Tag Archives: decision making

By Karene Booker

Anna Zhu practices teaching an experimental curriculum

Nine undergraduate students from the College of Human Ecology serving as extension interns spent their summer engaged in everything from teaching teens how to make better decisions to playing games with toddlers in order to answer key child development questions. Four of the internships were led by faculty in the department of human development.

The interns worked with faculty and community collaborators, particularly Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) associations, on creative projects that embody the college’s research, education and outreach missions and benefit communities throughout New York State. “CCE internships provide excellent opportunities for undergraduate students to learn first-hand about the ways research, education, and outreach complement each other,” said Jennifer Tiffany, associate director for extension and outreach in the College of Human Ecology.

Distenfeld poster

Shelby Distenfeld's presentation poster

Human development major Shelby Distenfeld ’13, traveled to Tioga and Seneca counties to recruit rural and low-income children for a study about how factors such as income and parenting influence children’s concept of choice. The project, under the direction of Tamar Kushnir, assistant professor of human development, “was very rewarding because I was able to play a role in many aspects of research from administrative duties and participant recruitment to collecting data,” Distenfeld said. “The opportunity to work with the mothers and children and see first-hand the differences in development among the children was eye opening.”

“An important lesson I learned is how research is actually conducted and how to successfully run a research project,” said Hemavattie Ramtahal ‘13. As a human development major, she dedicated her summer to investigating the relationship between poverty, emotion, and cognitive development in young children with Marianella Casasola, associate professor of human development. Ramtahal worked in Tompkins, Cortland, and Yates counties recruiting families for the study, conducted the experimental tasks or “baby games” with the children, trained other research assistants and analyzed data.

“My burning curiosity about risky decision making started in high school,” said Anna Zhu ’14.  She wondered why teens make bad choices that jeopardize their health, future, or lives, and how to help them. A Human Biology, Health & Society major, she tackled these questions as part of her internship with Valerie Reyna, professor of human development. Zhu taught the experimental risk reduction curriculum in CCE’s 4-H Career Exploration program, prepared data for analysis, and worked with local partners and extension staff in New York City and Broome counties to administer follow-up surveys. “From this experience,” she said “I’ve already gained valuable skills in teaching, statistical analysis, and social science research – tools I expect to use in my career in public health.”

Sarah Dephtereos ’13 spent her summer exploring how 4-H educators use research. A policy analysis and management major, she worked with Steve Hamilton, human development professor and associate director for youth development at the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research, to review the literature on research utilization and draft a guide to youth development websites for 4-H educators. Her review identified common problems practitioners experience with accessing research. “I saw these issues reflected in the youth development websites I assessed,” Dephtereos said.”

Other extension internships in the college included teaching new immigrants ways to maintain a healthy diet, creating gardens at low-income schools, developing a high tech fabric class for girls, piloting nutrition and parenting education program, and researching child custody decisions in low-income families.

Information for faculty about applying for the 2012 CCE internship program will be available in December.

Karene Booker is an extension support specialist in the department of human development.

Related websites:
Jennifer Tiffany:
CCE Summer Internship Program

By Karene Booker
Reprinted from Cornell Chronicle, October 11, 2011

Reyna

Reyna

From emergency evacuation notices to how many vegetables to eat, people need good information to make good choices. Ineffective risk communication, such as the drug warning inserts in tiny type on paper folded over some 12 times, can cost lives, money and reputations.

A chapter on risk communication by Valerie Reyna, professor of human development in the College of Human Ecology and co-director of Cornell's Center for Behavioral Economics and Decision Research, in a new book explains how people of different ages have different needs when it comes to understanding risk messages.

The chapter is part of the new book "Communicating Risks and Benefits: An Evidence-Based User's Guide," published by the Food and Drug Administration and freely available online. The book distills the science on health communications and provides recommendations for designing and evaluating messages. It features the work of experts at the forefront of research in medical decision-making and health communications.

"Messages that have an impact are those that are understood and remembered," said Reyna. "But cognitive processing and memory change dramatically from childhood to old age."

Effective risk communication is essential to the success of public health efforts, she said.

Research suggests that information processing and memory for details improve from childhood through young adulthood, but then gradually decline. However, the ability to remember the gist of information grows in childhood and remains strong throughout adulthood in the healthy brain. Remembering the gist of information is important because it lasts longer and is relied on to make most decisions, Reyna said. To instill the gist of a message, risk communication needs to be tailored by age.

Reyna's research suggests that children, for example, need information in simple short sentences, such as: "Eat fruits and vegetables." "Make half your plate fruits and vegetables." Such repetition will stamp these details into memory, but children will also need cues for meaning, such as "fruits and vegetables make you strong."

As children get older they will become increasingly able to connect the dots and extract the meaning of information, Reyna said. Older children, for example, will get the gist that apples, spinach, carrots and fish are healthy food, and fries, tacos, cola and cheeseburgers are generally not. Since children influence family food buying and make food choices at school, how they process risk messaging is important, Reyna said.

Adolescents make choices about diet and exercise, sex, driving, drinking and drugs to name a few. This is also a time when many attitudes and habits about risks and benefits take root, Reyna said.

Older adults on the other hand, face risk-benefit decisions about medications, surgical procedures and financial planning.

They need communications presented more slowly and need more memory aids due to slowing processing speed and challenges with remembering details. Written instructions, as well as alerts and reminders delivered electronically (e.g., to take medication or to signal that medication has already been taken) are likely to be helpful.

Unlike children however, older adults can rely on fairly high levels of gist knowledge. It is also essential to explain the reasons for health recommendations to them since extraction of gist is the main mechanism through which older adults remember information, Reyna said.

"To influence attitudes, values and preferences, and in turn, change behavior, the design of risk communications must take advantage of what we know about how the brain works and develops across the life span," said Reyna. "But that is just step one. We also need to use scientific methods to evaluate the effectiveness of such messages."

Karene Booker is an extension support specialist in the Department of Human Development.

Related Links:
College of Human Ecology
Valerie Reyna
Communicating Risks and Benefits - an evidence-based user's guide (PDF)


By Anna Zhu

My burning curiosity about risky decision making started in high school.  I witnessed some of my brightest friends make bad choices, slack off in school, and lose their way. I wondered, why do teens make these decisions that jeopardize their health, future, or lives, and how can we help them? I’m tackling these questions as part of an internship with Dr. Valerie Reyna, professor in the department of human development, College of Human Ecology.

One month into the internship, I taught a workshop on Reducing the Risk in Adolescence at the 4-H Career Explorations Conference, along with other members of Dr. Reyna’s lab. We gave the students a tour of our lab, offered advice on how to get involved in research and in college, and discussed the critical thinking and commitment involved in planning and carrying out a good research study.

The students in our workshop got to see social science research in action. We randomly assigned each student to one of two curricula being studied in Reyna’s lab – EatFit, a program promoting healthy eating and fitness or the Gist-Enhanced Reducing the Risk (RTRgist), a sexual health program based on Reyna’s research on adolescent memory and decision making. According to this research, when teens focus on details and statistics – a common feature of traditional health classes – they are more likely to make risky choices compared to when they focus on the overall meaning or “gist” of a situation.

As one of the EatFit teachers, I found the 4-H students incredibly enthusiastic about the hands-on activities. For example, students were shocked when we demonstrated exactly how many tablespoons of sugar are in a bottle of soda. The material we taught in both the RTRgist and Eatfit classes seemed to make a strong impression, but without further research, the results would be purely anecdotal. To test the effectiveness of the classes, the research team will conduct follow-up surveys with the students over the next 12 months and analyze results to identify changes in risky behaviors.

It’s exciting to look at the data analyses and realize that the work we do with teens can positively affect their behavior and lifestyle! I hope that one day health classes around the nation will benefit from the lessons we’re learning about how teens make decisions.

From this experience, I’ve already gained valuable skills in teaching, statistical analysis, and social science research – tools I expect to use in my career in public health. I’m excited to continue working with Dr. Reyna to increase my knowledge of risky decision making in adolescents.

Anna Zhu, ‘14, is a Human Biology, Health & Society major in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University. This summer she is participating in an extension internship with Dr. Valerie Reyna sponsored by Cornell Cooperative Extension.

Loeckenhoff

    
By Karene Booker

Older adults, compared with younger adults, tend to report they are more upbeat and that their emotions and mental health do not interfere with their work and social life. That better mental health allows them to wait longer for a monetary gain, reports a new Cornell study.

For example, even though younger people have their entire future ahead of them, they're more impatient than older adults when it comes to waiting for financial rewards, the study found.

The researchers, publishing in Psychology and Aging (26:2), sought to resolve how and why age influences people's tendency to devalue or discount future rewards and losses compared to immediate ones.

Although the researchers found no age differences in people's choices about losing money, they found that older adults are more likely than their younger counterparts to wait for a larger amount of money rather than take an immediate, smaller sum.

"Our findings suggest that the improved emotional functioning generally experienced by the older adults is the primary driver of their greater ability to forgo immediate temptation in favor of waiting for a later, greater amount of money," said lead author Corinna Loeckenhoff, assistant professor of human development in Cornell's College of Human Ecology, who conducted the study with Ted O'Donoghue, professor of economics, and David Dunning, professor of psychology.

"We also found that younger adults expected that emotional reactions to gains and losses would feel less intense if they happened in the future. Older adults were more likely to understand that gains and losses would probably feel the same no matter when they occurred."

Unlike other studies, the research examined the effect of age on people's choices about financial gains and losses using computerized testing with real money outcomes, rather than taking a survey approach; and it studied age differences in both gains and losses.

Study participants -- 98 people between the ages of 19 and 91 -- were asked to make a series of choices about receiving or losing money, all involving an immediate gain (or loss) versus a future gain (or loss). For example, they were asked to choose between getting $5 now or $7.50 in 90 days. The gains or losses in the future ranged from $4.75 to $7.50 with time delays ranging from seven to 180 days. Participants also completed questionnaires that assessed cognitive abilities, personality traits and aspects of mental health. At the end of the study session, one of each participant's choices was picked at random and the appropriate amount of money was given to the participant. Participants were given a starting balance of $8, so they would not lose their own money.

"Understanding this [phenomenon] better would have implications for a host of important choices, such as saving for retirement and choosing medical care," said Loeckenhoff, who was designated as a "rising star" by the Association for Psychological Science this past May.

If confirmed by future research, she said, the findings could lead to the developing age-appropriate decision aids. Younger adults, in particular, would benefit from interventions that help them better manage their emotions and recognize the emotional reality of future consequences.

This research was supported in part by Cornell's Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research and the Lois and Mel Tukman Endowed Assistant Professorship awarded to Loeckenhoff, who also received funding from the President's Council of Cornell Women and the Cornell ISS Small Grants Program to support her work on decision making in older adults.

Karene Booker is extension support specialist in the Department of Human Development.

Related Links:
College of Human Ecology
Department of Human Development
Corinna Loeckenhoff
Ted O'Donoghue

       
By Karene Booker

Reyna

Despite the success of vaccines in preventing a long list of diseases, why is opposition to vaccination gaining hold? Decision-making expert Valerie Reyna contends that it’s because anti-vaccination messages tell a compelling story compared with official sources, and they meet people’s need to understand rare adverse outcomes.

A Google search of “vaccine,” for example, produces links to government and science-based vaccine websites on the same screen as official-sounding anti-vaccination links.

Given the success of vaccines in preventing a long list of diseases, why is opposition to vaccination gaining hold? Decision-making expert Valerie Reyna contends that it's because anti-vaccination messages tell a compelling story compared to official sources, and they meet people's need to understand rare adverse outcomes.

"In the era of Web 2.0, the contagion of ideas, transmitted rapidly through social media, is as concerning as the contagion of diseases because of their power to reduce vaccination rates, leaving populations vulnerable to preventable death and disability," said Reyna, professor of human development in the College of Human Ecology and a co-director of the Center for Behavioral Economics and Decision Research.

This spring, the Centers for Disease Control reported that the United States is experiencing the highest number of measles cases in more than a decade. According to the alert, measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000 due to a high vaccination rate. This could change should vaccination rates decline.

Reyna presented her model of vaccine decisions at the University of Erfurt, Germany, in May to an international meeting of scientists examining the implications of the Internet and social media such as Twitter on public health messages about vaccination.

Being informed about vaccines involves more than having the facts. According Reyna's research, people primarily rely on the meaning or "gist" of a situation rather than details to make judgments and decisions.

"Gist is simple, but not simple-minded," Reyna said. "It involves connecting the dots -- building on background knowledge, life experience and values. When people lack background knowledge, they tend to rely on anecdotes, personal experience and the little information that is widely available."

Since most people don't understand how vaccines work, the Internet, which facilitates users across the globe to sharing personal experiences and ideas about health care, fills the vacuum.

According to Reyna, anti-vaccination messages are expected when people don't understand how vaccination works and when adverse events that are difficult to explain appear to be connected. Autism, for example, is diagnosed in children during the same time period that children receive a battery of vaccinations. Despite research to the contrary, anti-vaccination messages have claimed vaccines are to blame. Official sites, on the other hand, tend not to provide a convincing narrative story line that helps people connect the dots.

Under these circumstances, how do people approach the decision to vaccinate? In Reyna's model, the decision to get a flu shot, for example, could be a seen as a decision between feeling OK (by not getting the vaccine) or taking a chance on not feeling OK (due to a vaccine side effect). Without better information, many people would choose not to get a vaccine.

"Public health messages need to be designed so that the correct 'gist' pops out," Reyna said, "because the drive to extract meaning, combined with widespread lack of background knowledge about how vaccination works, is fertile ground for misleading explanations to take root."

The conference was supported by grants from the German Science Foundation, the European Center of Disease Prevention and Control, the University of Erfurt and other sources.

Karene Booker is extension support specialist in the Department of Human Development.

Related Links:
College of Human Ecology
Department of Human Development
Valerie Reyna

 

Reyna Lab

Reyna Lab 2011

Students from Valerie Reyna’s Laboratory for Rational Decision Making have been working in collaboration with New Roots Charter School in Ithaca as well as Cooperative Extension offices in New York City and Broome County to offer innovative curricula to teens.

The goal of the project is to reduce adolescent risk taking by providing effective interventions in the areas of sexual health as well as nutrition and fitness, while also gathering research data to improve the interventions. By working with Cornell Cooperative Extension, the team is assessing how best to move this program beyond the laboratory team and into the community.

The project is proving rewarding, not only for the youth who are taking the classes, but for the Cornell students involved in the research and teaching.

“Teaching health education to teenagers has also helped cement my interest in pursuing adolescent medicine as a career,” said Claire Lyons, ’12. Graduate student Anna Kharmats added, “the students [at New Roots] inspired me to apply to the New York City Teaching fellowship program to which I have been accepted."

Read more in this newsletter the students created about their activities at New Roots.

See a poster the students created about the Reducing the Risk intervention and work with Cornell Cooperative Extension.

ISS Judgment TeamHow do jurors arrive at a dollar amount they award to plaintiffs? This is among the questions Valerie Reyna, professor of human development, is investigating with colleagues in the Institute for the Social Sciences' 2009-12 theme project "Judgment, Decision Making, and Social Behavior" (JDSB).

"If it weren't for this particular project, where we were brought together to reach across disciplinary lines, I would not be working on this," Reyna said. "There's already been a successful payoff in terms of my research."

The project unites 12 Cornell faculty members, from such disparate disciplines as economics, psychology, government and law, to examine questions of common interest and find new approaches to problems. Read full article

By Karene Booker

Reyna

This summer a high energy team of Extension Educators and student researchers touched the lives of nearly 100 high school students in New York City and Ithaca.

The project integrates laboratory and field research conducted by Dr. Valerie Reyna, Professor of Human Development and Outreach Extension Leader, Cornell University with extension programming. It is not only Dr. Reyna’s research, but also her vision for engaging community partners in it that drives the project. The research examines factors associated with adolescent risky decision making. The translation of the research into programming aims to promote adolescent health.  Collaboration with Cornell Cooperative Extension and community agencies is bringing this project to young people in New York City, Ithaca, and this fall to Broome County.

With greater freedom and independence, adolescents face new risks. We know poor choices can have long-lasting consequences for individuals, families, and society.  The project offers two interventions, which serve as control groups for each other. One, Gist-Enhanced Reducing the Risk (RTR+) is targeted at reducing teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases and the other, EatFit, is targeted at promoting healthy eating and fitness. The project combines empirical research with practical knowledge gained through implementation of the two curricula to inform and facilitate future replications of the programs.

The RTR+ project arm has already proven effective at promoting sexual health. Continued research and enhancement of the program will strengthen the intervention and add to scientific knowledge. Although supported by the research literature, the obesity reduction curriculum is less highly researched. There is a dearth of research on interventions to reduce obesity in adolescents even though obesity is a major health problem in America. The healthy lifestyles and obesity reduction arm of the research is thus groundbreaking and will serve as a basis for future work. Both curricula incorporate hands-on skill building and experiential activities.

Here’s a look at the team members and what they are doing.

The NYC Cooperative Extension team is ably led by Family and Youth Development Program Leader, Jackie Davis Manigaulte. Extension Educators Michele Luc and Eduardo Gonzalez Jr. recruited community partners, recruited students, completed consents from parents and students for the research, taught the curricula, administered surveys, and much more. The Cooperative Extension team was joined for the summer in NYC by graduate student Chrissie Chick and undergrad Claire Lyons. The students assisted with the research and co-facilitated the curricula with the NYC staff at the four partner sites: Central Queens Y; Groundwork, Inc.; Child Center NY; and NYC Mission Society.

 

Jackie Davis-Manigaulte“CUCE-NYC’s Family & Youth Development program area is thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Dr. Reyna and her staff to pilot new and modified evidence-based educational resources on topics of such importance to the health and well-being of adolescents in New York City and throughout the state and country,” said Jackie.

Michele Luc"The RTR+ curriculum provided the participants with so many opportunities go beyond the traditional messages they've received in typical sex education classes by teaching them how to put refusal skills into action, said Michele. "As one student at the Forest Hills site put it: 'I wish we learned this stuff earlier because no one ever teaches us how to say no effectively and mean it.'"

Eduardo Gonzalez Jr."We worked with diverse populations of youth in East New York, Harlem, Jamaica and Forest Hills neighborhoods," added Eduardo."In each of the sites, project participants spoke favorably of their overall experiences and highlighted how the hands-on activities made the sessions both informative and engaging."

 

Christina ChickThe team was quick to troubleshoot and find solutions to the challenges encountered in this first replication at multiple sites throughout New York City," said Chrissie. "It's been a pleasure working with and learning from Eduardo and Michele. Their dedication is striking."

Claire Lyons

“Through my involvement on this project, I have observed the synergy of theory, research, and extension efforts in the community,” said Claire.  “It has helped me see how all of the individuals and groups involved in a community-research partnership can work together to achieve a mutual goal.”

Seth PardoHuman Development graduate student Seth Pardo is laboratory manager and project supervisor. He works closely with Dr. Reyna and the research team to develop additional enhancements to curricula based on evidence gathered on the nearly 900 youth in Reyna’s earlier National Institutes of Health funded study of the curriculum. He also implements the project in Ithaca, recruiting partner sites and participants, training personnel, delivering the curriculum, and analyzing data.

“Over the past 2 years on this project, I have learned a great deal about how judgment and decision making change over the life course,” noted Seth. “Adolescents are at a crucial juncture in their behavioral and cognitive development; this evidence-based intervention can  have an incredibly positive influence on their future.”

Gabrielle Tan

“I learned a lot about people and teaching and got a lot of practice perfecting such skills as perseverance, proactive behavior and teamwork” added undergraduate student Gabrielle Tan who assisted Seth with the Ithaca implementation.

Travis GetzkePartner sites in Ithaca included Ithaca High School and TST-BOCES. The two courses were taught to students enrolled in the regional summer school health education class. Travis Getzke and Nikki Fish, experienced Health Educators for TST-BOCES Summer School and enthusiastic accomplices, helped teach the curriculum. This coming school year, Travis will be teaching RTRgist and the EatFit curriculum for the TST BOCES Community School.

Nikki Fish“I loved the EatFit curriculum!” said Nikki who taught that component of the project.  “It was goal oriented, incorporated both nutrition and fitness, and involved the students in a lot of hands on activities. During class, I overheard one of my students comment to another student about half way through the curriculum: 'This was the best Health class ever.' When I asked her why, she responded: 'because in our regular Health class we never got the chance to do any activities like this!'"

Behind the scenes but still essential to the project, many dedicated staff handle human resources, finances, technology issues, and administration. Chief among them is Extension Support Specialist Karene Booker who adds her own brand of project management glue to keep the fast-paced operation on track.

The project has been beneficial to everyone involved. The theory and research behind the intervention allows communities to provide their youth with a highly effective intervention to reduce risk taking and improve health. By participating in the research project, youth gain the benefits of the intervention and also provide valuable information that can enhance both scientific knowledge and future interventions targeted to protect youth. Simultaneously, the project is a learning ground for the next generation of researchers and practitioners.

Thanks to all of the people and partner organizations who are making this initiative possible through their daily efforts and ongoing commitment to improving the health of young people.

For more information, please visit our website.

Claire Lyons, an undergraduate student in the Department of Human Development, was one of sixteen students who participated in the CCE Summer Internship Program which seeks to engage undergraduate students in outreach. Claire worked in Dr. Valarie Reyna's lab on the Reducing the Risk in Adolescence project. Her account follows.

My CCE summer internship provided me with an incredible learning experience. My big assignment for the summer was creating a complete up-to-date manual for the RTR+ sexual health curriculum. It was an exciting and fascinating project.

The RTR+ curriculum is a version of the standard RTR (Reducing the Risk) curriculum which is enhanced to emphasize the gist of risk and protection rather than precise, numeric facts.Evaluations of the RTR+ curriculum show that individuals in that intervention have better scores on a large number of measures of knowledge and risk taking.

My job this summer was to get the RTR+ curriculum ready to be taught again, and bygroups outside of our lab. This project involved updating facts, adding elements to furtherenhance the curriculum, and compiling information into a comprehensive manual. I also helpedcreate a video version of the manual. I learned so much through the process, about adolescentrisk taking, Dr. Reyna's fuzzy-trace theory, and sex education programs. I also learned abouthow effective outreach interventions are developed and evaluated. I am continuing to work in Dr.Reyna's lab and am excited for the curriculum to be taught again and evaluated.

Claire Lyons, an undergraduate student in the Department of Human Development, was one of sixteen students who participated in the CCE Summer Internship Program which seeks to engage undergraduate students in outreach. Claire worked in Dr. Valarie Reyna's lab on the Reducing the Risk in Adolescence project. Her account follows.

My CCE summer internship provided me with an incredible learning experience. My big assignment for the summer was creating a complete up-to-date manual for the RTR+ sexual health curriculum. It was an exciting and fascinating project.

The RTR+ curriculum is a version of the standard RTR (Reducing the Risk) curriculumwhich is enhanced to emphasize the gist of risk and protection rather than precise, numeric facts.Evaluations of the RTR+ curriculum show that individuals in that intervention have better scoreson a large number of measures of knowledge and risk taking.

My job this summer was to get the RTR+ curriculum ready to be taught again, and bygroups outside of our lab. This project involved updating facts, adding elements to furtherenhance the curriculum, and compiling information into a comprehensive manual. I also helpedcreate a video version of the manual. I learned so much through the process, about adolescentrisk taking, Dr. Reyna's fuzzy-trace theory, and sex education programs. I also learned abouthow effective outreach interventions are developed and evaluated. I am continuing to work in Dr.Reyna's lab and am excited for the curriculum to be taught again and evaluated.

For Further Information

List of Other CCE 2009 Summer Internships

Laboratory for Rational Decision Making

Resources on Risky Decision Making in Adolescents

Human Development Outreach & Extension

Human Development Today e-News