This study examined the development of children's decisionmaking abilities and the effects of age and gender differences on their use of probability, gain, and loss information about risky alternatives. Subjects were 158 children of 7-13 years of age who were observed during a task in which they chose among alternative gambles in a computer game. Two expectations were that: (1) young children would make patterns of choices that reflected editing out of the probability information for the purpose of simplifying the task; and (2) children could use the probability information in determining the relative importance of gains and losses in evaluating risk alternatives. Results showed that older children and boys were more likely than others to use a multiplicative strategy in choosing among gambles. Older children and girls favored choices that would reduce their exposure to large losses, while younger children and boys preferred choices that afforded opportunities for large gains. (Author/SH)