4 Ushering in Modern and Objective Ways of Assessing Financial Decision Making in Clinical Settings: The Development and Validation of an Online Money Management Credit Card Task

Abstract

Objective:

Historically, assessment of financial decision making (FDM) has largely relied on self- or informant-reports, and paper-and-pencil tests. However, subjective report is prone to under/over-estimation biases, and most available tests probe increasingly outdated tasks such as writing checks and checkbook management. Advances in technology have made online methods one of the most common and preferred styles of managing money. There is thus a critical need to develop modern and objective methods to assess financial decision making that can be used in clinical settings. The current study aimed to develop and validate a novel, simulated online money management (OMM) credit card task mimicking a real-world task.

Participants and Methods:

Development. The OMM task was conceptualized based on collaborations with a diverse team of experts spanning neuropsychology, geriatrics, computer science, and economics. Administration. The task involves several sub-tasks including logging into a simulated credit card account, navigating a few pages to download a statement for a specific month, answering questions about where certain pieces of information are in the statement, identifying erroneous transactions in the account activity section, and answering questions involving practical aspects of managing a credit card. Pilot phase. Using an iterative process, the task was refined and piloted in ten participants. Validation. Performance was examined in relation to an existing online automated teller machine (ATM) task. Design & Setting. Cross-sectional, community-based prospective study.

Measures:

OMM task. The newly developed OMM credit card task consists of two broad areas, (i) online navigation and (ii) content-focused (simple literacy, complex literacy, monitoring, awareness). ATM task. This measure consists of sequential tasks such as checking the balance in one’s account, transferring money between accounts, and withdrawing cash. Both the OMM and ATM tasks were administered remotely by a neuropsychologist using Zoom and Team Viewer on a Dell laptop.

Participants:

Thirty-five cognitively healthy older adults were included with mean age=70.06 years (SD=3.82) and mean education=21.89 (SD=1.76). 72% were women, the majority were White (77%) while 20% were Black and 3% belonged to other races; 91% were non-Hispanic.

Statistics & Metrics:

Bivariate correlations between the OMM task, ATM task and demographic variables were examined. Time and steps/clicks to complete the OMM task were the primary outcome metrics.

Results:

All participants were able to complete the OMM task. No significant associations were found between demographics (age, gender, education) and OMM metrics, and among OMM metrics (time and clicks). Significant associations in the expected direction were present between the OMM and ATM tasks. Time taken to answer the questions on the OMM task was associated with time required to complete the ATM task (r = 0.57, p < 0.001). Increased number of clicks on the OMM task was associated with increased number of errors (r = 0.54, p < 0.001) and increased time to complete the ATM task (r = 0.41, p = 0.01).

Conclusions:

This is one of the first studies to develop and demonstrate the validity of a technologically based and practically relevant measure of financial decision making. Studies are ongoing to more comprehensively understand the psychometric properties of this novel task.