Cognitive Aging and Adaptive Foraging Behavior

Bibliographic Data

ID12440654
AuthorsRui Mata (0000-0002-1679-906X, University of Lisbon, corresponding author), Andreas Wilke (0000-0002-7699-2267, Max Planck Institute for Human Development), Uwe Czienskowski (Max Planck Institute for Human Development)
Year2009
Volume64B
Issue4
Pages474-481
Publication date2009-05-29
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journals of Gerontology Series B (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1079-5014 • E-ISSN: 1758-5368
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/geronb/gbp035
PMID19483182
OpenAlexW2165989968
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited19

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

Adaptive behavior · Adaptive strategies · Biology · Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Developmental psychology · Fish · Fishery · Foraging · Geography · Task (project management · Child and Animal Learning Development · Cognitive Science and Mapping · Engineering · Memory and Neural Mechanisms · Neuroscience · Psychology · Ecology

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