The effects of decision reversibility and decision importance on children's decision making

While adult decision making literature is extensive, little is known about decision making in children. The purpose of the present research was to examine how young children's decision making is affected by decision reversibility, and to a lesser extent, decision importance. In Experiment I, it was found that preschool, first, and third graders in an irreversible condition took more time and were more consistent in their decision making than children in a reversible condition. In Experiment 2, it was found that first and third grade children in an irreversible condition took more predecisional information than children in a reversible condition. Similar results were found in Experiment 3, as first and third graders thought more time and information was needed for irreversible and/or important decisions than reversible and/or unimportant ones. These results suggest that even young children are affected by manipulations of the decision situation, although age-related differences found across the experiments also suggest that basic decision processes, such as the ability to seek out predecisional information, develop rapidly with age.