Dealing With Uncertainty: Testing Risk- and Ambiguity-Attitude Across Adolescence

Blankenstein, Nettie; Crone, Eveline A.; Bos, Wouter van den; Duijvenvoorde, Anna C. K. van

doi:10.1080/87565641.2016.1158265

Cited by 100 publications

(173 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…However, ambiguity attitudes (known outcomes but unknown probabilities) showed nonlinear developmental trends, with ambiguity tolerance peaking in adolescence. This finding is in line with two previous studies that also found adolescents to be more tolerant of ambiguity than adults2022, but contradicts another recent study suggesting that children may be even more ambiguity tolerant24. More importantly, we found a similar nonlinear developmental trajectory in respondents’ uncertainty attitude.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

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Adolescents display distinctive tolerance to ambiguity and to uncertainty during risky decision making

Bos

Hertwig

2017

Sci Rep

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147

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Although actuarial data indicate that risk-taking behavior peaks in adolescence, laboratory evidence for this developmental spike remains scarce. One possible explanation for this incongruity is that in the real world adolescents often have only vague information about the potential consequences of their behavior and the likelihoods of those consequences, whereas in the lab these are often clearly stated. How do adolescents behave under such more realistic conditions of ambiguity and uncertainty? We asked 105 participants aged from 8 to 22 years to make three types of choices: (1) choices between options whose possible outcomes and probabilities were fully described (choices under risk); (2) choices between options whose possible outcomes were described but whose probability information was incomplete (choices under ambiguity), and (3) choices between unknown options whose possible outcomes and probabilities could be explored (choices under uncertainty). Relative to children and adults, two adolescent-specific markers emerged. First, adolescents were more accepting of ambiguity; second, they were also more accepting of uncertainty (as indicated by shorter pre-decisional search). Furthermore, this tolerance of the unknown was associated with motivational, but not cognitive, factors. These findings offer novel insights into the psychology of adolescent risk taking.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…Furthermore, adults’ risk and ambiguity attitudes do not appear to be correlated21. At the same time, two recent studies suggest that adolescents are more ambiguity seeking than adults2022 (but see ref. 23), and another study suggests that young children may be ambiguity neutral24.…”

mentioning

confidence: 94%

Adolescents display distinctive tolerance to ambiguity and to uncertainty during risky decision making

Bos

Hertwig

2017

Sci Rep

Self Cite

147

149

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“…To date, minimal research has considered how adolescents respond to differences in the predictive validity of a stimulus. However, recent evidence has indicated that adolescents more readily engage in behaviors for which the outcome is uncertain relative to adults [61, 62]. Furthermore, mounting evidence in adults indicates that the reinforcement history of a cue influences both initial and long-term learning about the cue’s meaning, as well as the responses that occur in the presence of the cue [63–69].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age differences in appetitive Pavlovian conditioning and extinction in rats

Meyer

Bucci

2016

Physiology & Behavior

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Mounting evidence indicates that adolescents exhibit heightened sensitivity to rewards and reward-related cues compared to adults, and that adolescents are often unable to exert behavioral control in the face of such cues. Moreover, differences in reward processing during adolescence have been linked to heightened risk taking and impulsivity. However, little is known about the processes by which adolescents learn about the appetitive properties of environmental stimuli that signal reward. To address this, Pavlovian conditioning procedures were used to test for differences in excitatory conditioning between adult and adolescent rats using various schedules of reinforcement. Specifically, separate cohorts of adult and adolescent rats were trained under conditions of consistent (continuous) or intermittent (partial) reinforcement. We found that the acquisition of anticipatory responding to a continuously-reinforced cue proceeded similarly in adolescents and adults. In contrast, responding increased at a greater rate in adolescents compared to adults during presentations of a partially-reinforced cue. We subsequently compared the ability of adolescent and adult rats to dynamically adjust the representation of a reward-predictive cue during extinction trials, in which a secondary inhibitory representation is acquired for the previously-reinforced stimulus. We observed significant age differences in the ability to flexibly update cue representations during extinction, in that the appetitive properties of cues with a history of either continuous or partial reinforcement persisted to a greater extent in adolescents relative to adults.

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“…In particular, adolescents exhibit a greater willingness to engage in behaviors for which the outcome is uncertain relative to adults [94, 95]. Encountering an ambiguous stimulus indicates the need to consider the information at hand and potentially acquire more information before making a decision [94, 96].…”

Section: Implications For Understanding Adolescent Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has previously been shown in humans that children, like adolescents, are more tolerant of ambiguity than adults [97], and furthermore, that ambiguity tolerance decreases linearly across development into adulthood [95]. Thus, additional factors must be contributing to the ontogeny of negative occasion setting to account for the non-linearity of behavioral performance.…”

Section: Implications For Understanding Adolescent Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Setting the occasion for adolescent inhibitory control

Meyer

Bucci

2017

Neurobiology of Learning and Memory

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During adolescence, individuals experience a broad range of dynamic environments as they strive to establish independence. Learning to respond appropriately in both new and previously encountered environments requires that an individual identify and learn the meaning of cues indicating that a behavior is appropriate, or alternatively, that it should be altered or inhibited. Although the ability to regulate goal-directed behavior continues to develop across adolescence, the specific circumstances under which adolescents experience difficulty with inhibitory control remain unclear. Here we review recent findings in our laboratory that address how adolescents learn to proactively inhibit a response. Much of our research has utilized a negative occasion setting paradigm, in which one cue (a feature) gates the meaning of a second cue (a target). The feature provides information that resolves the ambiguity of the target and indicates the appropriate behavioral response to the target. As such, we have been able to determine how adolescents learn about ambiguous stimuli, such as those whose meaning changes in accordance with other features of the surrounding environment. We consider why adolescents in particular exhibit difficulty in negative occasion setting compared to either pre-adolescents or adults. In addition, we review findings indicating that a balance between orbitofrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens is necessary to support normal negative occasion setting. Finally, we consider aspects of associative learning that may contribute to adolescent inhibitory control, as well as provide insight into adolescent behavior as a whole.

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Dealing With Uncertainty: Testing Risk- and Ambiguity-Attitude Across Adolescence

Cited by 100 publications

References 56 publications

Adolescents display distinctive tolerance to ambiguity and to uncertainty during risky decision making

Adolescents display distinctive tolerance to ambiguity and to uncertainty during risky decision making

Age differences in appetitive Pavlovian conditioning and extinction in rats

Setting the occasion for adolescent inhibitory control

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