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The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences Advance Access originally published online on May 29, 2009
The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 2009 64B(4):474-481; doi:10.1093/geronb/gbp035
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Cognitive Aging and Adaptive Foraging Behavior

Rui Mata1,3, Andreas Wilke2,3 and Uwe Czienskowski3

1 Department of Psychology, University of Lisbon, Portugal
2 Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Altenberg, Austria
3 Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany

Address correspondence to Dr. Rui Mata, Faculdade de Psicologia, Universidade de Lisboa, Alameda da Universidade, 1649-013 Lisboa, Portugal. Email: ruimata{at}ruimata.com.


  Abstract

We conducted two experiments comparing younger and older adults’ ability to adjust their foraging behavior as a function of task characteristics. Participants foraged for fish in a virtual landscape and had to decide when to move between ponds so as to maximize the number of fish caught. In the first experiment, participants were left to generate their own foraging strategy, whereas in the second experiment, participants were instructed to use an incremental strategy that has been shown to produce optimal performance in this task. Our results suggest that both younger and older adults are adaptive in the sense of adjusting the parameters of their foraging strategy as a function of task characteristics. Nevertheless, older adults show overall poorer performance compared with younger adults even when instructed to use an optimal strategy.

Key Words: Aging • Decision making • Foraging • Strategy

Received October 7, 2008; Accepted March 11, 2009

Decision Editor: Elizabeth Stine-Morrow, PhD


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