AGING AND DECISION-MAKING - DRIVING-RELATED PROBLEM-SOLVING

We examined age-related effects on decision making in a task environme nt familiar to most younger and older adults. Participants made route- selection decisions in real time. Participants received information ab out traffic density and expected speed limits of main and alternative routes, from which they determined the optimality of their present rou te 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 decisi on speed (but not quality of decision making), older participants were slower, and age interacted with alternative route speed and with mess age type. The data are interpreted in relation to previous data examin ing everyday problem solving and aging.