Ecological Rationality: A Framework for Understanding and Aiding the Aging Decision Maker

Abstract

The notion of ecological rationality sees human rationality as the result of the adaptive fit between the human mind and the environment. Ecological rationality focuses the study of decision making on two key questions: First, what are the environmental regularities to which people’s decision strategies are matched, and how frequently do these regularities occur in natural environments? Second, how well can people adapt their use of specific strategies to particular environmental regularities? Research on aging suggests a number of changes in cognitive function, for instance, deficits in learning and memory that may impact decision-making skills. However, it has been shown that simple strategies can work well in many natural environments, which suggests that age-related deficits in strategy use may not necessarily translate into reduced decision quality. Consequently, we argue that predictions about the impact of aging on decision performance depend not only on how aging affects decision-relevant capacities but also on the decision environment in which decisions are made. In sum, we propose that the concept of the ecological rationality is crucial to understanding and aiding the aging decision maker.

The role of cognitive abilities in decisions from experience: Age differences emerge as a function of choice set size

“…Our results are in line with the notion of ecological rationality, which suggests that specific strategies-even simple approximating ones-can perform well in some environments (Mata et al, 2012). Consequently, decision strategies that are less subject to normal cognitive aging and declines in cognitive abilities may enable older adults to make decisions that are as good as those made by younger adults, despite sizable effects of aging on intellectual functioning.…”

Decision making in the ageing brain: changes in affective and motivational circuits

“…Age-dependent differences in performance in decision making tasks depend heavily on the extent to which decisions make cognitive demands or provide opportunities to draw on prior knowledge 129 . Recently, theorists have built upon classic observations of adult age differences in fluid and crystallized cognitive abilities 130 to explain age-related differences in decision performance 97,131,132 .…”

Pillars of judgment: How memory abilities affect performance in rule-based and exemplar-based judgments.

“…Memory abilities may influence the general ability to choose strategies adaptively (Mata, Pachur, et al, 2012). Bröder (2003) found that intelligent participants were more likely to select a strategy that ignores information if this strategy performed well.…”