TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2016//
TI  - Lost in search: (Mal-)adaptation to probabilistic decision environments in children and adults
JO  - Developmental psychology
A1  - Betsch, Tilmann
A1  - Lehmann, Anne
A1  - Lindow, Stefanie
A1  - Lang, Anna
A1  - Schoemann, Martin
SP  - 311
EP  - 325
VL  - 52
IS  - 2
N2  - Adaptive decision making in probabilistic environments requires individuals to use probabilities as weights in predecisional information searches and/or when making subsequent choices. Within a child-friendly computerized environment (Mousekids), we tracked 205 children's (105 children 5-6 years of age and 100 children 9-10 years of age) and 103 adults' (age range: 21-22 years) search behaviors and decisions under different probability dispersions (.17;.33,.83 vs. .50,.67,.83) and constraint conditions (instructions to limit search: yes vs. no). All age groups limited their depth of search when instructed to do so and when probability dispersion was high (range:.17-.83). Unlike adults, children failed to use probabilities as weights for their searches, which were largely not systematic. When examining choices, however, elementary school children (unlike preschoolers) systematically used probabilities as weights in their decisions. This suggests that an intuitive understanding of probabilities and the capacity to use them as weights during integration is not a sufficient condition for applying simple selective search strategies that place one's focus on weight distributions.<br><br>PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0012-1649
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev0000077
ID  - ref1
ER  -