Journal
FRONTIERS IN NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 6, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
FRONTIERS RESEARCH FOUNDATION
DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2012.00019
Keywords
aging; decision making; ecological rationality; strategy selection; strategy execution
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Funding
- NIA NIH HHS [R24 AG039350] Funding Source: Medline
- NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON AGING [R24AG039350] Funding Source: NIH RePORTER
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The notion of ecological rationality sees human rationality as the result of the adaptive fit between the human mind and the environment. Ecological rationality focuses the study of decision making on two key questions: First, what are the environmental regularities to which people's decision strategies are matched, and how frequently do these regularities occur in natural environments? Second, how well can people adapt their use of specific strategies to particular environmental regularities? Research on aging suggests a number of changes in cognitive function, for instance, deficits in learning and memory that may impact decision-making skills. However, it has been shown that simple strategies can work well in many natural environments, which suggests that age-related deficits in strategy use may not necessarily translate into reduced decision quality. Consequently, we argue that predictions about the impact of aging on decision performance depend not only on how aging affects decision-relevant capacities but also on the decision environment in which decisions are made. In sum, we propose that the concept of the ecological rationality is crucial to understanding and aiding the aging decision maker.
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