{"id":82129,"date":"2018-04-20T15:48:10","date_gmt":"2018-04-20T19:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=82129"},"modified":"2022-07-29T13:07:58","modified_gmt":"2022-07-29T17:07:58","slug":"how-your-age-can-impact-your-ability-to-make-decisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/how-your-age-can-impact-your-ability-to-make-decisions\/","title":{"rendered":"How Does Age Impact Your Ability to Make Decisions?"},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019re in the grocery store, meandering past the bananas (too much sugar) and the asparagus (too pricey). There was a time years ago when you would have loaded up on both items. But now you\u2019re more interested in Brussels sprouts. This is a fascinating phenomenon to Assistant Professor of Psychology<\/a> Nichole Lighthall. \u201cEveryday decision making is interesting to me because it\u2019s so complex,\u201d she says. Even more compelling to Lighthall? The way we make those decisions changes as we age.<\/p>\n

To find reasons why we change our minds over time (or why our minds change us), Lighthall set up the Adult Development and Decision Lab<\/a> at UCF. Here, she and her students look closely at what\u2019s happening in that supercomputer called \u201cthe human mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

What sparked your personal interest in this type of research?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In college, I had my first personal experience with someone suffering from dementia. I saw how his condition affected his life and his family. It motivated me to conduct research on cognitive aging so I might help improve the lives of older adults and their loved ones.<\/p>\n

Did you have a light-bulb moment early on?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes. I was working at Stanford on a study of dementia risk factors that included about 200 senior citizens. Many of these older participants were living busier and healthier lives than me, and some could easily exceed my performance on some of our cognitive tests. It was surprising to me. So I shifted my focus from dementia to research on high-level cognitive functions in healthy aging.<\/p>\n

Why should this be important to people in their 20s or 30s?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We won\u2019t really know how to age well if we don\u2019t understand what optimal cognitive aging looks like. It also helps us understand our older loved ones better. I got my Ph.D. in gerontology at the University of Southern California, and our program\u2019s motto was: \u201cAging is everyone\u2019s business.\u201d It affects all of us.<\/p>\n

In a nutshell, what happens over time? <\/strong><\/p>\n

With age we gain life experiences and knowledge that guides our decision making. But we also face declines in working memory and some long-term memory. The combination of gains and losses can lead older people to use different strategies in decision making. It might even result in neural adaptations that help older adults compensate for declines in memory.<\/p>\n

How are your students involved in the research?<\/strong><\/p>\n

They come from a variety of backgrounds, like cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and health-related fields. They can specialize in different topics related to their interests, like how age affects financial decisions. It\u2019s exciting when they link up knowledge from different fields and discover something new.<\/p>\n