To explore or exploit: Individual differences in preschool decision making

Research suggests a pattern of moderate early exploration (shifting from deck to deck) followed by exploitation (consistent choice from advantageous decks) characterizes good decision makers. The main goal of the current study was to use a person centered (latent profile analysis) to explore individual differences in strategy use for preschoolers (n = 274) on a variant of the Iowa Gambling task (IGT). The analysis resulted in three profiles: a profile made up of younger children who showed moderate initial exploration, but no exploitation, a profile of children who showed consistent high exploration, and a profile made up older children who showed initial exploration followed by high exploitation in the last half of the game. The profiles showed striking differences in choice and awareness on the preschool IGT variant. Examination of strategy use during decision making in young children has the potential to provide insight into early adaptive functioning.