Abstract

Adaptive decision-making strategies are critical for dealing with the complexity of the social world. The present study investigated the use of decision-making strategies in preschoolers and their association to prosocial behavior and peer problems. Eighty-six preschoolers aged 3- and 4-years completed the preschool decision-making task (PGT), a child variant of the Iowa Gambling task . Win-stay/lose-shift responses along with exploration (consecutive choices from the advantageous deck) and exploitation (shifting between options) were examined. Preschoolers showed a range of strategies, with 4-year-olds adapting their approach as the game progressed and making better use of feedback in comparison to 3-year-olds. Children who differed in terms of choices from the advantageous deck were distinguished by different combinations of exploration and exploitation. Furthermore, unique combinations of decision-making strategies also distinguished children who were rated as high versus low in prosocial behavior as well as children rated as having a high versus low level of peer problems. The findings suggest that consideration of strategies used in decision-making tasks could provide useful insight in a clinical setting, particularly for populations with social difficulties.

摘要

适应性决策策略对于处理复杂的社会世界至关重要。本研究调查了学龄前儿童决策策略的使用及其与亲社会行为和同伴问题的关系。86 名 3 岁和 4 岁的学龄前儿童完成了学前决策任务 (PGT)，这是爱荷华州赌博任务的儿童变体。检查了赢-留/输-转变反应以及探索（从有利牌组中连续选择）和利用（在选项之间转换）。学龄前儿童展示了一系列策略，与 3 岁儿童相比，4 岁儿童随着游戏的进行调整他们的方法，并更好地利用反馈。在选择方面与有利牌组不同的孩子因探索和利用的不同组合而不同。此外，决策策略的独特组合还区分了亲社会行为被评为高与低的儿童，以及同伴问题被评为高与低的儿童。研究结果表明，考虑决策任务中使用的策略可以在临床环境中提供有用的见解，特别是对于有社交困难的人群。