Children's decision-making examined with an information-board procedure

Abstract

An information-board procedure adopted from adult decision-making research was used to examine the development of decision-making skills. Differences in the decision-making of 2nd-, 5th-, and 8th-grade children were found, particularly in terms of their search for predecisional information. In general, second graders were exhaustive yet less systematic in their search for information, while older children's decision-making involved the use of less demanding, noncompensatory strategies. All of the children's predecisional search, however, was influenced by characteristics of the decision task, such as the amount of information available.