Predictions of fuzzy-trace theory and neurobiological approaches are examined regarding risk taking in a classic decision-making task--the framing task--as well as in the context of real-life risk taking. We report the 1st study of framing effects in adolescents versus adults, varying risk and reward, and relate choices to individual differences, sexual behavior, and behavioral intentions. As predicted by fuzzy-trace theory, adolescents modulated risk taking according to risk and reward. Adults showed standard framing, reflecting greater emphasis on gist-based (qualitative) reasoning, but adolescents displayed reverse framing when potential gains for risk taking were high, reflecting greater emphasis on verbatim-based (quantitative) reasoning. Reverse framing signals a different way of thinking compared with standard framing (reverse framing also differs from simply choosing the risky option). Measures of verbatim- and gist-based reasoning about risk, sensation seeking, behavioral activation, and inhibition were used to extract dimensions of risk proneness: Sensation seeking increased and then decreased, whereas inhibition increased from early adolescence to young adulthood, predicted by neurobiological theories. Two additional dimensions, verbatim- and gist-based reasoning about risk, loaded separately and predicted unique variance in risk taking. Importantly, framing responses predicted real-life risk taking. Reasoning was the most consistent predictor of real-life risk taking: (a) Intentions to have sex, sexual behavior, and number of partners decreased when gist-based reasoning was triggered by retrieval cues in questions about perceived risk, whereas (b) intentions to have sex and number of partners increased when verbatim-based reasoning was triggered by different retrieval cues in questions about perceived risk.

Different studies have documented opposite relations between perceived risk and behavior. The present study tested a theoretical explanation that reconciles these conflicting results. Adolescents (N= 596) completed alternative measures of risk perception that differed in cue specificity and response format. As predicted by fuzzy-trace theory, measures that emphasized verbatim retrieval and quantitative processing produced positive correlations between perceived risk and risky behavior; risk perceptions reflected the extent to which adolescents engaged in risky behavior. In contrast, measures that assessed global, gist-based judgments of risk produced negative correlations; higher risk perceptions were associated with less risk taking, a protective rather than reflective relation. Endorsement of simple values and principles provided the greatest protection against risk taking. Results support a dual-processes interpretation of the relation between risk perception and risk taking according to which observed relations depend on whether the cues in questions trigger verbatim or gist processing.

Fuzzy-trace theory explains risky decision making in children, adolescents, and adults, incorporating social and cultural factors as well as differences in impulsivity. Here, we provide an overview of the theory, including support for counterintuitive predictions (e.g., when adolescents "rationally" weigh costs and benefits, risk taking increases, but it decreases when the core gist of a decision is processed). Then, we delineate how emotion shapes adolescent risk taking-from encoding of representations of options, to retrieval of values/principles, to application of those values/principles to representations of options. Our review indicates that: (i) Gist representations often incorporate emotion including valence, arousal, feeling states, and discrete emotions; and (ii) Emotion determines whether gist or verbatim representations are processed. We recommend interventions to reduce unhealthy risk-taking that inculcate stable gist representations, enabling adolescents to identify quickly and automatically danger even when experiencing emotion, which differs sharply from traditional approaches emphasizing deliberation and precise analysis. Keywords adolescence; risk taking; fuzzy-trace theory; decision making; emotion; affect; mood; memory It seems oxymoronic to apply the term "decision making" to describe adolescent risk taking. After all, if adolescents were making decisions, perhaps they would not be getting into so much trouble. Adolescents appear to react rather than decide. But this view of decision making betrays an assumption that mature decision making is cold and deliberative, that it is the result of an intentional, analytical thinking process that eschews emotion (Nisbett & Ross, 1980). We argue just the opposite. Instead of assuming that development progresses from hot intuitive thinking to cold calculation bypassing emotion, we present research showing that intuition is developmentally advanced and that emotion is integral to intuition.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Valerie F. Reyna, Departments of Human Development and Psychology, Cornell University, B44 Martha Van Rensselaer Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853. Email: vr53@cornell.edu. Phone: (607) 255-9856. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. NIH Public Access NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptIn this article, we outline a theory of risk taking in adolescence-fuzzy-trace theory-that is grounded in research on how people represent, retrieve, and process information when they make decisions, and how decision making changes with d...

We studied the semantic properties of a class of illusions, of which the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm is the most prominent example, in which subjects falsely remember words that are associates of studied words. We analyzed DRM materials for 16 dimensions of semantic content and assessed the ability of these dimensions to predict interlist variability in false memory. For the more general class of illusions, we analyzed pairs of presented and unpresented words that varied in associative strength for the presence of these same 16 semantic properties. DRM materials proved to be exceptionally rich in meaning, as indexed by these semantic properties. Variability in false recall, false recognition, and backward associative strength loaded on a single semantic factor (familiarity/meaningfulness), whereas variability in true recall loaded on a quite different factor (imagery/concreteness). For word association generally, 15 semantic properties varied reliably with forward or backward association between words. Implications for semantic versus associative processing in this class of illusions, for dual-process theories, and for semantic properties of word associations are discussed.

Fuzzy-trace theory is a theory of memory, judgment, and decision-making, and their development. We applied advances in this theory to increase the efficacy and durability of a multicomponent intervention to promote risk reduction and avoidance of premature pregnancy and STIs. 734 adolescents from high schools and youth programs in three states (Arizona, Texas, and New York) were randomly assigned to one of three curriculum groups: RTR (Reducing the Risk), RTR+ (a modified version of RTR using fuzzy-trace theory), and a control group. We report effects of curriculum on self-reported behaviors and behavioral intentions plus psychosocial mediators of those effects, namely, attitudes and norms, motives to have sex or get pregnant, self-efficacy and behavioral control, and gist/verbatim constructs. Among 26 outcomes, 19 showed an effect of at least one curriculum relative to the control group: RTR+ produced improvements for 17 outcomes and RTR produced improvements for 12 outcomes. For RTR+, two differences (for perceived parental norms and global benefit perception) were confined to age, gender, or racial/ethnic subgroups. Effects of RTR+ on sexual initiation emerged six months after the intervention, when many adolescents became sexually active. Effects of RTR+ were greater than RTR for nine outcomes, and remained significantly greater than controls at one-year follow-up for 12 outcomes. Consistent with fuzzy-trace theory, results suggest that, by emphasizing gist representations, which are preserved over long time periods and are key memories used in decision-making, the enhanced intervention produced larger and more sustained effects on behavioral outcomes and psychosocial mediators of adolescent risk-taking.