Performance of Children and Adolescents from a School of the City of Sogamoso on a Decision-Making Test

Patricia Bernal^*, Johanna Montaña, Rocio Acosta, Yonathan Rojas

Universidad de San Buenaventura, Bogotá, Colombia.

DOI: 10.4236/ojped.2015.54051                

Abstract

The aim of this study was to describe the performance on a decision-making task of children and adolescents (aged 7 - 17 years) from a school in the city of Sogamoso. This non-experimental descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted by means of a non probability sampling of type cases. The sample consisted of 325 subjects, to whom the Hungry Donkey Task in its version adapted for Colombia was applied. Through descriptive statistics, the test performance trend was established, finding that participants aged 7 to 11 years had better performance than adolescents 12 to 14 years old, which partially supports the hypothesis of decision-making development in J shape. Subjects aged 15 to 17 years had the most disadvantageous performance, which may indicate immaturity and slow development of prefrontal areas and the influence of the trend towards risk-taking, characteristic of this age range.

Keywords

Decision-Making, Children and Adolescents, Somatic Marker, Hungry Donkey Task

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Verdejo-García, A., Benbrook, A., Funderburk, F., David, P., Cadet, J. and Bolla, K. (2007) The Differential Relationship between Cocaine Use and Marijuana Use on Decision-Making Performance over Repeat Testing with the Iowa Gambling Task. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 90, 2-11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2007.02.004
[2]	Damasio, A. (1994) Descartes’ Error: Emotions, Reason, and the Human Brain. Avon Books, New York.
[3]	Bechara, A., Damasio, H. and Damasio, A. (2000) Emotion, Decision Making and the Orbitofrontal Cortex. Cerebral Cortex, 10, 295-307. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/10.3.295
[4]	García, M. (2012) Las funciones ejecutivas cálidas y el Rendimiento académico. Tesis Doctoral Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
[5]	Contreras, D., Catena, A., Cándido, A., Perales, J. and Maldonado, A. (2007) Funciones de la Corteza Prefrontal Ventromedial en la Toma de Decisiones Emocionales. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 8, 285-313.
[6]	Gordillo, F., Arana, J., Salvador, J. and Mestas, L. (2011) Emoción y Toma de Decisiones: Teoría y Aplicación de la Iowa GamblingTask. Revista Electrónica de Psicología Iztacala, 14, 333-353.
[7]	Levav, M. (2005) Neuropsicología de la emoción. Particularidades en la infancia. Revista Argentina de Neuropsicología, 5, 15-24.
[8]	Verdejo, A. and García, M. (2006) Funciones Ejecutivas y Toma de Decisiones en Drogodependientes: Rendimiento Neuropsicológico y Funcionamiento Cerebral. Editorial de la Universidad de Granada.
[9]	Martínez-Selva, J., Sánchez, J. Bechara, A. and Román, F. (2006) Mecanismos cerebrales de la toma de decisiones. Revista de Neurología, 42, 411-418.
[10]	Acuna, I. Castillo, D. Bechara, A. and Godoy, J. (2013) Toma de decisiones en adolescentes: Rendimiento bajo diferentes condiciones de información e intoxicación alcohólica. International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy, 13, 195-214.
[11]	Daza, M. and Arcas, P. (2002) Una apuesta teórica: Damasio y El error de Descartes.
[12]	Oliva, A. (2007) Desarrollo cerebral y asunción de riesgos durante la adolescencia. Apuntes de Psicología, 25, 239-254. http://www.apuntesdepsicologia.es/index.php/revista/article/view/77/79
[13]	Spear, L. (2007) The Developing Brain and Adolescent-Typical Behavior Patterns: An Evolutionary Approach. In: Walker, E., Bossert, J. and Romer, D., Eds., Adolescent Psychopathology and the Developing Brain: Integrating Brain and Prevention Science, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 11-32.
[14]	Ernst, M. and Spear, L. (2009) Reward Systems. In: de Haan, M. and Gunnar, M.R., Eds., Handbook of Developmental Social Neuroscience, Guilford Press, New York, 324-341.
[15]	Goldberg, E. (2001) The Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind. Oxford University Press, New York.
[16]	Moreno, A. (2012) Alteraciones Neuroanatómicas en los núcleos caudado y accumbens como marcador neurobiológico de mala respuesta al metilfenidato en el TDAH Infantil. Tesis Doctoral, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra.
[17]	Steinberg, L. (2005) Cognitive and Affective Development in Adolescence. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 69-74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2004.12.005
[18]	Verdejo, A., Orozco, C., Meersmans, M., Aguilar, F. and Pérez, M. (2004) Impacto de la gravedad del consumo de drogas sobre distintos componentes de la función ejecutiva. Revista de Neurología, 38, 1109-1116.
[19]	Kerr, A. and Zelazo, P. (2004) Development of “Hot” Executive Function: The Children’s Gambling Task. Brain & Cognition, 55, 148-157. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0278-2626(03)00275-6
[20]	Crone, E., Bunge, S., Latenstein, H. and Van der Molen, M. (2005) Characterization of Children’s Decision Making Sensitivity to Punishment Frequency, Not Task Complexity. Child Neuropsychology, 11, 245-263. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/092970490911261
[21]	Crone, E., Vendel, I. and Van der Molen, M. (2003) Decision-Making in Disinhibited Adolescents and Adults: Insensitivity to Future Consequences or Driven by Immediate Reward? Personality and Individual Differences, 35, 1625-1641. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(02)00386-0
[22]	Hooper, C., Conklin, M. and Yarger, R. (2004) Adolescents’ Performance on the Iowa Gambling Task: Implications for the Development of Decision Making and Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex. Developmental Psychology, 40, 1148-1158. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.40.6.1148
[23]	Crone, E. and Van der Molen, M. (2004) Developmental Changes in Real Life Decision Making: Performance on a Gambling Task Previously Shown to Depend on the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex. Developmental Neuropsychology, 25, 251-279. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15326942dn2503_2
[24]	Smith, D., Xiao, L. and Bechara, A. (2012) Decision Making in Children and Adolescents: Impaired Iowa Gambling Task Performance in Early Adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 48, 1180-1187. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0026342
[25]	Cauffman, E., Shulman, E., Steinberg, L., Claus, E., Banich, M. and Graham, S. (2010) Age Differences in Affective Decision Making as Indexed by Performance on the Iowa Gambling Task. Developmental Psychology, 46, 193-207. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0016128
[26]	Overman, W., Frassrand, K., Ansel, S., Trawalter, S., Bies, B. and Redmond, A. (2004) Performance on the IOWA Card Task by Adolescents and Adults. Neuropsychologia, 42, 1838-1851. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2004.03.014
[27]	Best, J., Miller, P. and Jones, L. (2009) Executive Functions after Age 5: Changes and Correlates. Developmental Review, 29, 180-200. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2009.05.002
[28]	Reyna, V. and Farley, F. (2006) Risk and Rationality in Adolescent Decisión Making: Implications for Theory Practice, and Public Policy. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 7, 1-44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1529-1006.2006.00026.x
[29]	Galvan, A., Hare, T., Parra, C., Penn, J., Voss, K. and Glover, G. (2006) Earlier Development of the Accumbens Relative to Orbitofrontal Cortex Might Underlie Risk-Taking Behavior in Adolescents. Journal of Neuroscience, 26, 6885-6892. http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1062-06.2006
[30]	Bechara, A. (2007) Iowa Gambling Task Professional Manual. Psychological Assessment Resources, Lutz.
[31]	Matthias-Brand, E., Recknor, F., Grabenhorst, A. and Bechara, A. (2007) Decisions under Ambiguity and Decisions under Risk: Correlations with Executive Functions and Comparisons of Two Different Gambling Tasks with Implicit and Explicit Rules. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 29, 86-99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13803390500507196
[32]	Oliva, A. and Antolin, L. (2010) Cambios en el cerebro adolescente y conductas agresivas y de asunción de riesgos. Estudios de Psicología, 31, 53-66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1174/021093910790744563
[33]	Welsh, M. (2002) Developmental and Clinical Variations in Executive Functions. In: Molfese, D.L. and Molfese, V.J., Eds., Developmental Variations in Learning: Applications to Social, Executive Function, Language, and Reading Skills, Erlbaum, Mahwah, 139-185.