Positive explorers: modeling dynamic control in normal aging

ABSTRACT

Situations in which there are multiple changes occurring all at once and which demand complex decisions to be made are common throughout life, but little is known about how normal aging influences performance on these types of scenarios. To determine performance differences associated with normal aging, we test older and younger adults in a dynamic control task. The task involves the control of a single output variable over time via multiple and uncertain input controls. The Single Limited Input, Dynamic Exploratory Responses (SLIDER) computational model, is implemented to determine the behavioral characteristics associated with normal aging in a dynamic control task. Model-based analysis demonstrates a unique performance signature profile associated with normal aging. Specifically, older adults exhibit a positivity effect in which they are more influenced by positively valenced feedback, congruent with previous research, as well as enhanced exploratory behavior.

KEYWORDS:

• Dynamic decision making
• learning
• normal aging
• computational modeling

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Agata Ryterska for help with data collection for this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Here, sigma values were fixed to 10, equivalent to 10% of the available range of choices, although the results are robust to other sigma values.