A New Measure of Individual Differences for Predicting Children’s Risk Taking Behaviors

• In Event: Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Topic - Cognitive Processes

Abstract

Behavioral Inhibition and Activation systems have been long proposed to underlie individual differences in our sensitivity to cues of risk and reward (Gray, 1981). The Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS), is suggested to be sensitive to cues of punishment, lose, and novelty, and consequentially result in inhibition of behaviors that are perceived to lead to negative outcomes. Complementary, the Behavioral Activation System (BAS) regulates appetitive motivation and suggested to be sensitive to cues of reward, and consequentially result in increased engagement towards one’s goals. Here, we present a new measurement that was designed to assess these two motivational components in young children, directly via their verbal responses.

Ninety-nine 3-8-year-olds (Mage=5.65, SD=1.35, 47% girls, 76% of the designated sample) were presented with the “BIS-BAS-Book” (BBB) – a picture book that was inspired from the BIS-BAS-questionnaire for adults (Carver & White, 1994). In the BBB, a protagonist of the same gander, hair-color, and name as the participant was presented in 14 different scenarios, and for each scenario the participant was asked to choose one of two behavioral paths for the protagonist (Figure 1). An indirect measurement via a caregiver was also taken (i.e., BIS-BAS questionnaire), and two “BIS-BAS-bias” scores were computed from the direct and indirect measurements (e.g., Davidson et al., 1993).

To estimate whether BIS-BAS-bias scores can predict children’s behavioral choices in a real-life context, a binary preference-choice task was used. In this task, participants were presented with a basket full of prizes, and were asked to choose one prize for themselves to take home. Importantly, the basket contained 12 prizes overall, 11 of them were transparent to participants (i.e., known, thus represent a “safe” choice) and one prize was wrapped with plain paper (i.e., unknown, thus represent a “risky” choice).

A general linear model (GLM) was used to analyze the data. The model included participants’ Choice as dependent variable (i.e., safe or risky choice) and as predictors – participants’ Age in months, Gender, BBB score, Caregiver score, and all interactions. Likelihood Ratio Test comparison between the full and null model was significant (Χ2(83)=26.69, p<0.01). Four-, Three- and Two-way interactions were non-significant, and only two M.Es were found, one for Caregiver score (estimate ± SE=0.32±0.15, z=2.06, p<.05) and a second, stronger effect, for BBB score (estimate ± SE=0.44±0.17, z=2.62, p<.01), suggesting that across age and genders, “BAS-oriented” children were more likely to choose a risky reward for themselves, whereas “BIS-oriented” children were more likely to choose a safe reward (Figure 2).

These findings provide a proof-of-concept for a new direct measurement of motivational-orientations which derived from known theoretical framework (Carver & White, 1994; McClelland & Cameron, 2012), suited for young children and found predictive in a real-life decision-making context. We will discuss the BBB in relation to other measures in developmental research such as indirect measures, observational paradigms, and “game-like” physical tasks (Cameron Ponitz et al., 2008; Tang et al., 2020), and discuss the potential of including differences in motivational-orientations (via the BBB) in common distributive tasks that address decision-making processes (e.g., Dictator games).

Authors

• Reshit Cahanian, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  Non-Presenting Author

• Avi Benozio, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  Presenting Author