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Shuffle the Decks: Children Are Sensitive to Incidental Nonrandom Structure in a Sequential-Choice Task.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Breslav, ADS; Zucker, NL; Schechter, JC; Majors, A; Bidopia, T; Fuemmeler, BF; Kollins, SH; Huettel, SA
Published in: Psychol Sci
April 2022

As children age, they can learn increasingly complex features of environmental structure-a key prerequisite for adaptive decision-making. Yet when we tested children (N = 304, 4-13 years old) in the Children's Gambling Task, an age-appropriate variant of the Iowa Gambling Task, we found that age was negatively associated with performance. However, this paradoxical effect of age was found only in children who exhibited a maladaptive deplete-replenish bias, a tendency to shift choices after positive outcomes and repeat choices after negative outcomes. We found that this bias results from sensitivity to incidental nonrandom structure in the canonical, deterministic forms of these tasks-and that it would actually lead to optimal outcomes if the tasks were not deterministic. Our results illustrate that changes in decision-making across early childhood reflect, in part, increasing sensitivity to environmental structure.

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Published In

Psychol Sci

DOI

EISSN

1467-9280

Publication Date

April 2022

Volume

33

Issue

4

Start / End Page

550 / 562

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Learning
  • Humans
  • Gambling
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Decision Making
  • Child, Preschool
  • Child
  • Adolescent
  • 52 Psychology
 

Citation

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Breslav, A. D. S., Zucker, N. L., Schechter, J. C., Majors, A., Bidopia, T., Fuemmeler, B. F., … Huettel, S. A. (2022). Shuffle the Decks: Children Are Sensitive to Incidental Nonrandom Structure in a Sequential-Choice Task. Psychol Sci, 33(4), 550–562. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976211042007
Breslav, Alexander D. S., Nancy L. Zucker, Julia C. Schechter, Alesha Majors, Tatyana Bidopia, Bernard F. Fuemmeler, Scott H. Kollins, and Scott A. Huettel. “Shuffle the Decks: Children Are Sensitive to Incidental Nonrandom Structure in a Sequential-Choice Task.Psychol Sci 33, no. 4 (April 2022): 550–62. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976211042007.
Breslav ADS, Zucker NL, Schechter JC, Majors A, Bidopia T, Fuemmeler BF, et al. Shuffle the Decks: Children Are Sensitive to Incidental Nonrandom Structure in a Sequential-Choice Task. Psychol Sci. 2022 Apr;33(4):550–62.
Breslav, Alexander D. S., et al. “Shuffle the Decks: Children Are Sensitive to Incidental Nonrandom Structure in a Sequential-Choice Task.Psychol Sci, vol. 33, no. 4, Apr. 2022, pp. 550–62. Pubmed, doi:10.1177/09567976211042007.
Breslav ADS, Zucker NL, Schechter JC, Majors A, Bidopia T, Fuemmeler BF, Kollins SH, Huettel SA. Shuffle the Decks: Children Are Sensitive to Incidental Nonrandom Structure in a Sequential-Choice Task. Psychol Sci. 2022 Apr;33(4):550–562.
Journal cover image

Published In

Psychol Sci

DOI

EISSN

1467-9280

Publication Date

April 2022

Volume

33

Issue

4

Start / End Page

550 / 562

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Learning
  • Humans
  • Gambling
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Decision Making
  • Child, Preschool
  • Child
  • Adolescent
  • 52 Psychology