Aging and Decision Making: Driving-Related Problem Solving

Abstract

We examined age-related effects on decision making in a task environment familiar to most younger and older adults. Participants made route-selection decisions in real time. Participants received information about traffic density and expected speed limits of main and alternative routes, from which they determined the optimality of their present route versus alternative routes. The experiment evaluated the effects of information type, amount of congestion, alternative route speed limit, and age on speed and quality of decision making. Measures of optimal route selection revealed main effects of alternative route speed limit, congestion level, and message type, but there was not a main effect of age, and age did not interact with any variable. In terms of decision speed (but not quality of decision making), older participants were slower, and age interacted with alternative route speed and with message type. The data are interpreted in relation to previous data examining everyday problem solving and aging.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Charness, N. (1985). Aging and problem-solving performance. In N. Charness (Ed.), Aging and human performance (pp. 225–259). Chichester: Wiley.

Fain, W. B. (1994) Analysis of route selection behavior in the presence of real time traffic information. Unpublished master's thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA.

Fisk, A. D. , & Kirlik, A. (1996). Practical relevance and age-related research: Can theory advance without practice? In W. A. Rogers , A. D. Fisk , & N. Walker (Eds.), Aging and skilled performance: Advances in theory and application (pp. 1–15). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Giambra, L. M. , & Quilter, R. E. (1988) Sustained attention in adulthood: A unique, large-sample, longitudinal, and multicohort analysis using the Mackworth clock test. Psychology and Aging, 3, 75–83.

Johnson, M. M. S. (1990). Age differences in decision making: A process methodology for examining strategic information processing. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 45, P75–P78.

Marsiske, M. , & Willis, S. L. (1995) Everyday problem solving in older adults. Psychology and Aging, 10, 269–283.

Morrow, D. , Leirer, V. , Altieri, P. , & Fitzsimmons, C. (1994) When expertise reduces age differences in performance. Psychology and Aging, 9, 134–148.

Salthouse, T. A. , Babcock, R. L. , Mitchell, D. R. , Skovronek, E. , & Palmon, R. (1990) Age and experience effects in spatial visualization. Developmental Psychology, 26, 128–136.

Salthouse, T, A. , Legg, S. , Palmon, R. , & Mitchell, D. (1990) Memory factors in age-related differences in simple reasoning. Psychology and Aging, 5, 9–15.