource Engagement: Differential Influences on Cardiovascular Responses of Young and Older Adults. Motiv Sci 1:22-36
Hess, Thomas M; Smith, Brian T (2014) Aging and the impact of irrelevant information on social judgments. Psychol Aging 29:542-53
Hess, Thomas M (2014) Selective Engagement of Cognitive Resources: Motivational Influences on Older Adults' Cognitive Functioning. Perspect Psychol Sci 9:388-407
Hess, Thomas M; Ennis, Gilda E (2014) Assessment of Adult Age differences in Task Engagement: The Utility of Systolic Blood Pressure. Motiv Emot 38:844-854

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