The authors evaluated the reliability and validity of a set of 7 behavioral decision-making tasks, measuring different aspects of the decision-making process. The tasks were administered to individuals from diverse populations. Participants showed relatively consistent performance within and across the 7 tasks, which were then aggregated into an Adult Decision-Making Competence (A-DMC) index that showed good reliability. The validity of the 7 tasks and of overall A-DMC emerges in significant relationships with measures of socioeconomic status, cognitive ability, and decision-making styles. Participants who performed better on the A-DMC were less likely to report negative life events indicative of poor decision making, as measured by the Decision Outcomes Inventory. Significant predictive validity remains when controlling for demographic measures, measures of cognitive ability, and constructive decision-making styles. Thus, A-DMC appears to be a distinct construct relevant to adults' real-world decisions.

This study asks to what extent (a) individuals show consistent performance differences across typical behavioral decision-making tasks, and (b) how those differences correlate with plausible real-world correlates of good decision making. Seven tasks, chosen to span the domain of decision-making skills, were administered to participants in an ongoing longitudinal study providing extensive social, psychological, and behavioral measures. Performance scores on individual tasks generally showed small, positive inter-task correlations. An aggregate measure of decision-making competence (DMC) was appropriately correlated with plausible sources, concomitants, and outcomes of good decision making, suggesting the underlying construct's external validity. Higher DMC scores were associated with more intact social environments, more constructive cognitive styles, and fewer 'maladaptive' risk behaviors. In each case, DMC adds to the predictive validity of general measures of cognitive ability. These results suggest that poor decision making on common laboratory tasks is related to real-world antecedents and consequences of poor decision making.

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Studies on aging‐related changes in decision making report mixed results. Some decision‐making skills decline with age, while others remain unchanged or improve. Because fluid cognitive ability (e.g., reasoning, problem solving) deteriorates with age, older adults should perform worse on decision‐making tasks that tap fluid cognitive ability. However, performance on some decision‐making tasks may require experience, which increases with age. On those tasks, older adults should perform at least as well as younger adults. These two patterns emerged in correlations between age and component tasks of Adult Decision‐Making Competence (A‐DMC), controlling for demographic variables. First, we found negative relationships between age and performance on two tasks (Resistance to Framing, Applying Decision Rules), which were mediated by fluid cognitive ability. Second, performance on other tasks did not decrease with age (Consistency in Risk Perception, Recognizing Age‐group Social Norms) or improved (Under/Overconfidence, Resistance to Sunk Costs). In multivariate analyses, performance on these tasks showed independent positive relationships to both age and fluid cognitive ability. Because, after controlling for fluid cognitive ability, age becomes a proxy for experience, these results suggest that experience plays no role in performing the first set of tasks, and some role in performing the second set of tasks. Although not all decision‐making tasks showed age‐related declines in performance, older adults perceived themselves as worse decision makers. Self‐ratings of decision‐making competence were related to fluid cognitive ability and to decision‐making skills that decreased with age—but not to decision‐making skills that increased with age. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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