Card Task Research Articles

Combined Effects of Social Exclusion and Social Rank Feedback on Risky Decision-Making Across Adolescence.

Adolescents' need to belong and concerns about social status are thought to increase risk-taking, however, not much is known about how feedback about social rank and the effects of social exclusion moderate risky decision-making. To this end, the present study examined how social rank feedback moderates the effects of social exclusion on risky decisions during adolescence. The experimental study included a total of 122 participants (11-19 years; 44% female). Participants were randomly assigned to receive either individual or social rank feedback in the Columbia Card Task after social inclusion and exclusion via the Cyberball paradigm. Contrary to expectations, social exclusion led to more cautious decision-making. Mid-adolescents were most influenced by the combination of social exclusion and social rank feedback, while late adolescents became more cautious with individual feedback. These findings suggest that peer influences also have adaptive effects, increasing sensitivity to risk information, with developmental differences in the role of social rank.

Cognitive tasks, anatomical MRI, and functional MRI data evaluating the construct of self-regulation

We describe the following shared data from N = 103 healthy adults who completed a broad set of cognitive tasks, surveys, and neuroimaging measurements to examine the construct of self-regulation. The neuroimaging acquisition involved task-based fMRI, resting state fMRI, and structural MRI. Each subject completed the following ten tasks in the scanner across two 90-minute scanning sessions: attention network test (ANT), cued task switching, Columbia card task, dot pattern expectancy (DPX), delay discounting, simple and motor selective stop signal, Stroop, a towers task, and a set of survey questions. The dataset is shared openly through the OpenNeuro project, and the dataset is formatted according to the Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) standard.

Long-Term Bridge Training Induces Functional Plasticity Changes in the Brain of Early-Adult Individuals.

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of extended bridge expertise on rapid perceptual processing and brain functional plasticity in early adulthood, utilizing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In this investigation, we compared 6 high-level college bridge players with 25 college students lacking bridge experience, assessing their intelligence and working memory. Additionally, we scrutinized behavioral performance and whole-brain activation patterns during an image perceptual judgment task. Findings indicated significant group and interaction effects at the behavioral level. Bridge players exhibited prolonged reaction times and enhanced accuracy on card tasks. At the neural level, the activation level of bridge players in the occipital lobe exceeded that of ordinary college students, with more pronounced group effects in the motor area and inferior parietal lobule during card tasks. This implies that bridge expertise in early adulthood induces functional plasticity changes in regions associated with visual processing and automated mathematical computation.

Risk-Taking Is Associated with Decreased Subjective Value Signals and Increased Prediction Error Signals in the Hot Columbia Card Task.

It remains a pressing concern to understand how neural computations relate to risky decisions. However, most observations of brain-behavior relationships in the risk-taking domain lack a rigorous computational basis or fail to emulate of the dynamic, sequential nature of real-life risky decision-making. Recent advances emphasize the role of neural prediction error (PE) signals. We modeled, according to prospect theory, the choices of n = 43 human participants (33 females, 10 males) performing an EEG version of the hot Columbia Card Task, featuring rounds of sequential decisions between stopping (safe option) and continuing with increasing odds of a high loss (risky option). Single-trial regression EEG analyses yielded a subjective value signal at centroparietal (300-700 ms) and frontocentral (>800 ms) electrodes and in the delta band, as well as PE signals tied to the feedback-related negativity, P3a, and P3b, and in the theta band. Higher risk preference (total number of risky choices) was linked to attenuated subjective value signals but increased PE signals. Higher P3-like activity associated with the most positive PE in each round predicted stopping in the present round but not risk-taking in the subsequent round. Our findings indicate that decreased representation of decision values and increased sensitivity to winning despite low odds (positive PE) facilitate risky choices at the subject level. Strong neural responses when gains are least expected (the most positive PE on each round) adaptively contribute to safer choices at the trial-by-trial level but do not affect risky choice at the round-by-round level.

The assessment of affective decision‐making: Exploring alternative scoring methods for the Balloon Analog Risk Task and Columbia Card Task

AbstractAffective decision‐making (ADM) is recognized as the ability to effectively reappraise stimuli during these decisions to make choices that maximize long‐term outcomes. Currently, the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is the gold‐standard measure of ADM. Previous research has shown that other commonly used decision‐making tasks such as the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART) and Columbia Card Task (CCT) are unrelated to the IGT and may assess distinct decision‐making constructs from ADM. Yet the exact decision‐making constructs that these tasks assess may be dependent on the scoring method utilized. One‐hundred and eight‐four participants (18–58 years; M = 26.29, SD = 7.79) completed the IGT, BART, and CCT. The relationships between these tasks while utilizing both traditional and novel scoring methods for the BART and CCT were investigated. Results showed that whether using the novel or traditional scoring methods, the BART failed to produce any meaningful relationships with the IGT or CCT. The BART may capture unique decision‐making processes involved during conditions of uncertainty, whereas the other tasks involve decision‐making processes under conditions of known risk. Alternatively, the lack of meaningful relationships may be due to the stochastic design of the BART. Conversely, the novel and traditional scoring methods for the CCT, which were not significantly correlated with each other, were both related to the IGT. Ultimately, this study showed that the CCT can capture different decision‐making constructs depending on the scoring methods used. The traditional scoring method, the total number of cards flipped, assesses risk propensity, whereas the newly developed optimal–suboptimal difference score assesses ADM.

The HPA and SAM axis mediate the impairment of creativity under stress.

With the ever-changing social environment, individual creativity is facing a severe challenge induced by stress. However, little is known regarding the underlying mechanisms by which acute stress affects creative cognitive processing. The current research explored the impacts of the neuroendocrine response on creativity under stress and its underlying cognitive flexibility mechanisms. The enzyme-linked immuno sorbent assay was employed to assess salivary cortisol, which acted as a marker of stress-induced activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Eye blink rate (EBR) and pupil diameter were measured as respective indicators of dopamine and noradrenaline released by the activation of the sympathetic-adrenal-medullary (SAM) axis. The Wisconsin card task (WCST) measured cognitive flexibility, while the alternative uses task (AUT) and the remote association task (RAT) measured separately divergent and convergent thinking in creativity. Results showed higher cortisol increments following acute stress induction in the stress group than control group. Ocular results showed that the stress manipulation significantly increased EBR and pupil diameter compared to controls, reflecting increased SAM activity. Further analysis revealed that stress-released cortisol impaired the originality component of the AUT, reducing cognitive flexibility as measured by perseverative errors on the WCST task. Serial mediation analyses showed that both EBR and pupil diameter were also associated with increased perseverative errors leading to poor originality on the AUT. These findings confirm that physiological arousal under stress can impair divergent thinking through the regulation of different neuroendocrine pathways, in which the deterioration of flexible switching plays an important mediating role.

Symposium 04: Innovative Ways of Applying Digital Technology in Neuropsychology - A Sneak Peak into the Future

Summary Abstract:The explosion of digital technology in the past decade has led to unprecedented possibilities towards improving cognitive assessment and understanding brain health. Digital technology encompasses using a multitude of devices, such as laptops, smartphones, etc, to collect health-related data. The settings can be varied to include in-clinic, remote/virtual, or a combination of hybrid models for data collection. Data can be collected at a single time point or over a continued period of time. Furthermore, the unique combination of devices used, settings, and methods of collecting digital data can become even more exclusive against the backdrop of the 'purpose’ for conducting the digital study. This symposium, consisting of four abstracts, brings together the unique combination of digital studies with exclusive devices, methodologies, settings, and purposes. The topics range from how smartphone-based assessments can be applied to understand the interaction between day-to-day variability in sleep and cognition, to the use of computerized testing to investigate the associations between cognitive performance and markers of brain pathology (e.g. amyloid and tau status), to understanding cognition from an open-source smartphone application to passively and continuously capture sensor data including global positioning system trajectories, to the development and validation of an online simulated money management credit card task, and to determining the effects of cognitive rehabilitation via digital technology on cognition, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and memory strategies.

4 Ushering in Modern and Objective Ways of Assessing Financial Decision Making in Clinical Settings: The Development and Validation of an Online Money Management Credit Card Task

Objective:Historically, assessment of financial decision making (FDM) has largely relied on self- or informant-reports, and paper-and-pencil tests. However, subjective report is prone to under/over-estimation biases, and most available tests probe increasingly outdated tasks such as writing checks and checkbook management. Advances in technology have made online methods one of the most common and preferred styles of managing money. There is thus a critical need to develop modern and objective methods to assess financial decision making that can be used in clinical settings. The current study aimed to develop and validate a novel, simulated online money management (OMM) credit card task mimicking a real-world task.Participants and Methods:Development. The OMM task was conceptualized based on collaborations with a diverse team of experts spanning neuropsychology, geriatrics, computer science, and economics. Administration. The task involves several sub-tasks including logging into a simulated credit card account, navigating a few pages to download a statement for a specific month, answering questions about where certain pieces of information are in the statement, identifying erroneous transactions in the account activity section, and answering questions involving practical aspects of managing a credit card. Pilot phase. Using an iterative process, the task was refined and piloted in ten participants. Validation. Performance was examined in relation to an existing online automated teller machine (ATM) task. Design & Setting. Cross-sectional, community-based prospective study.Measures:OMM task. The newly developed OMM credit card task consists of two broad areas, (i) online navigation and (ii) content-focused (simple literacy, complex literacy, monitoring, awareness). ATM task. This measure consists of sequential tasks such as checking the balance in one’s account, transferring money between accounts, and withdrawing cash. Both the OMM and ATM tasks were administered remotely by a neuropsychologist using Zoom and Team Viewer on a Dell laptop.Participants:Thirty-five cognitively healthy older adults were included with mean age=70.06 years (SD=3.82) and mean education=21.89 (SD=1.76). 72% were women, the majority were White (77%) while 20% were Black and 3% belonged to other races; 91% were non-Hispanic.Statistics & Metrics:Bivariate correlations between the OMM task, ATM task and demographic variables were examined. Time and steps/clicks to complete the OMM task were the primary outcome metrics.Results:All participants were able to complete the OMM task. No significant associations were found between demographics (age, gender, education) and OMM metrics, and among OMM metrics (time and clicks). Significant associations in the expected direction were present between the OMM and ATM tasks. Time taken to answer the questions on the OMM task was associated with time required to complete the ATM task (r = 0.57, p < 0.001). Increased number of clicks on the OMM task was associated with increased number of errors (r = 0.54, p < 0.001) and increased time to complete the ATM task (r = 0.41, p = 0.01).Conclusions:This is one of the first studies to develop and demonstrate the validity of a technologically based and practically relevant measure of financial decision making. Studies are ongoing to more comprehensively understand the psychometric properties of this novel task.

Am I Winning or Losing? Probing the Appraisal of Partial Wins via Response Vigor

Attempts to obtain rewards are not always successful. Despite investing much time, effort, or money, sometimes individuals may not obtain any reward. Other times they may obtain some reward, but the obtained reward may be smaller than their initial investment, such as partial wins in gambling. It remains unclear how such ambiguous outcomes are appraised. To address this question, we systematically varied the payoffs for different outcomes in a computerized scratch card task across three experiments. To test outcome appraisal, we used response vigor as a novel proxy. In the scratch card task, participants turned three cards one by one. Depending on the turned cards, they either received an amount that was higher than the wager (win), an amount lower than the wager (partial win), or nothing (loss). Overall, participants responded to partial wins more slowly than losses, but more quickly than wins. Partial wins were therefore appraised to be better than losses, but worse than wins. Importantly, further analyses showed that outcome appraisal was not based on the net win or loss amount. Instead, participants primarily used the configuration of turned cards as a cue for the relative rank of an outcome within a specific game. Outcome appraisals thus utilize simple heuristic rules, rely on salient information (such as outcome-related cues in gambling), and are specific to a local context. Together, these factors may contribute to the misperception of partial wins as real wins in gambling. Future work may examine how outcome appraisal may be modulated by the salience of certain information, and investigate the appraisal process in contexts beyond gambling.

Conceptual knowledge of writing words and numbers: Developmental data from preschool children

Children’s conceptual knowledge of writing words and numbers is an important aspect of their cognitive development. Children use notations as representations that have a communicative value and begin to learn about formal differences between writing words and writing numbers at an early age before the onset of formal schooling. The aim of the present study was to examine preschool children’s conceptual knowledge of writing words and numbers in an ecologically valid task with communicative value. One hundred and twenty Greek-speaking preschool children between the ages of 3 and 6 years old were assessed on the identity card task, which examined their production of notations for words and numbers during their effort to communicate personal information to others. The results demonstrated a developmental trend in the type of notation children produced with the younger children providing more “ambiguous” notations, for both tasks implying writing words and numbers, while as they got older, they provided more “writing-like” notations for the tasks implying writing words and more “number-like” notations for the tasks implying writing numbers. Understanding when and how children differentiate their symbolic representations for words and numbers can inform both theory and practice by expanding our understanding of whether certain constraints characterize the developmental course of a specific notational system. The findings of the present study could be incorporated in educational practice and enhance children’s emerging literacy and numeracy skills.

Risk-taking is associated with decreased delta value signal and increased theta prediction error signal in the hot Columbia Card Task

Risk-taking is associated with decreased delta value signal and increased theta prediction error signal in the hot Columbia Card Task

The placebo effect of human augmentation: Anticipating cognitive augmentation increases risk-taking behavior

Human Augmentation Technologies improve human capabilities using technology. In this study, we investigate the placebo effect of Augmentation Technologies. Thirty naïve participants were told to be augmented with a cognitive augmentation technology or no augmentation system while conducting a Columbia Card Task. In this risk-taking measure, participants flip win and loss cards. The sham augmentation system consisted of a brain–computer interface allegedly coordinated to play non-audible sounds that increase cognitive functions. However, no sounds were played throughout all conditions. We show a placebo effect in human augmentation, where a sustained belief of improvement remains after using the sham system and an increase in risk-taking conditional on heightened expectancy using Bayesian statistical modeling. Furthermore, we identify differences in event-related potentials in the electroencephalogram that occur during the sham condition when flipping loss cards. Finally, we integrate our findings into theories of human augmentation and discuss implications for the future assessment of augmentation technologies.

Deliberative and Affective Risky Decisions in Teenagers: Different Associations with Maladaptive Psychological Functioning and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation?

Using network analysis, we investigated the relationships between maladaptive psychological functioning, difficulties in emotion regulation, and risk-taking in deliberative and affective behavioral decisions. Participants (103 adolescents aged between 13 and 19 years, 62% boys) took the Cold (deliberative) and Hot (affective) versions of the Columbia Card Task and completed the Youth Self-Report (YSR) and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). In contrast to the view that risk propensity increases from preadolescence to middle adolescence and decreases at later ages, our study revealed no age-specific trend. YSR syndrome scales were significantly correlated with risk propensity, but only in the Cold version. The YSR Thought Problems scale was the most central node in the network, linking internalizing and externalizing problems with risk propensity in the Cold CCT. Lack of emotional Clarity was the only DERS consistently linked with risk-taking both in correlation and network analyses. Maladaptive psychological functioning and difficulties in emotion regulation were linked with risk propensity in affective risky decisions through deliberative processes. The statistical significance of direct and indirect effects was further examined using nonparametric mediation analyses. Our study highlights the role of cognitive factors that in each variable set might account for risk-taking in teenagers.

Entrepreneurial orientation and decision‐making under risk and uncertainty: Experimental evidence from the Columbia Card Task

AbstractWe analyze the relationship between entrepreneurship and decision‐making under risk and uncertainty using the Columbia Card Task: an experimental task eliciting affective decision‐making under conditions of risk and uncertainty. In a sample of 127 university students, we find robust evidence that individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) is negatively related to decision‐making under risk and uncertainty. In addition, we show that distinguishing the subscales of IEO is key to understanding this relationship, since while the relationship is negative for the Proactiveness and Innovativeness subscales, it is positive for the Risk taking subscale. Moderation analyses show that heterogeneous sensitivity towards possible gains and losses explains the main relationship.

Formalizing the fundamental Faustian bargain: Inefficacious decision-makers sacrifice their freedom of choice to coercive leaders for economic security.

Individuals typically prefer the freedom to make their own decisions. Yet, people often trade their own decision control (procedural utility) to gain economic security (outcome utility). Decision science has not reconciled these observations. We examined how decision-makers’ efficacy and security perceptions influence when, why, and how individuals exchange procedural and outcome utility. Undergraduate adults (N = 77; Mage = 19.45 years; 73% female; 62% Caucasian, 13% African American) were recruited from the psychology participant pool at a midwestern U.S. metropolitan university. Participants made financial decisions in easy and hard versions of a paid card task resembling a standard gambling task, with a learning component. During half the trials, they made decisions with a No-Choice Manager who controlled their decisions, versus a Choice Manager who granted decision control. The hard task was designed to be too difficult for most participants, undermining their efficacy and security, and ensuring financial losses. The No-Choice Manager was designed to perform moderately well, ensuring financial gains. Participants felt greater outcome satisfaction (utility) for financial gains earned via Choice, but not losses. Participants (85%) preferred the Choice manager in the easy task but preferred the No-Choice Manager (56%) in the hard task. This change in preference for choice corresponded with self-efficacy and was mediated by perceived security. We used Decision Field Theory to develop potential cognitive models of these decisions. Preferences were best described by a model that assumed decision-makers initially prefer Choice, but update their preference based on loss-dependent attentional focus. When they earned losses (hard task), decision-makers focused more on economic payoffs (financial security), causing them to deemphasize procedural utility. Losses competed for attention, pulling attention toward economic survivability and away from the inherent value of choice. Decision-makers are more likely to sacrifice freedom of choice to leaders they perceive as efficacious to alleviate perceived threats to economic security.

Revision and Validity Test for Experimental Tasks Related to Risky Social Decision-Making

<p>近年來，學者認為，行為決策的偏差導因於情緒-認知歷程間的失衡，哥倫比亞卡片任務(CCT)因此 被提出用以測量個人在風險決策中的情緒和認知歷程，但至今該任務測量的建構效度如何，仍不清楚， 並且原任務設計除了在實施上較為複雜且耗時外，在決策歷程中也僅考量分數的得失變化，未考量社會 因素(如:同儕與社會酬賞)對青少年風險決策歷程的影響。本研究主要目的在於，參考與修正(簡 化)原CCT任務設計，並增加同儕決策的社會參照與同儕認同的社會酬賞情境設計於修正版的CCT風險 決策任務中，衡鑑該社會風險決策任務的建構效度。本研究以269位八年級學生為對象，採多層次驗證 性因素分析考量資料巢套結構對分析結果的影響。研究結果顯示:(1)簡化後的原CCT任務可有效激 發情緒與認知歷程。(2)融入社會因素的CCT任務亦能有效激發社會參照與社會酬賞對決策的影響。 (3)本研究編修的社會風險決策任務具有良好的建構效度。根據研究結果，未來研究可運用該測量工 具，理解青少年行為的風險決策對認知與行為表現的影響。</p> <p> </p><p>Risky decisions increase with age and reach peaks in adolescence and early adulthood before declining again during adulthood. Although risky decisions are commonly made by adolescents, it may have long-term negative impacts on life later. The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), proposed about three decades ago, is the most common task used to investigate risky decision-making. It was developed based on the somatic marker hypothesis, which assumed that individuals’ behaviors are implicitly influenced by reward and punishment experiences, and these experiences would send emotional information to drive individuals’ decision-making behaviors toward beneficial long-term directions. However, only the emotional decision-making process was addressed in IGT, which may not sufficiently account for adolescents’ risky decision processes. Recently, cognitive neuroscience research suggested that risky decision-making involves two systems in the brain. Risky decision-making increases between childhood and adolescence as a result of changes around the time of puberty of the brain’s socio-emotional system that leads to increased reward-seeking, especially when peers are present. The socio-emotional system has been shown to rely on the ventral tegmentum area, subcortical structures (ventral striatum and amygdala) and cortical structures (the insular and medial/orbital frontal cortex). This system is operated automatically based on similarity and contiguity, and behavior is influenced by emotional impulse. Risky decision-making decreases between adolescence and adulthood because of changes in the brain’s cognitive-control system – changes which improve individuals’ ability for self-control, which occur gradually and over the course of adolescence and young adulthood. The cognitive-control system is assumed to rely on the dorsal and ventral area of the lateral prefrontal cortex and posterior parietal cortex. The differing timetables of these two brain systems make mid-adolescence a time of heightened vulnerability to make risky decisions. Consequently, researchers tended to argue that biased behavioral decision making was due to an imbalance between emotion and cognition processes. The Columbia Card Task (CCT) was proposed to measure individuals’ emotion and cognition processes in decision making. However, the construct validity of this measurement was unclear, and it was not only complex and time- consuming in the implementation of the original task design but also considered the changes of scores instead of including the effects of social factors (i.e., peers and social reward) on decision making processes. The main purpose of this study was referring and revising (simplifying) the original design of CCT and adding other tasks that incorporated social reference of peers’ decisions and social rewards of recognition into a revised CCT task to evaluate the construct validity of this social risky decision-making task. There were 269 eighth graders who consented to participate in this study, and multilevel confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to take into account nesting structure. The results showed: (1) The original design of CCT with minor revisions (reducing decision options from three to two) was effective in eliciting emotion and cognition processes. (2) Simplified CCT tasks incorporating social factors were also effective in eliciting the effects of social reference and social reward. (3) The social risky decision-making task held good construct validity. Future studies are encouraged to utilize this measurement to understand the effects of adolescents’ risky decision-making on cognition and behavior. For guidance and counseling practices, it is encouraged to understand the extent of risky decision-making for adolescents through present tasks to identify adolescents who are vulnerable to make risky decisions as early as possible and to regularly show care and help through guidance and counseling. Moreover, clarifying which adolescents are more likely to make risky decisions because of the presence of peers or social rewards helps to understand the potential impacts of risky decisions under different decision conditions. This study is beneficial for guidance and counseling practitioners to provide more precise interventions.</p> <p> </p>

Decision-Making Under Risk and Uncertainty by Substance Abusers and Healthy Controls.

Cognitive impairment characterized by high impulsivity and risk-taking has been correlated with substance-related disorders. However, it is unclear if the decision-making process is well known upon consideration of factors such as uncertainty environments, risk, and time manipulation in different decision-making procedures. The main objective of this study was to identify behavioral differences between substance abusers and healthy control participants in a behavioral test battery, including (1) two uncertainty decision-making tasks, the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART) and the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT, trial 1–40); (2) three risk-taking tasks, the Columbia Card Task Hot version (CCT-hot), Columbia Card Task Cold version (CCT-cold), and the IGT (trial 41–100); and (3) an impulsivity task, the Delay Discounting task (DD). The second objective looked at how the six behavioral tests correlate. We worked with a sample of 54 adult participants (Substance abusers: n = 28; Healthy controls: n = 26). An anonymous survey website was created to execute all the cognitive tasks. The results showed no statistically significant differences between the groups in any of the tasks. However, the results showed an upward trend of impulsive (i.e., steeply discounting curve) and risk-taking behaviors (i.e., a low learning curve in IGT) in substance abuse participants. The factor analysis results showed four different main factors: (1) risk-taking task in the IGT (trial 40–100), (2) uncertainty task in BART, (3) impulsivity in DD, IGT (trial 1–40), and (4) deliberate process in the Columbia card task (cold and hot). We conclude that factors such as the uncertainty tasks in the BART and the first block of IGT trials, the risk cues in the CCT tasks (i.e., number of loss, number of gains, and loss cards), and the time to delivery in the DD task, can affect the complex decision-making process in both clinical and healthy groups.

Decision-making under risk and theory of mind in adolescent offenders in provisional deprivation of liberty.

Delinquent behaviors are risky behaviors that increase during puberty and reach their highest peak in late adolescence. It has been proposed that poor decision-making and theory of mind (ToM) are key cognitive processes implicated with delinquency during adolescence, affecting evaluation of risks and impairing appreciation of social norms. Nevertheless, it is not yet clear whether adolescent offenders who are subjected to provisional deprivation of liberty due to conflict with the law (adolescents in conflict with the law [ACL]) might, in fact, present a specific profile with regard to these cognitive processes. To assess deliberative decision-making and ToM among adolescents in conflict with the law and adolescents not in conflict with the law. The sample comprised 62 participants: ACL (n = 29) and a control group (CG) (n = 33). ToM was assessed with the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) and decision-making was assessed with the Columbia Card Task (CCT). Substance use, callous-unemotional traits, childhood maltreatment, and intelligence quotient (IQ) were also assessed. ACL had more ToM errors for negative mental states in comparison to CG, but not for error rates concerning neutral and positive mental states. With regards to decision-making, our results suggest that ACL group members did not vary their behavior based on the available information and that the risk information had an opposite effect on the number of cards chosen (risk-taking behavior) when compared to CG. These findings have important implications for development of interventions for these adolescents, suggesting that they tend to learn little from negative outcomes and have reduced capacity to process negative emotions.

Development of the Online Money Management Credit Card Task

Older adults (OAs), a wealthy but vulnerable segment of our population, are at risk to make compromised financial decisions. Evidence suggests that OAs increasingly use technology to perform everyday financial transactions, such as to manage their credit card statements. However, current tools are lacking in terms of assessing how older adults navigate and handle the online financial milieu. We will discuss the development of a novel, simulated online money management (OMM) credit card statement task. OMM examines OAs performance on several indices including reaction time, nature and frequency of errors, and their ability to comprehend and trouble shoot problems. Psychometric properties related to the reliability and validity will be discussed. Ultimately, by examining the longitudinal performance of OMM in OAs, we can better characterize the natural course of OMM. Such an approach will enable clinicians to accurately and objectively examine OMM and identify those at risk for making financial errors.

Technology-Based Applications for the Assessment and Management of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders

Over the last decade, technological advances have made it possible for people to access health information right at their fingertips. Indeed, technology-based applications (apps) have been developed to tackle a wide range of health-related issues, including Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders (ADRD). As such, there is a critical need to develop and test effective dementia apps that can ultimately be converted in to scalable programs. In this interdisciplinary symposium, we will discuss the development and testing of novel apps for the assessment and management of ADRD. The first session will discuss the development of an online money management credit card task to assess cognitively vulnerable older adults who are at risk for making poor financial decisions. The second session will describe the development and psychometric testing properties of a mobile app to detect the earliest features of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease. The third session will highlight findings from a study testing a smartphone-based prompting app to improve everyday task completion in persons with mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia. The last session will share findings from a study testing a mobile app to increase goal-directed behavior and reduce apathy in persons with dementia. Together, these presentations describe how technology-based applications can be used to assess and manage cognitive and behavioral symptoms of ADRD.