Abstract
The links between emotions, bio-regulatory processes, and economic decision-making are well-established in the context of age-related changes in fluid, real-time, decision competency. The objective of the research reported here is to assess the relative contributions, interactions, and impacts of affective and cognitive intelligence in economic, value-based decision-making amongst older adults. Additionally, we explored this decision-making competency in the context of the neurobiology of aging by examining the neuroanatomical correlates of intelligence and decision-making in an aging cohort. Thirty-nine, healthy, community dwelling older adults were administered the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), an ecologically valid laboratory measure of complex, economic decision-making; along with standardized, performance-based measures of cognitive and emotional intelligence (EI). A smaller subset of this group underwent structural brain scans from which thicknesses of the frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital, cingulate cortices and their sub-sections, were computed. Fluid (online processing) aspects of Perceptual Reasoning cognitive intelligence predicted superior choices on the IGT. However, older adults with higher overall emotional intelligence (EI) and higher Experiential EI area/sub-scores learned faster to make better choices on the IGT, even after controlling for cognitive intelligence and its area scores. Thickness of the left rostral anterior cingulate (associated with fluid affective, processing) mediated the relationship between age and Experiential EI. Thickness of the right transverse temporal gyrus moderated the rate of learning on the IGT. In conclusion, our data suggest that fluid processing, which involves “online,” bottom-up, cognitive processing, predicts value-based decision-making amongst older adults, while crystallized intelligence, which relies on “offline” previously acquired knowledge, does not. However, only emotional intelligence, especially its fluid “online” aspects of affective processing predicts the rate of learning in situations of complex choice, especially when there is a paucity of cues/information available to guide decision-making. Age-related effects on these cognitive, affective and decision mechanisms may have neuroanatomical correlates, especially in regions that form a subset of the human mirror-neuron and mentalizing systems. While superior decision-making may be stereotypically associated with “smarter people” (i.e., higher cognitive intelligence), our data indicate that emotional intelligence has a significant role to play in the economic decisions of older adults.
Highlights
Scientific consensus refers to intelligence as a general mental ability (GMA) that enables complex problem solving, reasoning, experiential learning, the comprehension and generation of original ideas, and the anticipation and adaptation to environmental contingencies (Neisser et al, 1996; Gottfredson, 1997)
Of note is that the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI) and Mayer Salovey Caruso Emotional intelligence Test (MSCEIT) index and sub-scores do not crosscorrelate with each other or their counterpart fluid and crystalline sub-scores, suggesting that the test construction of these two instruments address disparate aspects of intelligence, perhaps with no overlap
Age is significantly positively correlated with its verbal comprehension sub-score (VIQ), which is putatively represented by crystallized intelligence (Kaufman et al, 1994)
Summary
Scientific consensus refers to intelligence as a general mental ability (GMA) that enables complex problem solving, reasoning, experiential learning, the comprehension and generation of original ideas, and the anticipation and adaptation to environmental contingencies (Neisser et al, 1996; Gottfredson, 1997). Amongst these higher order mental abilities, most importantly, intelligence refers to the ability to make sense of the world, and navigate its unknowns, ambiguities and risks constructively. Emotional Intelligence refers to an intelligence construct that involves the ability to read and access emotions to regulate oneself and others, and to utilize emotional information in successfully dealing with life, especially situations that involve social complexities (Salovey and Mayer, 1990; Bar-On, 2006)
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