In today’s society, throughout our lives, we're required to maintain high decision-making abilities and to keep making more and more decisions. However, as we get older and our cognitive functions decline, we know decision-making gets harder.

With this study we want to understand more about the changes in decision-making as we age, so we can look towards ways in which these changes might be mitigated.

Who can take part?

Both men and women can apply to take part. Other criteria:

• you must be aged between 20 and 30, or over 55
• you must not be diagnosed with a severe illnesses or disorder characterised by brain damage (for example, epilepsy, brain tumour or stroke)
• the study is running until 31 May 2019

What’s involved in the study?

Your participation will take approximately 1 hour.

You'll need to travel to the University campus to take part. Here, you'll fill out a very brief questionnaire asking you about your personality and your cognitive and emotional abilities.

You'll also take part in a computer-based task. You'll be randomly and anonymously matched with another person taking part in the experiment. The computer-based task simply gives you a series of scenarios suggesting different types of investment and you have to select the one in which you would invest your money.

What participants will get for taking part in the study?

For taking part, you’ll get a compensation of £10 (plus up to £10 for travel expenses). More money can be won by partaking in a gamble.