Understanding how older adults successfully navigate complex choices like driving requires the consideration of processing speed, inhibitory control, attentional processes, and risk management, and the context within which these decisions occur. The current study employed the Flanker task, the Stoplight task, and a personality inventory with 43 younger adults and 49 older adults either while they were alone or being observed by two same-sex, similarly aged peers. On the Flanker task, older adults performed more slowly, but with comparable accuracy. On the Stoplight task, there was a significant main effect of Context, and an Age-Group by Sex interaction, even after controlling for response time: All groups had a greater number of crashes when alone, and young adult males had significantly more crashes than any other group. These results emphasize the importance of considering the broader context of decision-making.
AdrianJ.PostalV.MoessingerM.RascleN.CharlesA. (2011).
Personality traits and executive functions related to on-road driving performance among older drivers.Accident Analysis and Prevention,
43(5), 1652–1659. doi:10.1016/j.aap.2011.03.023
2.
BrandM.MarkowitschH. J. (2010).
Aging and decision-making: A neurocognitive perspective.Gerontology,
56(3), 319–324.
3.
CheinJ.AlbertD.O’BrienL. (2011).
Peers increase adolescent risk taking by enhancing activity in the brain’s reward circuitry. Developmental Science,
14(2), 1–16. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2010.01035.x.Peers
4.
CroneE. (2009).
Executive functions in adolescence: Inferences from brain and behavior.Developmental Science,
12(6), 825–830. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00918.x
5.
DahlenE. R.WhiteR. P. (2006).
The big five factors, sensation seeking, and driving anger in the prediction of unsafe driving. Personality and Individual Differences,
41(5), 903–915.
6.
DeakinJ.AitkenM.RobbinsT.SahakianB. J. (2004).
Risk taking during decision-making in normal volunteers changes with age.Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society,
10(4), 590–598.
7.
EppingerB.HämmererD.LiS. (2011).
Neuromodulation of reward‐based learning and decision making in human aging.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences,
1235(1), 1–17.
8.
GadboisE. A.DuganE. (2014).
The big five personality factors as predictors of driving status in older adults. Journal of Aging and Health,
27(1), 54–74.
9.
GardnerM.SteinbergL. (2005).
Peer influence on risk taking, risk preference, and risky decision making in adolescence and adulthood: An experimental study.Developmental Psychology,
41(4), 625–635. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.41.4.625
10.
GoslingS. D.RentfrowP. J.SwannW. B. (2003).
A very brief measure of the Big-Five personality domains.Journal of Research in Personality,
37(6), 504–528. doi:10.1016/S0092-6566(03)00046-1
11.
Hawthorne, M. E. (1949). the Western Electric Company. The Social Problems of an Industrialized Civilization. London: Routledge, 60–76.
HenningerD. E.MaddenD. J.HuettelS. A. (2010).
Processing speed and memory mediate age-related differences in decision making.Psychology and Aging,
25(2), 262.
14.
HuangY.WoodS.BergerD.HanochY. (2013).
Risky choice in younger versus older adults: Affective context matters. Judgment and Decision Making,
8(2), 179–187.
15.
KrugerJ.DunningD. (1999).
Unskilled and unaware of it: how difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
77(6), 1121–1134.
16.
LambertA. E.SeegmillerJ. K.StefanucciJ. K.WatsonJ. M. (2013).
On working memory capacity and implicit associations between advanced age and dangerous driving stereotypes.Applied Cognitive Psychology,
27(3), 306–313.
17.
LundbergC.Hakamies-BlomqvistL.AlmkvistO.JohanssonK. (1998).
Impairments of some cognitive functions are common in crash-involved older drivers.Accident Analysis and Prevention,
30(3), 371–377. doi:10.1016/S0001-4575(97)00111-5
18.
MaddenD. J.WhitingW. L.HuettelS. A.WhiteL. E.MacFallJ. R.ProvenzaleJ. M. (2004).
Diffusion tensor imaging of adult age differences in cerebral white matter: Relation to response time.Neuroimage,
21(3), 1174–1181.
19.
MataR.SchoolerL. J.RieskampJ. (2007).
The aging decision maker: Cognitive aging and the adaptive selection of decision strategies.Psychology and Aging,
22(4), 796–810. doi:10.1037/0882-7974.22.4.796
20.
MatherM.MazarN.GorlickM. A.LighthallN. R.BurgenoJ.SchoekeA.ArielyD. (2012).
Risk preferences and aging: The “certainty effect” in older adults’ decision making.Psychology and Aging,
27(4), 801.
21.
Mayo, E. (1949). The Social Problems of an Industrialized Civilization. London: Routledge.
22.
MichelMeyersJ. R. (2004).
The influence of passengers on older drivers involved in fatal crashes. Experimental Aging Research,
30(2), 205–215.
23.
MilhamM. P.EricksonK. I.BanichM. T.KramerA. F.WebbA.WszalekT.CohenN. J. (2002).
Attentional control in the aging brain: Insights from an fMRI study of the stroop task.Brain and Cognition,
49(3), 277–296. doi:10.1006/brcg.2001.1501
24.
MiyakeA.FriedmanN. P. (2012).
The nature and organization of individual differences in executive functions: Four general conclusions.Current Directions in Psychological Science,
21(1), 8–14. doi:10.1177/0963721411429458
25.
NielsonK. A.LangeneckerS. A.GaravanH. (2002).
Differences in the functional neuroanatomy of inhibitory control across the adult life span.Psychology and Aging,
17(1), 56.
26.
O’BrienL.AlbertD.CheinJ.SteinbergL. (2011).
Adolescents prefer more immediate rewards when in the presence of their peers.Journal of Research on Adolescence,
21(4), 747–753. doi:10.1111/j.1532-7795.2011.00738.x
27.
ParrM.N., RossL.A., McManusB., BishopH.J., WittigS.MO., StavrinosD.,
Differential impact of personality traits on distracted driving behaviors in teens and older adults, Accident. Analysis. &. Prevention.92107–112 (2016)
28.
PayyanadanR.P., GibsonM., ChiouE., GhazizadehM., LeeJ.D.,
Contextual design for driving: developing a trip-planning tool for older adults, Transportation. Research. Part. F:. Traffic. Psychology. and. Behaviour.46462–476 (2017)
29.
PerryA.WenW.KochanN.ThalamuthuA.SachdevP. S.BreakspearM. (2017).
The independent influences of age and education on functional brain networks and cognition in healthy older adults. Human Brain Mapping,
38(10), 5094–5114. doi:10.1101/154898
30.
PrakashR. S.EricksonK. I.ColcombeS. J.KimJ. S.VossM. W.KramerA. F. (2009).
Age-related differences in the involvement of the prefrontal cortex in attentional control.Brain and Cognition,
71(3), 328–335. doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2009.07.005
31.
RatcliffR.ThaparA.McKoonG. (2001).
The effects of aging on reaction time in a signal detection task.Psychology and Aging,
16(2), 323.
32.
Reuter-LorenzP. A.ParkD. C. (2014).
How does it STAC up? Revisiting the scaffolding theory of aging and cognition.Neuropsychology Review,
24(3), 355–370. doi:10.1007/s11065-014-9270-9
33.
RoalfD. R.MitchellS. H.HarbaughW. T.JanowskyJ. S. (2011).
Risk, reward, and economic decision making in aging.Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences,
67(3), 289–298.
34.
RolisonJ. J.HanochY.WoodS.LiuP.-J. (2013).
Risk-taking differences across the adult life span: A question of age and domain.Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences,
69(6), 870–880.
35.
RosenbloomT., Ben-EliyahuA., NemrodovD., BiegelA.PerlmanA. (2009).
Committing driving violations: an observational study comparing city, town and village. Journal of Safety Research,
40(3), 215–219.
36.
RosenbloomS. (2003). The mobility needs of older Americans. In Taking the high road: A transportation agenda of strengthening metropolitan areas (pp. 227–254). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
37.
SalthouseT. A. (1996).
The processing speed theory of adult age differences in cognition.Psychological Review,
103(3), 403–428. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.103.3.403
38.
SmithA. R.SteinbergL.StrangN.CheinJ. (2015).
Age differences in the impact of peers on adolescents’ and adults’ neural response to reward.Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience,
11, 75–82.
39.
StroughJ.ParkerA. M.de BruinW. B. (2015). Understanding life-span developmental changes in decision-making competence. In T. M. Hess, J. Strough, & C. E. Lockenhoff (Eds.), Aging and decision making (pp. 235–257). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier.
40.
SweeneyJ. A.RosanoC.BermanR. A.LunaB. (2001).
Inhibitory control of attention declines more than working memory during normal aging.Neurobiology of Aging,
22(1), 39–47.
41.
TurnerC.McClureR. (2003).
Age and gender differences in risk-taking behaviour as an explanation for high incidence of motor vehicle crashes as a driver in young males.Injury Control and Safety Promotion,
10(3), 123–130.
42.
U.S. Department of Transportation. (2016). Traffic safety facts. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Transportation - National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
43.
VorobyevV.KwonM. S.MoeD.ParkkolaR.HämäläinenH. (2015).
Risk-taking behavior in a computerized driving task: Brain activation correlates of decision-making, outcome, and peer influence in male adolescents.PLoS One,
10(6), e0129516.
44.
WalkerN.FainB.FiskA. D.McGuireC. L. (1997).
Aging and decision making: Driving-related problem solving.Human Factors,
39(3), 438–444.
45.
WeintraubS.DikmenS. S.HeatonR. K.TulskyD. S.ZelazoP. D.BauerP. J.GershonR. C. (2013).
Cognition assessment using the NIH Toolbox.Neurology,
80(11, Supplement 3), S54–S64. doi:10.1212/WNL.0b013e3182872ded
46.
WorthyD. A.GorlickM. A.PachecoJ. L.SchnyerD. M.MaddoxW. T. (2011).
With age comes wisdom: Decision making in younger and older adults.Psychological Science,
22(11), 1375–1380.
47.
ZuckermanM.KuhlmanD. M. (2000).
Personality and risk‐taking: Common bisocial factors.Journal of Personality,
68(6), 999–1029.
