We examined choice behavior in younger versus older adults using a medical decision-making task similar to Medicare Part D. The study was designed to assess age differences in choice processes in general and specifically designed to examine the effect of choice set size on performance. Data are drawn from a larger study on choice and aging, in which ninety-six younger adults (ages 18–64) and 96 older adults (ages 65–91) selected a prescription drug plan from either 6 or 24 different options. As hypothesized, choice set size was a significant predictor of individuals’ ability to choose the best plan. Participants who were presented with 24 plans were less likely to choose the correct prescription drug plan. Age did not have a negative effect on decision performance; however numeracy and speed of processing significantly affected performance across groups. Older adults were more likely to be characterized as satisficers on a decision personality measure, but this categorization did not predict performance on the choice task.

This research investigated how different forms of overconfidence correlate with age. Contrary to stereotypes that young people are more overconfident, the results provide little evidence that overestimation of one’s performance or overplacement of one’s performance relative to that of others is correlated with age. Instead, the results suggest that precision in judgment (confidence that one knows the truth) increases with age. This result is strongest for probabilistic elicitations, and not present in quantile elicitations or reported confidence intervals. The results suggest that a lifetime of experience, rather than leading to better calibration, instead may increase our confidence that we know what we’re talking about.

The European Union’s at-risk-of-poverty threshold is set at 60 per cent of national median disposable equivalent income. Changes in median income therefore shift the threshold, which is likely to affect at-risk-of-poverty rates. This effect is likely to vary across population subgroups due to, for instance, connectedness to the labour market. This exploratory study investigates whether there are typical patterns related to changes in age-specific at-risk-of-poverty rates. The study uses European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions microdata and focusses on the development of poverty rates in 30 European countries in the mid-2010s. Results show that especially the old-age poverty rates followed patterns that were different from those of child or working-age poverty rates. There were differences between age groups regarding both the magnitude and direction of at-risk-of-poverty rates. Additionally, the association between changes in at-risk-of-poverty rates and changes in poverty thresholds, income and employment significantly differs between the older population and the two other age groups.

Sex and age differences in food preferences may be reflected in the demographics of outbreaks. Outbreaks from 1998–2015 with a single confirmed implicated food source in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System were analysed using logistic regression to assess associations between a food category, sex and age. Males were more likely to be involved in outbreaks attributed to beef, pork, game, dairy and shellfish; females were more likely to be involved in grains-beans, nuts-seeds, fruits, sprouts and vegetable row crops outbreaks. Children <5-years-old were more likely than other age groups to be involved in dairy outbreaks, children 5–19-years-old were most likely to be involved in beef and game outbreaks, adults 20–49-years-old were most likely to be involved in fish, shellfish and sprout outbreaks and adults ⩾50-years-old were most likely to be involved in turkey outbreaks. Age and sex are associated with specific food categories in outbreaks. This information may be useful in helping to identify sources of foodborne disease outbreaks.

This study investigated patient characteristics in paediatric hospitalisations for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. We used Nationwide Inpatient Sample, which is the largest all-payer inpatient database in the United States, yielding nationally representative estimates, from 2001 to 2014. ICD-9-CM diagnostic codes identified hospitalisations for patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and <18 years. Outcomes included yearly rate of hospitalisation, death, admission via emergency department, and need for surgery. Predictors of interest were age groups (<1, 1–9, and ⩾10 y/o), sex, and race/ethnicity. Logistic regression modelled associations, adjusted by patient- and hospital-level variables. With 2302 weighted hospitalisations, hospitalisation rates were 0.22 per 100,000 children/year, with higher rates for <1 y/o (0.42) and ⩾10 y/o (0.31). Male-to-female ratios were more prominent in the oldest age group; 2.7:1 in ⩾10 y/o versus less than 1.7:1 for <10 y/o. In-hospital mortality was 1.5%, with highest mortality rates among the <1 y/o (6.3%). Children ⩾10 y/o had 5.59 times higher risk of admission from the emergency department than 1–9 y/o age group. Both ⩾10 and <1 y/o age groups had lower risk of surgical intervention compared to the 1–9 y/o group with odds ratio 0.56 and 0.26, respectively. Black children had higher risk of admission from the emergency department than White children with odds ratio 2.78. A relation between age group and sex was observed, with sex-based differences in prevalence and treatment of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy becoming more pronounced with age. Further studies are needed to clarify mechanisms behind age and racial disparity in hospitalisation, especially admission source.

Many couples want to retire together even if spouses differ in age. Drawing on theories of leisure complementarity, gender roles and social status, this article uses comprehensive Swedish register data from 2002 to 2010 to explore synchronised retirement and its association with spousal age differences and other socio-demographic factors. Synchronisation rates in dual-earner couples (N = 83,986) were 10 per cent for retirement the same calendar year and 25 per cent for retirement the same or the following year. Contrary to theoretical expectations, synchronisation was more common in women-older couples than in men-older couples, although this was largely a consequence of the skewed distribution of age differences. Moreover, spouses' education, incomes, assets, employment and health were differently associated with synchronisation in same-age, men-older and women-older couples. In the total population, average retirement age differed very little between synchronising couples and other couples. Yet women who synchronised retired at an earlier age than other women, whereas men who synchronised retired later than other men. This was partly an effect of the predominance of men-older couples, but men in men-older couples were also more likely than women in women-older couples to delay retirement in order to synchronise.

The creation and adaptation of scales or inventories assessing specific circadian typologies has been a predominant focus within the field of chronopsychology. The present study addressed the psychometric properties of two scales of morningness-eveningness: the Morningness Composite Scale (CS; Smith, Reilly, & Midkiff, 1989) and the Early/Late Preferences Scale (PS; Smith, Folkard, Schmieder, Parra, Spelten, & Almirall, 1993). Internal consistency and factor invariance of the CS and PS were analyzed in two samples: a group of 203 university students (age range = 19-30) and a group of 125 working adults (age range = 31-65). Results indicated satisfactory internal consistency for both full scales with each age group and confirmed the factor invariance across age for the two CS factors and one of the PS factors. A higher tendency in morningness on both scales was noted in the adult sample.

This study reviews theory and results from developmental psychology to examine age differences in workplace achievement goals. We investigated whether goal level decreases with age and, by comparing the relative strength of different goals within individuals, we examined whether dominant achievement goals are related to age. In a large sample of employees (N=747), older workers' higher affective commitment and intrinsic motivation compensated for age-related decline in the importance of achievement goals. Whether learning-approach and learning-avoidance were dominant goals was not related to age but instead to skill level, affective commitment and intrinsically satisfying work. Dominant performance-approach goals were more common among males. Performance-avoidance was most likely to be a dominant goal among older males. Moreover, with age, performance-goal orientations had increasingly maladaptive consequences for self-efficacy and affect at work.

Recognition performance does not usually change along the lifespan, but the response criterion usually does, and in general, it changes from being conservative during youth to being liberal, in old age. The focus of the present study is to analyze the changes that take place, both in discrimination and response criterion, as a result of aging in two recognition tasks: one with neutral images, and the other with faces showing positive and negative emotional expressions. Two groups of participants performed both tasks: young (N = 21; age range, 17-33 years), older (N = 21; age range, 65-91 years). The analyses of several discrimination parameters (d′ and probability of recognition) and the response criterion yielded significant age differences. Thus, results indicated that the ability to discriminate of older participants was better than that of younger participants when having to recognize neutral images, and faces with negative emotional expressions. The response criterion of younger participants was always conservative, whereas older participants only showed liberal criteria in front of faces with emotional expressions. In relation to the neutral images, the response criterion of older participants was optimum, because it led to more hits, without increasing the false alarms. The results are partially explained by the tasks differential difficulty, and are discussed within the frame of Simulation theory.

Reminiscence is the process of thinking or telling about past experiences. The goal of this study was to investigate which functions young adults attribute to their own reminiscences, and to the reminiscences of older persons. The views of young adults on the reminiscences of older adults were also compared with the self-reports of older persons on their reminiscences. We used the Reminiscence Functions Scale (Webster, 1993,1997), which measures eight functions: Boredom Reduction, Death Preparation, Identity, Problem-Solving, Conversation, Intimacy Maintenance, Bitterness Revival, and Teach/Inform. Seventy-six undergraduate students reported on their own uses of reminiscences. A few weeks later, they gave their views regarding the functions for older persons on the same scale. Eighty-three adults over the age of 65 completed the scale regarding their own uses. Age-appropriate higher uses of the functions of Boredom Reduction, Identity and Problem-Solving characterized the young adults. Older adults most characteristically used reminiscence for Teach/ Inform, i.e. for transmission of life experiences. Compared to themselves, young adults believed that older adults reminisced more for practically all functions, which reflects the stereotypical view. When these beliefs were checked against the reports of older adults, it became clear that young adults overestimated almost all uses, especially Boredom Reduction, Death Preparation, and Teach/Inform. These findings reflect the prevalence of ageist assumptions regarding the uses of reminiscence by older persons.

The aim of the present investigation was to determine whether differences in the strength of original information influence adult age differences in susceptibility to misinformation. One-half of the younger and older adults watched a slide sequence once (one-trial learning) that depicted a theft, whereas the remaining participants viewed the slide sequence repeatedly to ensure that all critical details were encoded (criterion learning). Three weeks later and immediately prior to final testing, participants were asked questions that contained misleading information. As expected, the degree of initial learning influenced age differences in misinformation reporting. That is, when event memory was poorer for older than younger adults (in the criterion learning condition), older adults were more susceptible to misinformation than younger adults. However, when memory of the event was poor (in the one-trial learning condition), the younger adults reported more misled details than the older adults, possibly because the younger adults had better memory for the misleading information. Therefore, strength of initial memory influences the extent and direction of adult suggestibility and helps explain the discrepancy found across studies in this area.

The effects of age and breed on carcass and muscle characteristics of cull cows slaughtered at the same fattening state between 4 and 9 years of age were analysed in four French breeds: Aubrac (AU), Charolais (CH), Limousin (LI), and Salers (SA). Muscle characteristics were determined in three muscles: longissimus thoracis (LT), semitendinosus (ST) and triceps brachii (TB). They included: (1) the % frequency, cross-sectional area and % area of the different fibre types classified according to their contraction rate and metabolic properties (slow twitch oxidative (SO), fast twitch oxidative glycolytic (FOG) and fast twitch glycolytic (FG)), (2) the isocitrate dehydrogenase (ICDH) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activities, representative of oxidative and glycolytic metabolism respectively, and (3) the total and insoluble collagen contents. Whatever the age of the animals at slaughter, the same carcass composition, fibre characteristics (% frequency, area, % area) and metabolic enzyme activities were obtained whatever the muscles considered. In contrast, important differences between breeds were observed in carcass composition (muscle, fat, bone) and enzyme activities. CH cows presented the highest final live weight and LI carcasses were characterized by higher muscle weight, lower fat and bone weights and more glycolytic muscles. Among the muscle characteristics, collagen was the most influenced by age and breed in a breed and muscle dependent manner respectively. AU and LI cows exhibited lower total and insoluble collagen contents than CH and SA cows, particularly at 6 to 7 years of age and for the LT and ST muscles. Thus collagen could explain an important part of the variability in meat quality from cull cows. In conclusion, results of this study provide consistent data on muscle characteristics of cull cows, few studies were available until then.

To determine the effect of age at castration on physiological and immunological stress indices, 60 Holstein-Friesian bull calves were sourced so that they were in one of five age groups for Burdizzo castration on day 0 (16 July 2002; no. = 10 per treatment) : 1·5, 2·5, 3·5, 4·5, and 5·5 months of age (mean body weight ± s.e. = 63 ± 2·5, 89 ± 3·7, 104 ± 3·7, 142 ± 3·6, 169 ± 8·1 kg, respectively), or were sham castrated at 5·5 months of age (171 ± 2·9 kg body weight) to serve as intact controls specific to this age group. Blood samples were collected at 15- to 30-min intervals from 2 h before until 8 h after treatment, with further samples collected at 10 and 12 h on day 0, and on days 1, 2 and 3, and weekly from days 7 to 35 after treatment. Following castration, peak plasma cortisol responses were significantly greater in 5·5-month-old castrates than intact calves, and all calves castrated at a younger age had reduced peak responses, with the greatest reduction in 1·5-month-old castrates. Overall, the integrated cortisol responses for the first 3 h after castration were three-fold greater in 5·5-month-old castrates than intact calves. While the integrated cortisol responses were reduced by proportionately 0·46 and 0·35 in 1·5- and 4·5-month-old castrates, the lower responses observed in 2·5- and 3·5- month-old castrates were not significantly different from the 5·5-month-old castrates. The integrated cortisol responses for the next 9 h after castration were not different among treatment groups. On day 3 after castration, peak plasma haptoglobin and fibrinogen concentrations were significantly greater in 5·5-month-old castrates than intact calves, but the concentrations were markedly reduced in calves castrated at 1·5 and 2·5 months than when castrated at 5·5 months of age. On day 1, phytohaemagglutinin-induced in vitro interferon-γ production was suppressed in 5·5-month-old castrates compared with intact calves. Scrotal circumferences increased in all castrates on day 1 and 7 and were greater in 5·5- month-old castrates than intact calves, but the swelling was reduced in the 1·5- compared with 5·5-month-old castrates. The temperature differences between the core body and scrotal skin were greater on day 2 and 3 in the 1·5-month-old than all other castrates. There was no effect of castration on the overall 42-day growth rates of calves. In conclusion, the physiological stress and inflammation caused by Burdizzo castration, indicated by increased plasma cortisol, acute-phase proteins, scrotal swelling, and depressed temperature differences between the core body and scrotal skin were reduced by castrating calves at 1·5 months rather than at 5·5 months of age.

The present study was conducted to examine the developmental patterning of food preferences in a large sample of British schoolchildren and to investigate possible gender differences. Using a cross-sectional survey design, the study was carried out in three primary and three secondary schools in West London, UK. A total of 1291 children aged from 4 to 16 years completed a 115-item food preference questionnaire in class time, supervised by class teachers and assistants. Children indicated whether they had ever tried each item and, if so, how much they liked it. We observed age-related increases in the number of foods tried (P<0·001), liked (P<0·005) and disliked (P<0·05). Controlling for the number of foods tried rendered the increase in dislikes non-significant and reversed the age effect on the number liked. Girls liked fruit (P<0·05) and vegetables (P<0·001) more than boys did; boys liked fatty and sugary foods (P<0·005), meat (P<0·001), processed meat products (P<0·001) and eggs (P<0·05) more than girls did. Some age differences were apparent in liking for categories of food, although the effects were not linear. Across ages and genders, children rated fatty and sugary foods most highly, although ratings for fruit were also high. Children's food preferences overall are not consistent with a healthy diet. Interventions should focus on increasing the familiarity, availability and accessibility of healthy foods and should be mindful of the need to target messages appropriately for boys who have less healthful food preferences than girls at all ages.

In the holm oak Quercus ilex dehesas of the Iberian Peninsula, several food types occur that can be selected by birds through the winter. In this framework, diet composition and diet selection of common cranes Grus grus was studied during a rainy wintering season. The winter diet of the common crane is mostly herbivorous in the holm oak dehesas of south-west Spain with <10% of items being of animal origin. Leaves and stems of sown cereal, bulbs, acorns and cereal grain are the most common vegetable food types. The diversity of the overall winter diet was similar among juveniles and among adults with and without juveniles in attendance. However, there were differences in diet composition between juvenile birds and their parents. Furthermore, the diet composition of adult cranes with juveniles in attendance was different from that of adult cranes without juveniles in attendance. Foraging abilities of juvenile cranes did not vary significantly through the winter, suggesting a low effect of experience on diet differences between age classes. Our results point toward the existence of diet differences among the three considered crane categories related with differential habitat selection by family groups. The monthly pattern of choice of each food type differed from those expected according to the monthly pattern of food availability in the study area. Cereal grain was the most preferred food type when it was available. When cereal seed germinated, cranes shifted to acorns and bulbs which were then more profitable.

Individual feeding specialisation in shorebirds is reviewed, and the possible mechanisms involved in such specialisations. Any specialisation can be seen as an individual strategy, and the optimum strategy for any given individual will be conditional upon its specific priorities and constraints. Some specialisations are related to social status and some to individual skills. Some are also probably frequency-dependent. However, most shorebird specialisations are constrained to a large extent by individual morphology, particularly bill morphology. For example, larger birds are able to handle larger prey, and birds with longer bills are able to feed on more deeply buried prey. Sex differences in bill length are uncommon in the Charardriidae, which are surface peckers, but are common in the Scolopacidae, which feed by probing in soft substrates. Sex differences in bill morphology are frequently associated with sex differences in feeding specialisation. There is evidence that different feeding specialisations are associated with different payoffs, in which case the probability of failing to reproduce or of dying will not be distributed equally throughout the population. I consider the population consequences of such feeding specialisations, particularly the different risks and benefits associated with different habitats or diets. I also consider the way in which individuals may differ in their response to habitat loss or change. I suggest that population models designed to predict the effect of habitat loss or change on shorebirds should have the ability to investigate the differential response of certain sections of the population, particularly different ages or sexes, that specialise in different diets or feeding methods.