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Adolescents let sufficient evidence accumulate before making a decision when large incentives are at stake
Author(s) -
Teslovich Theresa,
Mulder Martijn,
Franklin Nicholas T.,
Ruberry Erika J.,
Millner Alex,
Somerville Leah H.,
Simen Patrick,
Durston Sarah,
Casey B. J.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
developmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.801
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1467-7687
pISSN - 1363-755X
DOI - 10.1111/desc.12092
Subject(s) - incentive , psychology , contrast (vision) , task (project management) , cognitive psychology , certainty , perception , motion (physics) , social psychology , developmental psychology , microeconomics , artificial intelligence , economics , computer science , neuroscience , philosophy , management , epistemology
Adolescent decision-making has been described as impulsive and suboptimal in the presence of incentives. In this study we examined the neural substrates of adolescent decision-making using a perceptual discrimination task for which small and large rewards were associated with correctly detecting the direction of motion of a cloud of moving dots. Adults showed a reward bias of faster reaction times on trials for which the direction of motion was associated with a large reward. Adolescents, in contrast, were slower to make decisions on trials associated with large rewards. This behavioral pattern in adolescents was paralleled by greater recruitment of fronto-parietal regions important in representing the accumulation of evidence sufficient for selecting one choice over its alternative and the certainty of that choice. The findings suggest that when large incentives are dependent on performance, adolescents may require more evidence to accumulate prior to responding, to be certain to maximize their gains. Adults, in contrast, appear to be quicker in evaluating the evidence for a decision when primed by rewards. Overall these findings suggest that rather than reacting hastily, adolescents can be incentivized to take more time to make decisions when large rewards are at stake. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at http://youtu.be/1g4F5vzFDl0.