JoNell Strough

Goals for solving everyday problems across the life span: Age and gender differences in the salience of interpersonal concerns.

The authors examined age and gender differences in the salience of interpersonal concerns in individuals representations of their own everyday problems. One hundred and seven preadolescents, 128 college students, 130 middle-aged adults, and 131 older adults described a problem and goal for dealing with that problem. Interpersonal elements of problem descriptions and goal content and focus were coded. Interpersonal elements of everyday problems were most salient to females and middle-aged adults. Across age and gender, individuals reported interpersonal goals when other people were viewed as central to the problem. Age differences in problem-solving goals reflected developmental life tasks. Implications for work on everyday problem solving, which has typically focused on individualistic rather than interpersonal aspects of problem solving, are discussed.

Are Older Adults Less Subject to the Sunk-Cost Fallacy Than Younger Adults?

The sunk-cost fallacy is a decision-making bias that reflects the tendency to invest more future resources in a situation in which a prior investment has been made, as compared with a similar situation in which a prior investment has not been made (e.g., the tendency to spend more time watching a boring movie one paid to watch than to watch a boring, but free, movie). Most research on this fallacy has been conducted with college students (Arkes & Ayton, 1999). Although a growing number of studies have investigated the sunk-cost fallacy in children, adolescents (Klaczynski, 2001), and nonhuman animals (Navarro & Fantino, 2005), no research has investigated whether older adults are less likely than younger adults to commit the sunk-cost fallacy (cf. Bruine de Bruin, Parker, & Fischhoff, 2007). Drawing from prior research on age differences in negativity and positivity biases in information processing, we hypothesized that older adults would be less likely than younger adults to commit the sunk-cost fallacy. Soman (2004) offered loss aversion as a potential explanation for the sunk-cost fallacy. Supporting evidence comes from research in which young adults have reported that their sunk-cost decisions are motivated by loss avoidance (Frisch, 1993). This focus on losses may reflect younger adults’ negativity bias in information processing. Younger adults weigh negative information more heavily than positive information (Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Finkenauer, & Vohs, 2001). In contrast, older adults demonstrate a positivity effect (Carstensen & Mikels, 2005). Their decisions reflect a more balanced view of gains and losses (Wood, Busemeyer, Koling, Cox, & Davis, 2005). If older adults are less likely than younger adults to focus exclusively on losses, and loss aversion contributes to the sunk-cost fallacy, then older adults may be less likely than younger adults to commit the sunkcost fallacy.

The role of problem definitions in understanding age and context effects on strategies for solving everyday problems

The participants (107 preadolescents, 124 college students, 118 middle-aged adults, and 131 older adults) described 2 everyday problems (1 unconstrained, the other constrained to 1 of 6 domains) that they experienced and their goals and strategies. Problem definitions reflected interpersonal or competence components or both; strategies reflected altering cognitions, actions, or regulating and including others. Age differences in problem definitions were found. For unconstrained-domain problems, age and problem definition were related to strategies; for unconstrained-domain problems age differences in strategies were not found. For constrained-domain problems, strategies related to problem domain and problem definition, with problem definition the better predictor of strategies. The results illustrate the value of individuals problem definitions for addressing age and context effects on strategies used.

Decision‐making heuristics and biases across the life span

We outline a contextual and motivational model of judgment and decision‐making (JDM) biases across the life span. Our model focuses on abilities and skills that correspond to deliberative, experiential, and affective decision‐making processes. We review research that addresses links between JDM biases and these processes as represented by individual differences in specific abilities and skills (e.g., fluid and crystallized intelligence, executive functioning, emotion regulation, personality traits). We focus on two JDM biases—the sunk‐cost fallacy (SCF) and the framing effect. We trace the developmental trajectory of each bias from preschool through middle childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, and later adulthood. We conclude that life‐span developmental trajectories differ depending on the bias investigated. Existing research suggests relative stability in the framing effect across the life span and decreases in the SCF with age, including in later life. We highlight directions for future research on JDM biases across the life span, emphasizing the need for process‐oriented research and research that increases our understanding of JDM biases in peoples everyday lives.

Friendship and Gender Differences in Task and Social Interpretations of Peer Collaborative Problem Solving

Investigations of peer collaboration often vary task or social aspects of collaborative contexts and assume that these aspects of the context are experienced similarly by individuals. The present study examined how social aspects (group friendship and gender) of a peer collaborative context related to differences in adolescents’ interpretations of task and social problems that occurred while collaborating with peers in a naturalistic classroom setting. Eighth-grade adolescents (N = 82, 44 females) worked with peers on a six-week Spanish project at school. Adolescents chose to work primarily with same-gender peers and friends. Task and social interpretations of problems were assessed twice. The salience of task problems decreased over time; social problems became somewhat more salient. Social problems were less salient to females than to males. Greater group friendship was associated with the lesser salience of task problems early in the project. The salience of social problems, gender, and friendship were important for understanding performance on the project. The value of considering the context of peer collaborative problem solving from individuals’ perspectives is discussed.

Goals as a mediator of gender differences in high-affiliation dyadic conversations.

The present study examined whether gender differences in affiliative aspects (collaboration and cooperation) of dyadic conversations occur because girls are more oriented than boys toward goals focused on others. Preadolescents (11-13 years old; 51 boys, 53 girls) worked with a same- or an other-gender peer on a 4-week-long creative-writing task at school. Dyadic conversations and goals were assessed twice. High-affiliation conversations and mutual-participation goals were more prevalent in female than in male and mixed-gender dyads. Mutual-participation goals mediated gender differences in high-affiliation conversations. Control and task-performance goals did not differ by dyad gender. In mixed-gender dyads, conversation strategies and goals did not differ by gender. Implications of goals for understanding gender differences and similarities in conversations are discussed.

Collaborative Problem-Solving Interactions in Young and Old Married Couples

The study explores the importance of conversational processes for understanding collaborative cognitive performance by examining the interactions of married couples that facilitate performance on 2 everyday cognitive tasks. Twenty-four adults, 6 young (M age = 29.7 years) and 6 older (M = 70.8 years) married couples, completed a vacation decision-making task and an errand-running task. Couples were asked to talk as they performed the tasks and speech acts were coded as to whether they involved high-affiliation exchanges (between-partner sequences of cooperative and obliging speech acts) or low-affiliation exchanges (between-partner sequences of controlling and withdrawing speech acts). Interactions characterized by high affiliation were associated with greater use of information and the use of feature based search strategies on the decision-making task and shorter routes on the errand-running task. Open-ended interviews revealed the importance of division of labor and delegation when collaborating in daily life. The results illustrate the diversity present in couples interactive patterns and approaches to collaboration. Further, the results demonstrate the potential of integrating work on collaborative cognition and conversational processes.

Preferences for collaborative and individual everyday problem solving in later adulthood

Individual and contextual predictors of preferences for solving everyday problems alone and in collaboration with others were investigated in a sample community-dwelling older adults (M age = 71.80 years, SD = 5.78, range = 56–87, 51 men, 56 women). Gender differences in problem-solving preferences were found in gender-stereotyped domains (e.g., meal-preparation; house repair). In several problem domains, more positive social comparisons of problem-solving ability were related to greater preferences for solving problems alone and lesser preferences for solving problems with others. Marital status, temporal comparisons of ability, and perceived health and control were related to problem-solving preferences in some problem domains. Results are discussed from a contextual perspective that focuses on the fit between individuals’ personal and social resources and their preferred approaches to solving everyday problems.

Context and Age Differences in Same‐ and Other‐gender Peer Preferences

Age and gender differences in preferences for same- and other-gender peers as partners for working on a school project and casual interactions at home were investigated. Participants were 82 students (19 sixth-grade preadolescents; 29 eighth-grade adolescents; 34 tenth- and eleventh-grade older adolescents). Same-gender preferences were assessed via peer nominations and ratings of expected enjoyment of interacting with same- and other-gender peers. Preferences varied by context: individuals expected to enjoy same-gender peers more than other-gender peers when working on a project at school but not when interacting casually at home. Greater expected enjoyment of same-gender peers over other-gender peers was most pronounced for preadolescent boys and girls, and least pronounced for older adolescent males. Nominations of same-gender peers for home and school activities decreased with age. Results are interpreted in light of a social-contextual approach to gender segregation.

Overview of the special section on collaborative cognition in later adulthood

Within the adult development and aging literature, cognition traditionally has been conceptualised as a solitary activity. Recently, however, researchers have begun to consider older adults’ cognition as embedded within social contexts (e.g., Baltes & Staudinger, 1996). A variety of labels have been applied to this research including: collaborative cognition (Dixon, 1992), interactive minds (Baltes & Staudinger, 1996), transactive memory (Wegner, Giuliano, & Hertel, 1985) and socially shared cognition (Resnick, Levine, & Teasdale, 1991). All of these labels rex8f ect the premise that cognition is a social process, and expand the unit of analysis from a single person to social units such as dyads, triads, and larger groups. Conceptualising cognition as a social process brings new insights to areas of enduring interest within the x8e eld of developmental psychology. For instance, by investigating how social partners such as spouses work together to recall narratives, researchers have begun to address how normative age-related memory declines may be ameliorated (Dixon & Gould, 1998; Gould & Dixon, 1993). Moreover, in everyday life, cognition often is a social activity (Berg, Meegan, & Deviney, 1998; Meacham & Emont, 1989). Individuals frequently include other people in their goals and strategies for solving everyday problems (Berg, Strough, Calderone, Sansone, & Weir, 1998; Blanchard-Fields, Jahnke, & Camp, 1995; Strough, Berg, & Sansone, 1996). Thus, investigating cognition as a social process, rather than as an exclusively individualistic endeavour, may lead to a better understanding of cognitive development across the life span. In this Special Section we adopt the label collaborative cognition because it captures the participation in shared activities and mutual inx8f uence that we view as essential to the investigation of cognition as a social process. The term collaborative cognition is used frequently in research with children and adolescents (see Rogoff, 1998 for a review). Within the child development literature, the view of cognition as a social activity has a long history. The work of Piaget and Vygotsky stimulated empirical investigations that advanced the understanding of the social foundations of cognition in childhood (Rogoff, 1998). By bringing together papers that consider later-life collaborative cognition, our goal was to facilitate a greater understanding of the social foundations of cognition across the life span. One impetus underlying research on collaborative cognition in later adulthood is that collaboration with others may serve as a pathway to successful aging. Life-span development is best conceptualised as a dynamic between gains and losses (Baltes, 1987, 1997; Baltes & Baltes, 1990; Baltes, Lindenberger, & Staudinger, 1998; Marsiske, Lang, Baltes, & Baltes, 1995). Early in the life span, gains outweigh losses; with age, however, the potential for gains decreases and the potential for losses increases such that individuals’ resources become increasingly devoted toward maintenance rather than growth (Baltes, 1997). Baltes and Baltes’ model of selective optimisation with compensation outlines the process whereby the gain-loss dynamic unfolds in specix8e c contexts across development (e.g., Baltes & Baltes, 1990). Optimal performance (gains, growth) is achieved in selected domains at a cost (i.e., performance loss) in other domains. That is, because resources are inherently limited, when resources are devoted to one domain (i.e., when selection occurs), losses may occur in other domains. Through compensation, however, performance in selected domains may be maintained. Research on later-life collaborative cognition often investigates the potential compensatory function of collaboration. Compensation refers to individuals’ use of alternative resources when other resources are unavailable due either to losses or limits in functioning (Dixon & Bäckman, 1995; Marsiske et al., 1995). Collaboration with others may provide a means of maintaining functioning despite age-related declines in abilities and thereby help to balance the gain-loss ratio. For example, if an individual experiences declines in his or her ability to function independently with age, he or she may work with others in domains where it is important to maintain functioning. In addition to the compensatory function of collaboration, the notion of optimisation or maximising performance, is inherent in much collaborative cognition research. Research with children often investigates how children, in collaboration International Journal of Behavioral Development # 2002 The International Society for the 2002, 26 (1), 2–5 Study of Behavioural Development