Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify differences in cautiousness between two age groups according to the type of tasks. The effect of curiosity motivation on cautiousness was also investigated in order to find out the mechanism of age differences in cautiousness. Subjects were 30 elderly men (average 63.3 years old) and 30 young men (average 21.1 years old). Curiosity motivation was divided into two subdimensions - information seeking and stimulation seeking. Cautiousness was measured through Choice Dilemmas Questionnaire and Face Recognition Task. Results were as follows : First, the elderly men were more cautious than the young in the Choice Dilemmas, while there was no age difference in the Face Recognition Task. Second, the elderly men were lower in both levels of curiosity motivation - information and stimulation seeking - than the young. Finally, the result of path analysis showed that cautiousness measured by face recognition task was affected by age only indirectly via information seeking. On the other hand in the Choice Dilemmas age variable had direct effect on cautiousness. Them results suggest that researchers consider the motivational and situational variables to understand the age-related differences in cautiousness.