How people use emotions and rewards to make choices changes through the teenage years

What is it about?

Across the lifespan, people use different sources of information to make choices. I have eaten at this restaurant before and I liked it; should I go again? This is an example of using reward outcomes to guide choice. What if the diners leaving the restaurant look upset? This is an example of using emotion cues to guide choice. Previous research has shown that emotions and rewards are particularly important information sources during the teenage years. However, scientists did not yet know how people prioritize emotion or reward information when these sources compete with each other, like when rewards signal than an option is 'good' but negative emotions signal that an option is 'bad'. This study tested such 'information competitions' through a computer-based card game where people had to figure out which cards were good and bad. The cards had emotional expressions (happy or fearful faces) and monetary rewards (50 or 0 cents) on them. People chose cards and received the corresponding rewards, so 'good' cards paid more money. There was a trick, though! Sometimes good cards had fearful faces on them, which people usually avoid. Sometimes bad cards had happy faces on them, which people usually approach. Kids through adults played the game so that changes in card choice patterns could be assessed across age. Results showed that people of all ages took longer to learn about fear cards that were actually good (highly-rewarding) and happy cards that were actually bad (lowly-rewarding). This meant that kids, teens, and adults combined the emotion and reward information in their minds and struggled to make choices when the information sources conflicted! But, in a later test, adults were most likely to make decisions based on the monetary rewards from the learning game, while kids were most likely to make decisions based on the emotional expressions. Teens made decisions based on a mix of emotion and reward information. This meant that older people, more than younger people, prioritized information in the present that aligned with their goals in the past!

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Photo by Javier Allegue Barros on Unsplash

Photo by Javier Allegue Barros on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This study helps us understand how kids, teens, and adults use multiple sources of information to make choices, especially when information is complementary vs. competing. This is important for many kinds of scientists and practitioners, because people are confronted with complex learning problems everyday! Moreover, this study helps us understand how increasingly goal-directed decisions are made with age. Before, we knew that adults were better than kids at choosing options that aligned with their goals. Now, we know that a reason for that age-related improvement is that older people prioritize relevant streams of information!

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