Poster 22

How Penalty For Error Affects Decision Making in Children and Adults

Ashley Francis and Cindy Lam

This abstract presents a proposal for a study to examine how penalty for error relates to children (4-12 years old) and adults’ decision-making when low-crawling underneath barriers of different heights. Low crawling involves using the arms to pull the body forward with the stomach touching the ground. Participants will be presented with barriers of different heights (0-74 cm) and told to crawl under the barrier if they think they can do it without touching the barrier. Individual will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions: negative, positive, or a control condition. Participants in the negative condition will be given prizes at the start of the session and told that every time they touch the barrier, one prize would be taken away. Those in the positive condition will be given a prize every time they successfully crawl under the barrier, and those in the control condition will be given prizes at the end of the study for participation. We hypothesize that if participants take into account the penalty for error that those in the negative condition will have the most accurate estimates. Additionally, we will determine whether upper body strength correlates with participants’ estimates using different tests of upper body strength. Our poster will review background literature on how penalty for error relates to children and adults’ decision-making.

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