Sample records for delay discounting task
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A 5-trial adjusting delay discounting task: Accurate discount rates in less than 60 seconds
Koffarnus, Mikhail N.; Bickel, Warren K.
2014-01-01
Individuals who discount delayed rewards at a high rate are more likely to engage in substance abuse, overeating, or problem gambling. Findings such as these suggest the value of methods to obtain an accurate and fast measurement of discount rate that can be easily deployed in variety of settings. In the present study, we developed and evaluated the 5-trial adjusting delay task, a novel method of obtaining discount rate in less than one minute. We hypothesized that discount rates from the 5-trial adjusting delay task would be similar and correlated with discount rates from a lengthier task we have used previously, and that four known effects relating to delay discounting would be replicable with this novel task. To test these hypotheses, the 5-trial adjusting delay task was administered to 111 college students six times to obtain discount rates for six different commodities, along with a lengthier adjusting amount discounting task. We found that discount rates were similar and correlated between the 5-trial adjusting delay task and the adjusting amount task. Each of the four known effects relating to delay discounting was replicated with the 5-trial adjusting delay task to varying degrees. First, discount rates were inversely correlated with amount. Second, discount rates between past and future outcomes were correlated. Third, discount rates were greater for consumable rewards than with money, although we did not control for amount in this comparison. Fourth, discount rates were lower when zero amounts opposing the chosen time point were explicitly described. Results indicate that the 5-trial adjusting delay task is a viable, rapid method to assess discount rate. PMID:24708144
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A 5-trial adjusting delay discounting task: accurate discount rates in less than one minute.
Koffarnus, Mikhail N; Bickel, Warren K
2014-06-01
Individuals who discount delayed rewards at a high rate are more likely to engage in substance abuse, overeating, or problem gambling. Such findings suggest the value of methods to obtain an accurate and fast measurement of discount rate that can be easily deployed in variety of settings. In the present study, we developed and evaluated the 5-trial adjusting delay task, a novel method of obtaining a discount rate in less than 1 min. We hypothesized that discount rates from the 5-trial adjusting delay task would be similar and would correlate with discount rates from a lengthier task we have used previously, and that 4 known effects relating to delay discounting would be replicable with this novel task. To test these hypotheses, the 5-trial adjusting delay task was administered to 111 college students 6 times to obtain discount rates for 6 different commodities, along with a lengthier adjusting amount discounting task. We found that discount rates were similar and correlated between the 5-trial adjusting delay task and the adjusting amount task. Each of the 4 known effects relating to delay discounting was replicated with the 5-trial adjusting delay task to varying degrees. First, discount rates were inversely correlated with amount. Second, discount rates between past and future outcomes were correlated. Third, discount rates were greater for consumable rewards than with money, although we did not control for amount in this comparison. Fourth, discount rates were lower when $0 amounts opposing the chosen time point were explicitly described. Results indicate that the 5-trial adjusting delay task is a viable, rapid method to assess discount rate. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.
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Johnson, Matthew W; Johnson, Patrick S; Herrmann, Evan S; Sweeney, Mary M
2015-01-01
Individuals with cocaine use disorders are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS, partly due to higher rates of unprotected sex. Recent research suggests delay discounting of condom use is a factor in sexual HIV risk. Delay discounting is a behavioral economic concept describing how delaying an event reduces that event's value or impact on behavior. Probability discounting is a related concept describing how the uncertainty of an event decreases its impact on behavior. Individuals with cocaine use disorders (n = 23) and matched non-cocaine-using controls (n = 24) were compared in decision-making tasks involving hypothetical outcomes: delay discounting of condom-protected sex (Sexual Delay Discounting Task), delay discounting of money, the effect of sexually transmitted infection (STI) risk on likelihood of condom use (Sexual Probability Discounting Task), and probability discounting of money. The Cocaine group discounted delayed condom-protected sex (i.e., were more likely to have unprotected sex vs. wait for a condom) significantly more than controls in two of four Sexual Delay Discounting Task partner conditions. The Cocaine group also discounted delayed money (i.e., preferred smaller immediate amounts over larger delayed amounts) significantly more than controls. In the Sexual Probability Discounting Task, both groups showed sensitivity to STI risk, however the groups did not differ. The Cocaine group did not consistently discount probabilistic money more or less than controls. Steeper discounting of delayed, but not probabilistic, sexual outcomes may contribute to greater rates of sexual HIV risk among individuals with cocaine use disorders. Probability discounting of sexual outcomes may contribute to risk of unprotected sex in both groups. Correlations showed sexual and monetary results were unrelated, for both delay and probability discounting. The results highlight the importance of studying specific behavioral processes (e.g., delay and probability discounting) with respect to specific outcomes (e.g., monetary and sexual) to understand decision making in problematic behavior.
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Johnson, Matthew W.; Johnson, Patrick S.; Herrmann, Evan S.; Sweeney, Mary M.
2015-01-01
Individuals with cocaine use disorders are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS, partly due to higher rates of unprotected sex. Recent research suggests delay discounting of condom use is a factor in sexual HIV risk. Delay discounting is a behavioral economic concept describing how delaying an event reduces that event’s value or impact on behavior. Probability discounting is a related concept describing how the uncertainty of an event decreases its impact on behavior. Individuals with cocaine use disorders (n = 23) and matched non-cocaine-using controls (n = 24) were compared in decision-making tasks involving hypothetical outcomes: delay discounting of condom-protected sex (Sexual Delay Discounting Task), delay discounting of money, the effect of sexually transmitted infection (STI) risk on likelihood of condom use (Sexual Probability Discounting Task), and probability discounting of money. The Cocaine group discounted delayed condom-protected sex (i.e., were more likely to have unprotected sex vs. wait for a condom) significantly more than controls in two of four Sexual Delay Discounting Task partner conditions. The Cocaine group also discounted delayed money (i.e., preferred smaller immediate amounts over larger delayed amounts) significantly more than controls. In the Sexual Probability Discounting Task, both groups showed sensitivity to STI risk, however the groups did not differ. The Cocaine group did not consistently discount probabilistic money more or less than controls. Steeper discounting of delayed, but not probabilistic, sexual outcomes may contribute to greater rates of sexual HIV risk among individuals with cocaine use disorders. Probability discounting of sexual outcomes may contribute to risk of unprotected sex in both groups. Correlations showed sexual and monetary results were unrelated, for both delay and probability discounting. The results highlight the importance of studying specific behavioral processes (e.g., delay and probability discounting) with respect to specific outcomes (e.g., monetary and sexual) to understand decision making in problematic behavior. PMID:26017273
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OPPORTUNITY COSTS OF REWARD DELAYS AND THE DISCOUNTING OF HYPOTHETICAL MONEY AND CIGARETTES
Johnson, Patrick S.; Herrmann, Evan S.; Johnson, Matthew W.
2015-01-01
Humans are reported to discount delayed rewards at lower rates than nonhumans. However, nonhumans are studied in tasks that restrict reinforcement during delays, whereas humans are typically studied in tasks that do not restrict reinforcement during delays. In nonhuman tasks, the opportunity cost of restricted reinforcement during delays may increase delay discounting rates. The present within-subjects study used online crowdsourcing (Amazon Mechanical Turk, or MTurk) to assess the discounting of hypothetical delayed money (and cigarettes in smokers) under four hypothetical framing conditions differing in the availability of reinforcement during delays. At one extreme, participants were free to leave their computer without returning, and engage in any behavior during reward delays (modeling typical human tasks). At the opposite extreme, participants were required to stay at their computer and engage in little other behavior during reward delays (modeling typical nonhuman tasks). Discounting rates increased as an orderly function of opportunity cost. Results also indicated predominantly hyperbolic discounting, the “magnitude effect,” steeper discounting of cigarettes than money, and positive correlations between discounting rates of these commodities. This is the first study to test the effects of opportunity costs on discounting, and suggests that procedural differences may partially account for observed species differences in discounting. PMID:25388973
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Opportunity costs of reward delays and the discounting of hypothetical money and cigarettes.
Johnson, Patrick S; Herrmann, Evan S; Johnson, Matthew W
2015-01-01
Humans are reported to discount delayed rewards at lower rates than nonhumans. However, nonhumans are studied in tasks that restrict reinforcement during delays, whereas humans are typically studied in tasks that do not restrict reinforcement during delays. In nonhuman tasks, the opportunity cost of restricted reinforcement during delays may increase delay discounting rates. The present within-subjects study used online crowdsourcing (Amazon Mechanical Turk, or MTurk) to assess the discounting of hypothetical delayed money (and cigarettes in smokers) under four hypothetical framing conditions differing in the availability of reinforcement during delays. At one extreme, participants were free to leave their computer without returning, and engage in any behavior during reward delays (modeling typical human tasks). At the opposite extreme, participants were required to stay at their computer and engage in little other behavior during reward delays (modeling typical nonhuman tasks). Discounting rates increased as an orderly function of opportunity cost. Results also indicated predominantly hyperbolic discounting, the "magnitude effect," steeper discounting of cigarettes than money, and positive correlations between discounting rates of these commodities. This is the first study to test the effects of opportunity costs on discounting, and suggests that procedural differences may partially account for observed species differences in discounting. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.
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The effects of the framing of time on delay discounting.
DeHart, William Brady; Odum, Amy L
2015-01-01
We examined the effects of the framing of time on delay discounting. Delay discounting is the process by which delayed outcomes are devalued as a function of time. Time in a titrating delay discounting task is often framed in calendar units (e.g., as 1 week, 1 month, etc.). When time is framed as a specific date, delayed outcomes are discounted less compared to the calendar format. Other forms of framing time; however, have not been explored. All participants completed a titrating calendar unit delay-discounting task for money. Participants were also assigned to one of two delay discounting tasks: time as dates (e.g., June 1st, 2015) or time in units of days (e.g., 5000 days), using the same delay distribution as the calendar delay-discounting task. Time framed as dates resulted in less discounting compared to the calendar method, whereas time framed as days resulted in greater discounting compared to the calendar method. The hyperboloid model fit best compared to the hyperbola and exponential models. How time is framed may alter how participants attend to the delays as well as how the delayed outcome is valued. Altering how time is framed may serve to improve adherence to goals with delayed outcomes. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.
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Johnson, Matthew W.; Bruner, Natalie R.
2011-01-01
Background Cocaine dependence is associated with high rates of sexual risk behavior and HIV infection. However, little is known about the responsible mechanism(s). Methods Cocaine-dependent individuals (N=62) completed a novel Sexual Discounting Task assessing decisions between immediate unprotected sex and delayed sex with a condom across four hypothetical partners: most (and least) likely to have a sexually transmitted infection (STI), and most (and least) sexually desirable; a real rewards money delay-discounting task, and self-reported sexual risk behavior using the HIV Risk-Taking Behavior Scale (HRBS). Results Sexual Discounting Task results were largely systematic and showed a strong effect of delay in decreasing condom use. Sexual discounting (preference for immediate unprotected sex) was significantly greater when making responses for partners judged least (compared to most) likely to have an STI, and for partners judged most (compared to least) desirable. Differences in sexual discounting were significant after controlling for differences in condom use (with no delay) between conditions. Greater discounting in 3 or the 4 Sexual Discounting Task conditions, but not in the money discounting task, was associated with greater self-reported sexual risk behavior as measured by the HRBS Conclusions Results suggest that delay is a critical variable strongly affecting HIV sexual risk behavior, and that the Sexual Discounting Task provides a clinically sensitive measure of this phenomenon that may address a variety of questions about HIV risk in future research. The wealth of behavioral and neurobiological data on delay discounting should be brought to bear on HIV education and prevention. PMID:22055012
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Schoenfelder, Thomas E.; Hantula, Donald A.
2003-01-01
Seniors (n=20) assessed two job offers with differences in domain (salary/tasks), delay (career-long earnings), and magnitude (initial salary offer). Contrary to discounted utility theory, choices reflected nonconstant discount rates for future salary/tasks (delay effect), lower discount rates for salary/preferred tasks (magnitude effect), and a…
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Martinelli, Mary K; Mostofsky, Stewart H; Rosch, Keri S
2017-10-01
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is characterized by deficits in impulse control across a range of behaviors, from simple actions to those involving complex decision-making (e.g., preference for smaller-sooner versus larger later rewards). This study investigated whether changes in motor response control with increased cognitive load and motivational contingencies are associated with decision-making in the form of delay discounting among 8-12 year old children with and without ADHD. Children with ADHD (n = 26; 8 girls) and typically developing controls (n = 40; 11 girls) completed a standard go/no-go (GNG) task, a GNG task with motivational contingencies, a GNG task with increased cognitive load, and two measures of delay discounting: a real-time task in which the delays and immediately consumable rewards are experienced in real-time, and a classic task involving choices about money at longer delays. Children with ADHD, particularly girls, exhibited greater delay discounting than controls during the real-time discounting task, whereas diagnostic groups did not significantly differ on the classic discounting task. The effect of cognitive load on response control was uniquely associated with greater discounting on the real-time task for children with ADHD, but not for control children. The effect of motivational contingencies on response control was not significantly associated with delay discounting for either diagnostic group. The findings from this study help to inform our understanding of the factors that influence deficient self-control in ADHD, suggesting that impairments in cognitive control may contribute to greater delay discounting in ADHD.
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The Effects of Financial Education on Impulsive Decision Making
DeHart, William B.; Friedel, Jonathan E.; Lown, Jean M.; Odum, Amy L.
2016-01-01
Delay discounting, as a behavioral measure of impulsive choice, is strongly related to substance abuse and other risky behaviors. Therefore, effective techniques that alter delay discounting are of great interest. We explored the ability of a semester long financial education course to change delay discounting. Participants were recruited from a financial education course (n = 237) and an abnormal psychology course (n = 80). Both groups completed a delay-discounting task for $100 during the first two weeks (Time 1) of the semester as well as during the last two weeks (Time 2) of the semester. Participants also completed a personality inventory and financial risk tolerance scale both times and a delay-discounting task for $1,000 during Time 2. Delay discounting decreased in the financial education group at the end of the semester whereas there was no change in delay discounting in the abnormal psychology group. Financial education may be an effective method for reducing delay discounting. PMID:27442237
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The Effects of Financial Education on Impulsive Decision Making.
DeHart, William B; Friedel, Jonathan E; Lown, Jean M; Odum, Amy L
2016-01-01
Delay discounting, as a behavioral measure of impulsive choice, is strongly related to substance abuse and other risky behaviors. Therefore, effective techniques that alter delay discounting are of great interest. We explored the ability of a semester long financial education course to change delay discounting. Participants were recruited from a financial education course (n = 237) and an abnormal psychology course (n = 80). Both groups completed a delay-discounting task for $100 during the first two weeks (Time 1) of the semester as well as during the last two weeks (Time 2) of the semester. Participants also completed a personality inventory and financial risk tolerance scale both times and a delay-discounting task for $1,000 during Time 2. Delay discounting decreased in the financial education group at the end of the semester whereas there was no change in delay discounting in the abnormal psychology group. Financial education may be an effective method for reducing delay discounting.
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Cross-commodity delay discounting of alcohol and money in alcohol users
Moody, Lara N.; Tegge, Allison N.; Bickel, Warren K.
2017-01-01
Despite real-world implications, the pattern of delay discounting in alcohol users when the commodities now and later differ has not been well characterized. In this study, 60 participants on Amazon's Mechanical Turk completed the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) to assess severity of use and completed four delay discounting tasks between hypothetical, equivalent amounts of alcohol and money available at five delays. The tasks included two cross-commodity (alcohol now-money later and money now-alcohol later) and two same-commodity (money now-money later and alcohol now-alcohol later) conditions. Delay discounting was significantly associated with clinical cutoffs of the AUDIT for both of the cross-commodity conditions but not for either of the same-commodity delay discounting tasks. The cross-commodity discounting conditions were related to severity of use wherein heavy users discounted future alcohol less and future money more. The change in direction of the discounting effect was dependent on the commodity that was distally available suggesting a distinctive pattern of discounting across commodities when comparing light and heavy alcohol users. PMID:29056767
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Cross-commodity delay discounting of alcohol and money in alcohol users.
Moody, Lara N; Tegge, Allison N; Bickel, Warren K
2017-06-01
Despite real-world implications, the pattern of delay discounting in alcohol users when the commodities now and later differ has not been well characterized. In this study, 60 participants on Amazon's Mechanical Turk completed the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) to assess severity of use and completed four delay discounting tasks between hypothetical, equivalent amounts of alcohol and money available at five delays. The tasks included two cross-commodity (alcohol now-money later and money now-alcohol later) and two same-commodity (money now-money later and alcohol now-alcohol later) conditions. Delay discounting was significantly associated with clinical cutoffs of the AUDIT for both of the cross-commodity conditions but not for either of the same-commodity delay discounting tasks. The cross-commodity discounting conditions were related to severity of use wherein heavy users discounted future alcohol less and future money more. The change in direction of the discounting effect was dependent on the commodity that was distally available suggesting a distinctive pattern of discounting across commodities when comparing light and heavy alcohol users.
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Exchanging the liquidity hypothesis: Delay discounting of money and self-relevant non-money rewards
Stuppy-Sullivan, Allison M.; Tormohlen, Kayla N.; Yi, Richard
2015-01-01
Evidence that primary rewards (e.g., food and drugs of abuse) are discounted more than money is frequently attributed to money's high degree of liquidity, or exchangeability for many commodities. The present study provides some evidence against this liquidity hypothesis by contrasting delay discounting of monetary rewards (liquid) and non-monetary commodities (non-liquid) that are self-relevant and utility-matched. Ninety-seven (97) undergraduate students initially completed a conventional binary-choice delay discounting of money task. Participants returned one week later and completed a self-relevant commodity delay discounting task. Both conventional hypothesis testing and more-conservative tests of statistical equivalence revealed correspondence in rate of delay discounting of money and self-relevant commodities, and in one magnitude condition, less discounting for the latter. The present results indicate that liquidity of money cannot fully account for the lower rate of delay discounting compared to non-money rewards. PMID:26556504
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Acute ethanol does not always affect delay discounting in rats selected to prefer or avoid ethanol.
Wilhelm, Clare J; Mitchell, Suzanne H
2012-01-01
The purpose of this study was to determine whether animals predisposed to prefer alcohol possess an altered acute response to alcohol on a delay discounting task relative to animals predisposed to avoid alcohol. We used rats selected to prefer or avoid alcohol to assess whether genotype moderates changes in delay discounting induced by acute ethanol exposure. Selectively bred rat lines of Sardinian alcohol-preferring (sP; n = 8) and non-preferring (sNP; n = 8) rats, and alko alcohol (AA, n = 8) and alko non-alcohol (ANA, n = 8) rats were trained in an adjusting amount task to assess delay discounting. There were no significant effects of line on baseline discounting; however, both lines of alcohol-preferring rats exhibit slowed reaction times. Acute ethanol (0, 0.25, 0.5 g/kg) treatment also had no effect on delay discounting in any of the selectively bred rat lines. Our data indicate that in these lines of animals, alcohol preference or avoidance has no impact on delay discounting following acute ethanol exposure. It is possible that other genetic models or lines may be differentially affected by alcohol and exhibit qualitatively and quantitatively different responses in delay discounting tasks.
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Johnson, Matthew W; Herrmann, Evan S; Sweeney, Mary M; LeComte, Robert S; Johnson, Patrick S
2017-02-01
Although cocaine use has been linked to sexual HIV risk behavior for decades, the direct effects of cocaine on sexual desire and sexual decision-making are unexamined. Research suggests delay discounting (devaluation of future outcomes) and probability discounting (devaluation of uncertain outcomes) play roles in condom use decisions. This study examined the effect of cocaine administration on sexual desire, hypothetical condom use, and discounting tasks. This double-blind, within-subjects study compared the effects of 0, 125, and 250 mg/70 kg oral cocaine HCl in 12 cocaine users. Measures included sexual desire and other subjective ratings, the Sexual Delay Discounting Task, the Sexual Probability Discounting Task, and monetary delay and probability discounting tasks. Cocaine caused dose-related increases in sexual desire and prototypical stimulant abuse-liability ratings. Relative to placebo, cocaine did not significantly alter condom use likelihood when condoms were immediately available or when sex was associated with 100% certainty of sexually transmitted infection (STI). In contrast, cocaine dose-dependently strengthened the effect of delay (sexual delay discounting) and STI uncertainty (sexual probability discounting) in decreasing condom use likelihood. Cocaine caused no significant change in monetary delay and probability discounting. This is the first study showing that cocaine administration increases sexual desire. Detrimental effects of cocaine on sexual risk were only observed when safer sex required delay, or STI risk was uncertain (representative of many real-world scenarios), suggesting a critical role of discounting processes. Lack of monetary effects highlights the importance of studying clinically relevant outcomes when examining drug effects on behavioral processes.
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Gerst, Kyle R; Gunn, Rachel L; Finn, Peter R
2017-10-01
Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) are associated with increased discounting of delayed rewards and reduced executive working memory (eWM) capacity. This association is amplified when comorbid with antisocial psychopathology (AP). Furthermore, recent studies suggest that reduced WM capacity is associated with disinhibited decisions reflected by increased impulsive decision making on the delay discounting of rewards task. While discounting of delayed rewards is well studied, the discounting of delayed losses has received significantly less experimental attention. The current study investigated (i) the rate of discounting of delayed losses in individuals with AUD only (n = 61), AUD with comorbid AP (n = 79) and healthy controls (n = 64); (ii) the relationship between eWM capacity and discounting of delayed losses; and (iii) the effect of a WM load on discounting of delayed losses. Discounting performance was assessed using a computerized discounting of delayed losses task. Results showed that the AUD-only and AUD-AP groups had higher rates of discounting of delayed losses and lower eWM capacity compared to the control groups. Lower individual eWM capacity was associated with increased discounting of delayed losses. However, WM load did not increase discounting rates overall. These results support the hypothesis that greater discounting of delayed losses is associated with AUD and comorbid AP problems and lower individual eWM capacity. Copyright © 2017 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.
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Delay or probability discounting in a model of impulsive behavior: effect of alcohol.
Richards, J B; Zhang, L; Mitchell, S H; de Wit, H
1999-01-01
Little is known about the acute effects of drugs of abuse on impulsivity and self-control. In this study, impulsivity was assessed in humans using a computer task that measured delay and probability discounting. Discounting describes how much the value of a reward (or punisher) is decreased when its occurrence is either delayed or uncertain. Twenty-four healthy adult volunteers ingested a moderate dose of ethanol (0.5 or 0.8 g/kg ethanol: n = 12 at each dose) or placebo before completing the discounting task. In the task the participants were given a series of choices between a small, immediate, certain amount of money and $10 that was either delayed (0, 2, 30, 180, or 365 days) or probabilistic (i.e., certainty of receipt was 1.0, .9, .75, .5, or .25). The point at which each individual was indifferent between the smaller immediate or certain reward and the $10 delayed or probabilistic reward was identified using an adjusting-amount procedure. The results indicated that (a) delay and probability discounting were well described by a hyperbolic function; (b) delay and probability discounting were positively correlated within subjects; (c) delay and probability discounting were moderately correlated with personality measures of impulsivity; and (d) alcohol had no effect on discounting. PMID:10220927
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Concordance between monetary and sexual delay discounting in men who have sex with men.
Jones, Jeb; Guest, Jodie L; Sullivan, Patrick S; Kramer, Michael R; Jenness, Samuel M; Sales, Jessica M
2017-12-07
Background: Delay discounting has been found to be associated with numerous health-related outcomes, including risky sexual behaviour. To date, it is unclear whether delay discounting measured in different domains is associated within individuals. The goal of this study was to assess the concordance of monetary and sexual delay discounting in men who have sex with men. Methods: Participants completed an online survey, including the Monetary Choice Questionnaire and the Sexual Discounting Task. Linear regression models were used to assess the association between monetary and sexual discount rates. Results: Sexual discount rates did not predict monetary discount rates. There was a substantial amount of clustering of sexual discount rates, requiring sexual discounting data to be categorised. Conclusions: Monetary and sexual delay discounting are distinct processes that are not necessarily associated within individuals, and monetary delay discounting is not an appropriate proxy measure for sexual impulsivity. Data from the Sexual Discounting Task are typically rank-transformed for analysis. These data suggest that this might be an invalid method of analysis. Future studies should investigate the distribution of their data to determine if it is appropriate to analyse sexual discounting data as a continuous measure.
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Koffarnus, Mikhail N; Deshpande, Harshawardhan U; Lisinski, Jonathan M; Eklund, Anders; Bickel, Warren K; LaConte, Stephen M
2017-11-01
Research on the rate at which people discount the value of future rewards has become increasingly prevalent as discount rate has been shown to be associated with many unhealthy patterns of behavior such as drug abuse, gambling, and overeating. fMRI research points to a fronto-parietal-limbic pathway that is active during decisions between smaller amounts of money now and larger amounts available after a delay. Researchers in this area have used different variants of delay discounting tasks and reported various contrasts between choice trials of different types from these tasks. For instance, researchers have compared 1) choices of delayed monetary amounts to choices of the immediate monetary amounts, 2) 'hard' choices made near one's point of indifference to 'easy' choices that require little thought, and 3) trials where an immediate choice is available versus trials where one is unavailable, regardless of actual eventual choice. These differences in procedure and analysis make comparison of results across studies difficult. In the present experiment, we designed a delay discounting task with the intended capability of being able to construct contrasts of all three comparisons listed above while optimizing scanning time to reduce costs and avoid participant fatigue. This was accomplished with an algorithm that customized the choice trials presented to each participant with the goal of equalizing choice trials of each type. We compared this task, which we refer to here as the individualized discounting task (IDT), to two other delay discounting tasks previously reported in the literature (McClure et al., 2004; Amlung et al., 2014) in 18 participants. Results show that the IDT can examine each of the three contrasts mentioned above, while yielding a similar degree of activation as the reference tasks. This suggests that this new task could be used in delay discounting fMRI studies to allow researchers to more easily compare their results to a majority of previous research while minimizing scanning duration. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Exchanging the liquidity hypothesis: Delay discounting of money and self-relevant non-money rewards.
Stuppy-Sullivan, Allison M; Tormohlen, Kayla N; Yi, Richard
2016-01-01
Evidence that primary rewards (e.g., food and drugs of abuse) are discounted more than money is frequently attributed to money's high degree of liquidity, or exchangeability for many commodities. The present study provides some evidence against this liquidity hypothesis by contrasting delay discounting of monetary rewards (liquid) and non-monetary commodities (non-liquid) that are self-relevant and utility-matched. Ninety-seven (97) undergraduate students initially completed a conventional binary-choice delay discounting of money task. Participants returned one week later and completed a self-relevant commodity delay discounting task. Both conventional hypothesis testing and more-conservative tests of statistical equivalence revealed correspondence in rate of delay discounting of money and self-relevant commodities, and in one magnitude condition, less discounting for the latter. The present results indicate that liquidity of money cannot fully account for the lower rate of delay discounting compared to non-money rewards. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Separate and overlapping brain areas encode subjective value during delay and effort discounting.
Massar, Stijn A A; Libedinsky, Camilo; Weiyan, Chee; Huettel, Scott A; Chee, Michael W L
2015-10-15
Making decisions about rewards that involve delay or effort requires the integration of value and cost information. The brain areas recruited in this integration have been well characterized for delay discounting. However only a few studies have investigated how effort costs are integrated into value signals to eventually determine choice. In contrast to previous studies that have evaluated fMRI signals related to physical effort, we used a task that focused on cognitive effort. Participants discounted the value of delayed and effortful rewards. The value of cognitively effortful rewards was represented in the anterior portion of the inferior frontal gyrus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Additionally, the value of the chosen option was encoded in the anterior cingulate cortex, caudate, and cerebellum. While most brain regions showed no significant dissociation between effort discounting and delay discounting, the ACC was significantly more activated in effort compared to delay discounting tasks. Finally, overlapping regions within the right orbitofrontal cortex and lateral temporal and parietal cortices encoded the value of the chosen option during both delay and effort discounting tasks. These results indicate that encoding of rewards discounted by cognitive effort and delay involves partially dissociable brain areas, but a common representation of chosen value is present in the orbitofrontal, temporal and parietal cortices. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Weatherly, Jeffrey N.; McDonald, J. Douglas
2011-01-01
Delay discounting occurs when an individual prefers a lesser amount of an outcome that is available immediately, rather than waiting for the full amount. The present study was a preliminary investigation into delay discounting in a yet unstudied population, American Indians (AIs). AI college students completed a delay-discounting task that…
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Discounting of qualitatively different delayed health outcomes in current and never smokers
Friedel, Jonathan E.; DeHart, William B.; Frye, Charles C. J.; Rung, Jillian M.; Odum, Amy L.
2016-01-01
In delay discounting, temporally remote outcomes have less value. Cigarette smoking is associated with steeper discounting of money and consumable outcomes. It is presently unclear whether smokers discount health outcomes more than non-smokers. We sought to establish the generality of steep discounting for different types of health outcomes in cigarette smokers. Seventy participants (38 smokers and 32 non-smokers) completed four hypothetical outcome delay-discounting tasks: a gain of $500, a loss of $500, a temporary boost in health, and temporary cure from a debilitating disease. Participants reported the duration of each health outcome that would be equivalent to $500; these durations were then used in the respective discounting tasks. Delays ranged from 1 week to 25 years. Smokers’ indifference points for monetary gains, boosts in health, and temporary cures were lower than indifference points from non-smokers. Indifference points of one outcome were correlated with indifference points of other outcomes. Smokers demonstrate steeper discounting across a range of delayed outcomes. How a person discounts one outcome predicts how they will discount other outcomes. These two findings support our assertion that delay discounting is in part a trait. PMID:26691848
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The Effects of Condom Availability on College Women's Sexual Discounting.
Lemley, Shea M; Jarmolowicz, David P; Parkhurst, Daniel; Celio, Mark A
2018-04-01
College students commonly engage in risky sexual behaviors, such as casual sexual encounters and inconsistent condom use. Discounting paradigms that examine how individuals devalue rewards due to their delay or uncertainty have been used to improve our understanding of behavioral problems, including sexual risk. The current study assessed relations between college women's sexual partners discounting and risky sexual behavior. In this study, college women (N = 42) completed two sexual partners delay discounting tasks that assessed how choices among hypothetical sexual partners changed across a parametric range of delays in two conditions: condom availability and condom unavailability. Participants also completed two sexual partners probability discounting tasks that assessed partner choices across a parametric range of probabilities in condom availability and unavailability conditions. Additionally, participants reported risky sexual behavior on the Sexual Risk Survey (SRS). Participants discounted delayed partners more steeply in the condom availability condition, but those differences were significant only for those women with three or fewer lifetime sexual partners. There were no consistent differences in discounting rate across condom availability conditions for probability discounting. Sexual partners discounting measures correlated with risky sexual behaviors as measured by the SRS, but a greater number of significant relations were observed with the condoms-unavailable delay discounting task. These findings suggest the importance of examining the interaction of inconsistent condom use and multiple partners in examinations of sexual decision-making.
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Greenhow, Anna K; Hunt, Maree J; Macaskill, Anne C; Harper, David N
2015-09-01
Delay and uncertainty of receipt both reduce the subjective value of reinforcers. Delay has a greater impact on the subjective value of smaller reinforcers than of larger ones while the reverse is true for uncertainty. We investigated the effect of reinforcer magnitude on discounting of delayed and uncertain reinforcers using a novel approach: embedding relevant choices within a computer game. Participants made repeated choices between smaller, certain, immediate outcomes and larger, but delayed or uncertain outcomes while experiencing the result of each choice. Participants' choices were generally well described by the hyperbolic discounting function. Smaller numbers of points were discounted more steeply than larger numbers as a function of delay but not probability. The novel experiential choice task described is a promising approach to investigating both delay and probability discounting in humans. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.
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Tedford, Stephanie E; Persons, Amanda L; Napier, T Celeste
2015-01-01
Dysregulated dopamine transmission in striatal circuitry is associated with impulsivity. The current study evaluated the influence of dopaminergic inputs to the dorsolateral striatum on impulsive choice, one aspect of impulsive behavior. We implemented an operant task that measures impulsive choice in rats via delay discounting wherein intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) was used as the positive reinforcer. To do so, rats were anesthetized to allow implanting of a stimulating electrode within the lateral hypothalamus of one hemisphere and bilateral dorsal striatal injections of the dopaminergic toxin, 6-OHDA (lesioned) or its vehicle (sham). Following recovery, rats were trained in a delay discounting task wherein they selected between a small ICSS current presented immediately after lever pressing, and a large ICSS current presented following a 0 to 15 s delay upon pressing the alternate lever. Task acquisition and reinforcer discrimination were similar for lesioned and sham rats. All rats exhibited an initial preference for the large reinforcer, and as the delay was increased, preference for the large reinforcer was decreased indicating that the subjective value of the large reinforcer was discounted as a function of delay time. However, this discounting effect was significantly enhanced in lesioned rats for the longer delays. These data reveal a contribution of dopaminergic inputs to the dorsolateral striatum on impulsive choice behavior, and provide new insights into neural substrates underlying discounting behaviors.
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Tedford, Stephanie E.; Persons, Amanda L.; Napier, T. Celeste
2015-01-01
Dysregulated dopamine transmission in striatal circuitry is associated with impulsivity. The current study evaluated the influence of dopaminergic inputs to the dorsolateral striatum on impulsive choice, one aspect of impulsive behavior. We implemented an operant task that measures impulsive choice in rats via delay discounting wherein intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) was used as the positive reinforcer. To do so, rats were anesthetized to allow implanting of a stimulating electrode within the lateral hypothalamus of one hemisphere and bilateral dorsal striatal injections of the dopaminergic toxin, 6-OHDA (lesioned) or its vehicle (sham). Following recovery, rats were trained in a delay discounting task wherein they selected between a small ICSS current presented immediately after lever pressing, and a large ICSS current presented following a 0 to 15s delay upon pressing the alternate lever. Task acquisition and reinforcer discrimination were similar for lesioned and sham rats. All rats exhibited an initial preference for the large reinforcer, and as the delay was increased, preference for the large reinforcer was decreased indicating that the subjective value of the large reinforcer was discounted as a function of delay time. However, this discounting effect was significantly enhanced in lesioned rats for the longer delays. These data reveal a contribution of dopaminergic inputs to the dorsolateral striatum on impulsive choice behavior, and provide new insights into neural substrates underlying discounting behaviors. PMID:25927685
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Delay and probability discounting among payday and title loan recipients.
Mahoney, Colin T; Lawyer, Steven R
2016-04-01
Payday and title loans are short-term loans associated with significant economic impact. Behavioral theories of impulsive choice may provide insight into behavioral processes that underlie the propensity to take out payday and title loans. Adults between the ages of 18 and 30 recruited from the community completed delay and probability discounting tasks for hypothetical money as well as measures of substance use. Patterns of discounting were characterized using a hyperbolic decay model and area under the curve. Participants who took out a payday and/or title loan in the past (n=41) exhibited more impulsive choice patterns on the delay discounting task than did those who did not (n=255). Substance use mediated this relationship between payday and title loan retention and delay discounting. These findings suggest potentially important relationships between payday/title loan borrowing, substance use, and delay discounting. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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The Effects of Methylphenidate on Discounting of Delayed Rewards in ADHD
Shiels, Keri; Hawk, Larry W.; Reynolds, Brady; Mazzullo, Rebecca; Rhodes, Jessica; Pelham, William E.; Waxmonsky, James G.; Gangloff, Brian P.
2010-01-01
Impulsivity is a central component of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Delay discounting, or a preference for smaller, immediate rewards over larger, delayed rewards is considered an important aspect of impulsivity, and delay-related impulsivity has been emphasized in etiological models of ADHD. The current study examined whether stimulant medication, an effective treatment for ADHD, reduces discounting of delayed experiential and hypothetical rewards among 49 children (age 9–12 years) with ADHD. Following a practice day, participants completed a 3-day double-blind placebo-controlled acute medication assessment. Active doses were long-acting methylphenidate (Concerta), with the nearest equivalents of 0.3 and 0.6 mg/kg TID immediate-release methylphenidate. On each testing day, participants completed experiential (real-world money in real time) and hypothetical discounting tasks. Relative to placebo, methylphenidate reduced discounting of delayed experiential rewards, but not hypothetical rewards. Broadly consistent with etiological models that emphasize delay-related impulsivity among children with ADHD, these findings provide initial evidence that stimulant medication reduces delay discounting among those with the disorder. The present results also draw attention to task parameters that may influence the sensitivity of various delay discounting measures to medication effects. PMID:19803628
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Johnson, Patrick S; Sweeney, Mary M; Herrmann, Evan S; Johnson, Matthew W
2016-06-01
Alcohol use, especially at binge levels, is associated with sexual HIV risk behavior, but the mechanisms through which alcohol increases sexual risk taking are not well-examined. Delay discounting, that is, devaluation of future consequences as a function of delay to their occurrence, has been implicated in a variety of problem behaviors, including risky sexual behavior. Probability discounting is studied with a similar framework as delay discounting, but is a distinct process in which a consequence is devalued because it is uncertain or probabilistic. Twenty-three, nondependent alcohol users (13 male, 10 female; mean age = 25.3 years old) orally consumed alcohol (1 g/kg) or placebo in 2 separate experimental sessions. During sessions, participants completed tasks examining delay and probability discounting of hypothetical condom-protected sex (Sexual Delay Discounting Task, Sexual Probability Discounting Task) and of hypothetical and real money. Alcohol decreased the likelihood that participants would wait to have condom-protected sex versus having immediate, unprotected sex. Alcohol also decreased the likelihood that participants would use an immediately available condom given a specified level of sexually transmitted infection (STI) risk. Alcohol did not affect delay discounting of money, but it did increase participants' preferences for larger, probabilistic monetary rewards over smaller, certain rewards. Acute, binge-level alcohol intoxication may increase sexual HIV risk by decreasing willingness to delay sex in order to acquire a condom in situations where one is not immediately available, and by decreasing sensitivity to perceived risk of STI contraction. These findings suggest that delay and probability discounting are critical, but heretofore unrecognized, processes that may mediate the relations between alcohol use and HIV risk. Copyright © 2016 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.
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Yu, Xue; Sonuga-Barke, Edmund
2016-07-28
Individuals with ADHD have been shown to prefer smaller sooner over larger later rewards. This has been explained in terms of abnormally steeper discounting of the value of delayed reinforcers. Evidence for this comes from different experimental paradigms. In some, participants experience delay in the laboratory (real-time delay tasks; R-TD), in others they imagine the delay to reinforcers (hypothetical delay tasks; HD). We directly contrasted the performance of 7- to 12-year-old children with ADHD (n = 23) and matched controls (n = 23) on R-TD and HD tasks with monetary rewards. Children with ADHD displayed steeper temporal discounting on the R-TD, but not the HD tasks. These findings suggest that the experience of waiting prior to the delivery of rewards is an important determinant of heightened temporal discounting in ADHD-a finding consistent with models that emphasize the aversive nature of delay for children. © The Author(s) 2016.
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Giordano, Louis A; Bickel, Warren K; Loewenstein, George; Jacobs, Eric A; Marsch, Lisa; Badger, Gary J
2002-09-01
A growing literature suggests that excessive temporal discounting of delayed rewards may be a contributing factor in the etiology of substance abuse problems. Little is known, however, about how drug deprivation may affect temporal discounting of delayed rewards by drug-dependent individuals. To examine the extent to which opioid deprivation affects how opioid-dependent individuals discount small, medium and large quantities of delayed heroin and money. Thirteen opioid-dependent individuals maintained on buprenorphine completed a hypothetical choice task in which they choose between a constant delayed reward amount and an immediate reward amount that was adjusted until they expressed indifference between both outcomes. The task was completed for three values of heroin and money rewards during eight sessions under conditions of opioid deprivation (four sessions) and satiation (four sessions). Across conditions, hyperbolic functions provided a good fit for the discounting data. Degree of discounting was significantly higher when subjects were opioid deprived. Consistent with previous findings, degree of discounting was higher for heroin than money and inversely related to the magnitude of the reward. Opioid deprivation increased the degree to which dependent individuals discounted delayed heroin and money. Understanding the conditions that affect how drug-dependent individuals discount delayed rewards might help us understand the myopic choices made by such individuals and help improve treatment outcomes.
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Berry, Meredith S.; Repke, Meredith A.; Nickerson, Norma P.; Conway, Lucian G.; Odum, Amy L.; Jordan, Kerry E.
2015-01-01
Impulsivity in delay discounting is associated with maladaptive behaviors such as overeating and drug and alcohol abuse. Researchers have recently noted that delay discounting, even when measured by a brief laboratory task, may be the best predictor of human health related behaviors (e.g., exercise) currently available. Identifying techniques to decrease impulsivity in delay discounting, therefore, could help improve decision-making on a global scale. Visual exposure to natural environments is one recent approach shown to decrease impulsive decision-making in a delay discounting task, although the mechanism driving this result is currently unknown. The present experiment was thus designed to evaluate not only whether visual exposure to natural (mountains, lakes) relative to built (buildings, cities) environments resulted in less impulsivity, but also whether this exposure influenced time perception. Participants were randomly assigned to either a natural environment condition or a built environment condition. Participants viewed photographs of either natural scenes or built scenes before and during a delay discounting task in which they made choices about receiving immediate or delayed hypothetical monetary outcomes. Participants also completed an interval bisection task in which natural or built stimuli were judged as relatively longer or shorter presentation durations. Following the delay discounting and interval bisection tasks, additional measures of time perception were administered, including how many minutes participants thought had passed during the session and a scale measurement of whether time "flew" or "dragged" during the session. Participants exposed to natural as opposed to built scenes were less impulsive and also reported longer subjective session times, although no differences across groups were revealed with the interval bisection task. These results are the first to suggest that decreased impulsivity from exposure to natural as opposed to built environments may be related to lengthened time perception. PMID:26558610
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Probability Discounting of Gains and Losses: Implications for Risk Attitudes and Impulsivity
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Shead, N. Will; Hodgins, David C.
2009-01-01
Sixty college students performed three discounting tasks: probability discounting of gains, probability discounting of losses, and delay discounting of gains. Each task used an adjusting-amount procedure, and participants' choices affected the amount and timing of their remuneration for participating. Both group and individual discounting…
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Caudate responses to reward anticipation associated with delay discounting behavior in healthy youth
Benningfield, Margaret M.; Blackford, Jennifer U.; Ellsworth, Melissa E.; Samanez-Larkin, Gregory R.; Martin, Peter R.; Cowan, Ronald L.; Zald, David H.
2014-01-01
Background Choices requiring delay of gratification made during adolescence can have significant impact on life trajectory. Willingness to delay gratification can be measured using delay discounting tasks that require a choice between a smaller immediate reward and a larger delayed reward. Individual differences in the subjective value of delayed rewards are associated with risk for development of psychopathology including substance abuse. The neurobiological underpinnings related to these individual differences early in life are not fully understood. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we tested the hypothesis that individual differences in delay discounting behavior in healthy youth are related to differences in responsiveness to potential reward. Method Nineteen 10 to 14 year-olds performed a monetary incentive delay task to assess neural sensitivity to potential reward and a questionnaire to measure discounting of future monetary rewards. Results Left ventromedial caudate activation during anticipation of potential reward was negatively correlated with delay discounting behavior. There were no regions where brain responses during notification of reward outcome were associated with discounting behavior. Conclusions Brain activation during anticipation of potential reward may serve as a marker for individual differences in ability or willingness to delay gratification in healthy youth. PMID:24309299
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Role of ionotropic glutamate receptors in delay and probability discounting in the rat.
Yates, Justin R; Batten, Seth R; Bardo, Michael T; Beckmann, Joshua S
2015-04-01
Discounting of delayed and probabilistic reinforcement is linked to increased drug use and pathological gambling. Understanding the neurobiology of discounting is important for designing treatments for these disorders. Glutamate is considered to be involved in addiction-like behaviors; however, the role of ionotropic glutamate receptors (iGluRs) in discounting remains unclear. The current study examined the effects of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) and α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) glutamate receptor blockade on performance in delay and probability discounting tasks. Following training in either delay or probability discounting, rats (n = 12, each task) received pretreatments of the NMDA receptor antagonists MK-801 (0, 0.01, 0.03, 0.1, or 0.3 mg/kg, s.c.) or ketamine (0, 1.0, 5.0, or 10.0 mg/kg, i.p.), as well as the AMPA receptor antagonist CNQX (0, 1.0, 3.0, or 5.6 mg/kg, i.p.). Hyperbolic discounting functions were used to estimate sensitivity to delayed/probabilistic reinforcement and sensitivity to reinforcer amount. An intermediate dose of MK-801 (0.03 mg/kg) decreased sensitivity to both delayed and probabilistic reinforcement. In contrast, ketamine did not affect the rate of discounting in either task but decreased sensitivity to reinforcer amount. CNQX did not alter sensitivity to reinforcer amount or delayed/probabilistic reinforcement. These results show that blockade of NMDA receptors, but not AMPA receptors, decreases sensitivity to delayed/probabilistic reinforcement (MK-801) and sensitivity to reinforcer amount (ketamine). The differential effects of MK-801 and ketamine demonstrate that sensitivities to delayed/probabilistic reinforcement and reinforcer amount are pharmacologically dissociable.
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The Effects of Inflation and Interest Rates on Delay Discounting in Human Behavior
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kawashima, Kentaro
2006-01-01
Interest and inflation rates may be major determinants of delay discounting, but these variables have not been controlled in past experiments because they depend on macroeconomic conditions. This study uses a computer game-like task to investigate the effects of inflation rates on people's subjective valuation of delayed rewards. During the task,…
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Delay Discounting of Self-Determined and Experimenter-Determined Commodities
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Weatherly, Jeffrey N.; Gudding, Jennifer; Derenne, Adam
2010-01-01
Research suggests that individuals prefer self-determined reinforcers over experimenter-determined ones. The present study had 518 college students complete a delay-discounting task in which the commodity was cigarettes, a grocery store gift card, casino tokens, cash, or the choice of the four. The least amount of delay discounting was observed…
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Internet Addiction and Delay Discounting in College Students
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Saville, Bryan K.; Gisbert, Amanda; Kopp, Jason; Telesco, Carolyn
2010-01-01
To examine the relation between Internet addiction and delay discounting, we gave 276 college students a survey designed to measure Internet addiction and a paper-based delay-discounting task. In our larger sample, we identified 14 students who met the criteria for Internet addiction; we also identified 14 matched controls who were similar to the…
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Weatherly, Jeffrey N; Plumm, Karyn M
2012-01-01
Delay discounting occurs when the subjective value of an outcome decreases because its delivery is delayed. Previous research has suggested that the rate at which some, but not all, outcomes are discounted varies as a function of regular church attendance. In the present study, 509 participants completed measures of intrinsic religiousness, extrinsic religiousness, religious fundamentalism, and whether they regularly attended church services. They then completed a delay-discounting task involving five outcomes. Although religiousness was not a significant predictor of discounting for all outcomes, participants scoring high in intrinsic religiousness tended to display less delay discounting than participants scoring low. Likewise, participants scoring high in religious fundamentalism tended to display more delay discounting than participants scoring low. These results partially replicate previous ones in showing that the process of discounting may vary as a function of religiousness. The results also provide some direction for those interested in altering how individuals discount.
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Effects of delay and probability combinations on discounting in humans
Cox, David J.; Dallery, Jesse
2017-01-01
To determine discount rates, researchers typically adjust the amount of an immediate or certain option relative to a delayed or uncertain option. Because this adjusting amount method can be relatively time consuming, researchers have developed more efficient procedures. One such procedure is a 5-trial adjusting delay procedure, which measures the delay at which an amount of money loses half of its value (e.g., $1000 is valued at $500 with a 10-year delay to its receipt). Experiment 1 (n = 212) used 5-trial adjusting delay or probability tasks to measure delay discounting of losses, probabilistic gains, and probabilistic losses. Experiment 2 (n = 98) assessed combined probabilistic and delayed alternatives. In both experiments, we compared results from 5-trial adjusting delay or probability tasks to traditional adjusting amount procedures. Results suggest both procedures produced similar rates of probability and delay discounting in six out of seven comparisons. A magnitude effect consistent with previous research was observed for probabilistic gains and losses, but not for delayed losses. Results also suggest that delay and probability interact to determine the value of money. Five-trial methods may allow researchers to assess discounting more efficiently as well as study more complex choice scenarios. PMID:27498073
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Discounting of food, sex, and money.
Holt, Daniel D; Newquist, Matthew H; Smits, Rochelle R; Tiry, Andrew M
2014-06-01
Discounting is a useful framework for understanding choice involving a range of delayed and probabilistic outcomes (e.g., money, food, drugs), but relatively few studies have examined how people discount other commodities (e.g., entertainment, sex). Using a novel discounting task, where the length of a line represented the value of an outcome and was adjusted using a staircase procedure, we replicated previous findings showing that individuals discount delayed and probabilistic outcomes in a manner well described by a hyperbola-like function. In addition, we found strong positive correlations between discounting rates of delayed, but not probabilistic, outcomes. This suggests that discounting of delayed outcomes may be relatively predictable across outcome types but that discounting of probabilistic outcomes may depend more on specific contexts. The generality of delay discounting and potential context dependence of probability discounting may provide important information regarding factors contributing to choice behavior.
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The Value of Clean Air: Comparing Discounting of Delayed Air Quality and Money Across Magnitudes.
Berry, Meredith S; Friedel, Jonathan E; DeHart, William B; Mahamane, Salif; Jordan, Kerry E; Odum, Amy L
2017-06-01
The detrimental health effects of exposure to air pollution are well established. Fostering behavioral change concerning air quality may be challenging because the detrimental health effects of exposure to air pollution are delayed. Delay discounting, a measure of impulsive choice, encapsulates this process of choosing between the immediate conveniences of behaviors that increase pollution and the delayed consequences of prolonged exposure to poor air quality. In Experiment 1, participants completed a series of delay-discounting tasks for air quality and money. We found that participants discounted delayed air quality more than money. In Experiment 2, we investigated whether the common finding that large amounts of money are discounted less steeply than small amounts of money generalized to larger and smaller improvements in air quality. Participants discounted larger improvements in air quality less steeply than smaller improvements, indicating that the discounting of air quality shares a similar process as the discounting of money. Our results indicate that the discounting of delayed money is strongly related to the discounting of delayed air quality and that similar mechanisms may be involved in the discounting of these qualitatively different outcomes. These data are also the first to demonstrate the malleability of delay discounting of air quality, and provide important public health implications for decreasing delay discounting of air quality.
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The Vivid Present: Visualization Abilities Are Associated with Steep Discounting of Future Rewards
Parthasarathi, Trishala; McConnell, Mairead H.; Luery, Jeffrey; Kable, Joseph W.
2017-01-01
Humans and other animals discount the value of future rewards, a phenomenon known as delay discounting. Individuals vary widely in the extent to which they discount future rewards, and these tendencies have been associated with important life outcomes. Recent studies have demonstrated that imagining the future reduces subsequent discounting behavior, but no research to date has examined whether a similar principle applies at the trait level, and whether training visualization changes discounting. The current study examined if individual differences in visualization abilities are linked to individual differences in discounting and whether practicing visualization can change discounting behaviors in a lasting way. Participants (n = 48) completed the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ) and delay discounting task and then underwent a 4-week intervention consisting of visualization training (intervention) or relaxation training (control). Contrary to our hypotheses, participants who reported greater visualization abilities (lower scores) on the VVIQ were higher discounters. To further examine this relationship, an additional 106 participants completed the VVIQ and delay discounting task. In the total sample (n = 154), there was a significant negative correlation between VVIQ scores and discount rates, showing that individuals who are better visualizers are also higher discounters. Consistent with this relationship but again to our surprise, visualization training tended, albeit weakly, to increase discount rates, and those whose VVIQ decreased the most were those whose discount rates increased the most. These results suggest a novel association between visualization abilities and delay discounting. PMID:28321198
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The Vivid Present: Visualization Abilities Are Associated with Steep Discounting of Future Rewards.
Parthasarathi, Trishala; McConnell, Mairead H; Luery, Jeffrey; Kable, Joseph W
2017-01-01
Humans and other animals discount the value of future rewards, a phenomenon known as delay discounting. Individuals vary widely in the extent to which they discount future rewards, and these tendencies have been associated with important life outcomes. Recent studies have demonstrated that imagining the future reduces subsequent discounting behavior, but no research to date has examined whether a similar principle applies at the trait level, and whether training visualization changes discounting. The current study examined if individual differences in visualization abilities are linked to individual differences in discounting and whether practicing visualization can change discounting behaviors in a lasting way. Participants ( n = 48) completed the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ) and delay discounting task and then underwent a 4-week intervention consisting of visualization training (intervention) or relaxation training (control). Contrary to our hypotheses, participants who reported greater visualization abilities (lower scores) on the VVIQ were higher discounters. To further examine this relationship, an additional 106 participants completed the VVIQ and delay discounting task. In the total sample ( n = 154), there was a significant negative correlation between VVIQ scores and discount rates, showing that individuals who are better visualizers are also higher discounters. Consistent with this relationship but again to our surprise, visualization training tended, albeit weakly, to increase discount rates, and those whose VVIQ decreased the most were those whose discount rates increased the most. These results suggest a novel association between visualization abilities and delay discounting.
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Collado, Anahí; Johnson, Patrick S; Loya, Jennifer M; Johnson, Matthew W; Yi, Richard
2017-10-01
The study examined sexual delay discounting, or the devaluation of condom-protected sex in the face of delay, as a risk factor for sexually transmitted infection (STI) among college students. Participants (143 females, 117 males) completed the sexual delay discounting task (Johnson & Bruner, 2012) and questionnaires of risky sexual behavior, risk perception, and knowledge. Participants exhibited steeper sexual delay discounting (above and beyond general likelihood of having unprotected sex) when partners were viewed as more desirable or less likely to have a STI, with males demonstrating greater sexual delay discounting than females across most conditions. Importantly, greater self-reported risky sexual behaviors were associated with higher rates of sexual delay discounting, but not with likelihood of using a condom in the absence of delay. These results provide support for considering sexual delay discounting, with particular emphasis on potential delays to condom use, as a risk factor for STI among college students.
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Effects of delay and probability combinations on discounting in humans.
Cox, David J; Dallery, Jesse
2016-10-01
To determine discount rates, researchers typically adjust the amount of an immediate or certain option relative to a delayed or uncertain option. Because this adjusting amount method can be relatively time consuming, researchers have developed more efficient procedures. One such procedure is a 5-trial adjusting delay procedure, which measures the delay at which an amount of money loses half of its value (e.g., $1000 is valued at $500 with a 10-year delay to its receipt). Experiment 1 (n=212) used 5-trial adjusting delay or probability tasks to measure delay discounting of losses, probabilistic gains, and probabilistic losses. Experiment 2 (n=98) assessed combined probabilistic and delayed alternatives. In both experiments, we compared results from 5-trial adjusting delay or probability tasks to traditional adjusting amount procedures. Results suggest both procedures produced similar rates of probability and delay discounting in six out of seven comparisons. A magnitude effect consistent with previous research was observed for probabilistic gains and losses, but not for delayed losses. Results also suggest that delay and probability interact to determine the value of money. Five-trial methods may allow researchers to assess discounting more efficiently as well as study more complex choice scenarios. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Higgins, Guy A; Silenieks, Leo B; MacMillan, Cam; Zeeb, Fiona D; Thevarkunnel, Sandy
2018-04-22
Previous studies demonstrated that NMDA receptor antagonists such as dizocilpine (MK801) and the GluN2B NMDA antagonist Ro 63-1908 promote impulsive action (motor impulsivity). The effects of these treatments on impulsive choice and decision-making is less well characterized. Two experiments were undertaken. In the first experiment, given evidence for delay order as a factor in choice selection, the effect of dizocilpine was examined in a delay discounting task with separate groups of male Long-Evans rats trained to a schedule of either ascending (i.e. 0-40 s), or descending delays (i.e. 40-0 s). Under the ascending-delay schedule, dizocilpine (0.03-0.06 mg/kg SC) reduced discounting, yet on the descending-delay schedule discounting was increased. Subgrouping rats according to discounting rate under vehicle pretreatment were consistent with a treatment-induced choice perseveration. In a second experiment, male Long-Evans rats were trained to a gambling task (rGT). Neither dizocilpine (0.01-0.06 mg/kg SC) nor Ro 63-1908 (0.1-1 mg/kg SC) shifted choice from the advantageous to the disadvantageous options. However dizocilpine, and marginally Ro 63-1908, increased choice of the least risky, but suboptimal option. This effect was most evident in rats that initially preferred the disadvantageous options. Consistent with previous studies, both treatments increased measures of motor impulsivity. These results demonstrate that dizocilpine has effects on discounting dependent on delay order and likely reflective of perseveration. On the rGT task, neither dizocilpine nor Ro 63-1908 promoted risky choice, yet both NMDA receptor antagonists increased impulsive action. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Humans Can Adopt Optimal Discounting Strategy under Real-Time Constraints
Schweighofer, N; Shishida, K; Han, C. E; Okamoto, Y; Tanaka, S. C; Yamawaki, S; Doya, K
2006-01-01
Critical to our many daily choices between larger delayed rewards, and smaller more immediate rewards, are the shape and the steepness of the function that discounts rewards with time. Although research in artificial intelligence favors exponential discounting in uncertain environments, studies with humans and animals have consistently shown hyperbolic discounting. We investigated how humans perform in a reward decision task with temporal constraints, in which each choice affects the time remaining for later trials, and in which the delays vary at each trial. We demonstrated that most of our subjects adopted exponential discounting in this experiment. Further, we confirmed analytically that exponential discounting, with a decay rate comparable to that used by our subjects, maximized the total reward gain in our task. Our results suggest that the particular shape and steepness of temporal discounting is determined by the task that the subject is facing, and question the notion of hyperbolic reward discounting as a universal principle. PMID:17096592
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The Value of Clean Air: Comparing Discounting of Delayed Air Quality and Money Across Magnitudes
Friedel, Jonathan E.; DeHart, William B.; Mahamane, Salif; Jordan, Kerry E.; Odum, Amy L.
2018-01-01
The detrimental health effects of exposure to air pollution are well established. Fostering behavioral change concerning air quality may be challenging because the detrimental health effects of exposure to air pollution are delayed. Delay discounting, a measure of impulsive choice, encapsulates this process of choosing between the immediate conveniences of behaviors that increase pollution and the delayed consequences of prolonged exposure to poor air quality. In Experiment 1, participants completed a series of delay-discounting tasks for air quality and money. We found that participants discounted delayed air quality more than money. In Experiment 2, we investigated whether the common finding that large amounts of money are discounted less steeply than small amounts of money generalized to larger and smaller improvements in air quality. Participants discounted larger improvements in air quality less steeply than smaller improvements, indicating that the discounting of air quality shares a similar process as the discounting of money. Our results indicate that the discounting of delayed money is strongly related to the discounting of delayed air quality and that similar mechanisms may be involved in the discounting of these qualitatively different outcomes. These data are also the first to demonstrate the malleability of delay discounting of air quality, and provide important public health implications for decreasing delay discounting of air quality. PMID:29606776
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Johnson, Matthew W; Bruner, Natalie R
2013-08-01
The Sexual Discounting Task uses the delay discounting framework to examine sexual HIV risk behavior. Previous research showed task performance to be significantly correlated with self-reported HIV risk behavior in cocaine dependence. Test-retest reliability and gender differences had remained unexamined. The present study examined the test-retest reliability of the Sexual Discounting Task. Cocaine-dependent individuals (18 men, 13 women) completed the task in two laboratory visits ∼7 days apart. Participants selected photographs of individuals with whom they were willing to have casual sex. Among these, participants identified the individual most (and least) likely to have a sexually transmitted infection (STI), and the individual with whom he or she most (and least) wanted to have sex. In reference to these individuals, participants rated their likelihood of having unprotected sex versus waiting to have sex with a condom, at various delays. A money delay discounting task was also completed at the first visit. Significant differences in discounting among partner conditions were shown. Differential stability was demonstrated by significant, positive correlations between test and retest for all four partner conditions. Absolute stability was demonstrated by statistical equivalence tests between test and retest, and also supported by a lack of significant differences between test and retest. Men generally discounted significantly more than women for sexual outcomes but not money. Results suggest the Sexual Discounting Task to be a reliable measure in cocaine-dependent individuals, which supports its use as a repeated measure in clinical research, for example, studies examining acute drug effects on sexual risk and the effects of addiction treatment and HIV prevention interventions on sexual risk. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved
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Poltavski, Dmitri V; Weatherly, Jeffrey N
2013-12-01
The purpose of the present study was to investigate temporal and probabilistic discounting in smokers and never-smokers, across a number of commodities, using a multiple-choice method. One hundred and eighty-two undergraduate university students, of whom 90 had never smoked, 73 were self-reported light smokers (<10 cigarettes/day), and 17 were heavy smokers (10+cigarettes/day), completed computerized batteries of delay and probability discounting questions pertaining to a total of eight commodities and administered in a multiple-choice format. In addition to cigarettes, monetary rewards, and health outcomes, the tasks included novel commodities such as ideal dating partner and retirement income. The results showed that heavy smokers probability discounted commodities at a significantly shallower rate than never-smokers, suggesting greater risk-taking. No effect of smoking status was observed for delay discounting questions. The only commodity that was probability discounted significantly less than others was 'finding an ideal dating partner'. The results suggest that probability discounting tasks using the multiple-choice format can discriminate between non-abstaining smokers and never-smokers and could be further explored in the context of behavioral and drug addictions.
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Temporal Discounting and Inter-Temporal Choice in Rhesus Monkeys
Hwang, Jaewon; Kim, Soyoun; Lee, Daeyeol
2009-01-01
Humans and animals are more likely to take an action leading to an immediate reward than actions with delayed rewards of similar magnitudes. Although such devaluation of delayed rewards has been almost universally described by hyperbolic discount functions, the rate of this temporal discounting varies substantially among different animal species. This might be in part due to the differences in how the information about reward is presented to decision makers. In previous animal studies, reward delays or magnitudes were gradually adjusted across trials, so the animals learned the properties of future rewards from the rewards they waited for and consumed previously. In contrast, verbal cues have been used commonly in human studies. In the present study, rhesus monkeys were trained in a novel inter-temporal choice task in which the magnitude and delay of reward were indicated symbolically using visual cues and varied randomly across trials. We found that monkeys could extract the information about reward delays from visual symbols regardless of the number of symbols used to indicate the delay. The rate of temporal discounting observed in the present study was comparable to the previous estimates in other mammals, and the animal's choice behavior was largely consistent with hyperbolic discounting. Our results also suggest that the rate of temporal discounting might be influenced by contextual factors, such as the novelty of the task. The flexibility furnished by this new inter-temporal choice task might be useful for future neurobiological investigations on inter-temporal choice in non-human primates. PMID:19562091
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Temporal discounting and heart rate reactivity to stress.
Diller, James W; Patros, Connor H G; Prentice, Paula R
2011-07-01
Temporal discounting is the reduction of the value of a reinforcer as a function of increasing delay to its presentation. Impulsive individuals discount delayed consequences more rapidly than self-controlled individuals, and impulsivity has been related to substance abuse, gambling, and other problem behaviors. A growing body of literature has identified biological correlates of impulsivity, though little research to date has examined relations between delay discounting and markers of poor health (e.g., cardiovascular reactivity to stress). We evaluated the relation between one aspect of impulsivity, measured using a computerized temporal discounting task, and heart rate reactivity, measured as a change in heart rate from rest during a serial subtraction task. A linear regression showed that individuals who were more reactive to stress responded more impulsively (i.e., discounted delayed reinforcers more rapidly). When results were stratified by gender, the effect was observed for females, but not for males. This finding supports previous research on gender differences in cardiovascular reactivity and suggests that this type of reactivity may be an important correlate of impulsive behavior. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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A behavioral economic analysis of texting while driving: Delay discounting processes
Hayashi, Yusuke; Miller, Kimberly; Foreman, Anne M.; Wirth, Oliver
2016-01-01
The purpose of the present study was to examine an impulsive decision-making process underlying texting while driving from a behavioral economic perspective. A sample of 108 college students completed a novel discounting task that presented participants with a hypothetical scenario in which, after receiving a text message while driving, they rated the likelihood of replying to a text message immediately versus waiting to reply for a specific period of time. Participants also completed a delay discounting task in which they made repeated hypothetical choices between obtaining a larger amount of money available after a delay and an equal or lesser amount of money available immediately. The results show that the duration of the delay is a critical variable that strongly determines whether participants choose to wait to reply to a text message, and that the decrease in the likelihood of waiting as a function of delay is best described by a hyperbolic delay discounting function. The results also show that participants who self-reported higher frequency of texting while driving discounted the opportunity to reply to a text message at greater rates, whereas there was no relation between the rates of discounting of hypothetical monetary rewards and the frequency of texting while driving. The results support the conclusion that texting while driving is fundamentally an impulsive choice. PMID:27614547
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An alternative approach to calculating Area-Under-the-Curve (AUC) in delay discounting research.
Borges, Allison M; Kuang, Jinyi; Milhorn, Hannah; Yi, Richard
2016-09-01
Applied to delay discounting data, Area-Under-the-Curve (AUC) provides an atheoretical index of the rate of delay discounting. The conventional method of calculating AUC, by summing the areas of the trapezoids formed by successive delay-indifference point pairings, does not account for the fact that most delay discounting tasks scale delay pseudoexponentially, that is, time intervals between delays typically get larger as delays get longer. This results in a disproportionate contribution of indifference points at long delays to the total AUC, with minimal contribution from indifference points at short delays. We propose two modifications that correct for this imbalance via a base-10 logarithmic transformation and an ordinal scaling transformation of delays. These newly proposed indices of discounting, AUClog d and AUCor d, address the limitation of AUC while preserving a primary strength (remaining atheoretical). Re-examination of previously published data provides empirical support for both AUClog d and AUCor d . Thus, we believe theoretical and empirical arguments favor these methods as the preferred atheoretical indices of delay discounting. © 2016 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.
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The date-delay framing effect in temporal discounting depends on substance abuse.
Klapproth, Florian
2012-07-01
In the present study, individuals with substance use disorders (n=30) and non-addicted controls (n=30) were presented with a delay-discounting task with time being described either as dates or as temporal intervals. Three main results were obtained. First, in both groups reward size had a large impact on discounting future rewards, with discount rates becoming larger with smaller reward sizes. Second, participants discounted future rewards less strongly when their time of delivery was presented as a date instead of a temporal distance. Third, whereas discount rates of individuals with substance use disorders varied substantially with regard to the presentation of time in the task, the controls changed their choices depending on time presentation only slightly. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Wittmann, Marc; Leland, David S; Paulus, Martin P
2007-06-01
Delay discounting refers to the fact that an immediate reward is valued more than the same reward if it occurs some time in the future. To examine the neural substrates underlying this process, we studied 13 healthy volunteers who repeatedly had to decide between an immediate and parametrically varied delayed hypothetical reward using a delay discounting task during event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging. Subject's preference judgments resulted in different discounting slopes for shorter (<1 year) and for longer (> or =1 year) delays. Neural activation associated with the shorter delays relative to the longer delays was associated with increased activation in the head of the left caudate nucleus and putamen. When individuals selected the delayed relative to the immediate reward, a strong activation was found in bilateral posterior insular cortex. Several brain areas including the left caudate nucleus showed a correlation between the behaviorally determined discounting and brain activation for the contrast of intervals with delays <1 and > or =1 year. These results suggest that (1) the posterior insula, which is a critical component of the decision-making neural network, is involved in delaying gratification and (2) the degree of neural activation in the striatum, which plays a fundamental role in reward prediction and in time estimation, may code for the time delay.
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Pornpattananangkul, Narun; Nusslock, Robin
2016-10-01
While almost everyone discounts the value of future rewards over immediate rewards, people differ in their so-called delay-discounting. One of the several factors that may explain individual differences in delay-discounting is reward-processing. To study individual-differences in reward-processing, however, one needs to consider the heterogeneity of neural-activity at each reward-processing stage. Here using EEG, we separated reward-related neural activity into distinct reward-anticipation and reward-outcome stages using time-frequency characteristics. Thirty-seven individuals first completed a behavioral delay-discounting task. Then reward-processing EEG activity was assessed using a separate reward-learning task, called a reward time-estimation task. During this EEG task, participants were instructed to estimate time duration and were provided performance feedback on a trial-by-trial basis. Participants received monetary-reward for accurate-performance on Reward trials, but not on No-Reward trials. Reward trials, relative to No-Reward trials, enhanced EEG activity during both reward-anticipation (including, cued-locked delta power during cue-evaluation and pre-feedback alpha suppression during feedback-anticipation) and reward-outcome (including, feedback-locked delta, theta and beta power) stages. Moreover, all of these EEG indices correlated with behavioral performance in the time-estimation task, suggesting their essential roles in learning and adjusting performance to maximize winnings in a reward-learning situation. Importantly, enhanced EEG power during Reward trials, as reflected by stronger 1) pre-feedback alpha suppression, 2) feedback-locked theta and 3) feedback-locked beta, was associated with a greater preference for larger-but-delayed rewards in a separate, behavioral delay-discounting task. Results highlight the association between a stronger preference toward larger-but-delayed rewards and enhanced reward-processing. Moreover, our reward-processing EEG indices detail the specific stages of reward-processing where these associations occur. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Wong, Alanna; Dogra, Vimi R; Reichelt, Amy C
2017-06-01
Excessive consumption of sugar sweetened drinks is proposed to produce functional changes in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, leading to perturbations in behavioural control. Impairments in behavioural control have been observed in obese people on tasks that involve making choices, including delay-discounting, indicative of increased impulsivity. In this study we examined the impact of 2h daily access to 10% sucrose (or no sucrose in controls) in young male rats on behavioural tasks reliant on hippocampal function including delay-discounting, T-maze forced choice alternation and place recognition memory, as well as progressive ratio to measure motivation. We observed deficits in place recognition memory and T-maze forced choice alternation, indicative of hippocampal deficits in rats with a history of sucrose consumption. Moreover, rats with a history of sucrose consumption were less motivated to lever press for rewards on a progressive ratio schedule. However, rats with a history of sucrose consumption performed equally to control animals during the delay-discounting task, suggesting that they discounted for reward size over a delay in a manner comparable to control animals. These findings indicate that high-sucrose diets impact on spatial and working memory processes, but do not induce impulsive-like choice behaviours in rats, suggesting that unhealthy diet choices may not influence this aspect of decision-making behaviour. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Trading Later Rewards for Current Pleasure: Pornography Consumption and Delay Discounting.
Negash, Sesen; Sheppard, Nicole Van Ness; Lambert, Nathaniel M; Fincham, Frank D
2016-01-01
Internet pornography is a multi-billion-dollar industry that has grown increasingly accessible. Delay discounting involves devaluing larger, later rewards in favor of smaller, more immediate rewards. The constant novelty and primacy of sexual stimuli as particularly strong natural rewards make Internet pornography a unique activator of the brain's reward system, thereby having implications for decision-making processes. Based on theoretical studies of evolutionary psychology and neuroeconomics, two studies tested the hypothesis that consuming Internet pornography would relate to higher rates of delay discounting. Study 1 used a longitudinal design. Participants completed a pornography use questionnaire and a delay discounting task at Time 1 and then again four weeks later. Participants reporting higher initial pornography use demonstrated a higher delay discounting rate at Time 2, controlling for initial delay discounting. Study 2 tested for causality with an experimental design. Participants were randomly assigned to abstain from either their favorite food or pornography for three weeks. Participants who abstained from pornography use demonstrated lower delay discounting than participants who abstained from their favorite food. The finding suggests that Internet pornography is a sexual reward that contributes to delay discounting differently than other natural rewards. Theoretical and clinical implications of these studies are highlighted.
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Altering impulsive decision making with an acceptance-based procedure.
Morrison, Kate L; Madden, Gregory J; Odum, Amy L; Friedel, Jonathan E; Twohig, Michael P
2014-09-01
Delay discounting is one facet of impulsive decision making and involves subjectively devaluing a delayed outcome. Steeply discounting delayed rewards is correlated with substance abuse and other problematic behaviors. To the extent that steep delay discounting underlies these clinical disorders, it would be advantageous to find psychosocial avenues for reducing delay discounting. Acceptance-based interventions may prove useful as they may help to decrease the distress that arises while waiting for a delayed outcome. The current study was conducted to determine if a 60-90 minute acceptance-based training would change delay discounting rates among 30 undergraduate university students in comparison to a waitlist control. Measures given at pre- and posttraining included a hypothetical monetary delay discounting task, the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II), and the Distress Tolerance Scale. Those assigned to the treatment group decreased their discounting of delayed money, but not distress intolerance or psychological inflexibility when compared to the waitlist control group. After the waiting period, the control group received the intervention. Combining all participants' pre- to posttreatment data, the acceptance-based treatment significantly decreased discounting of monetary rewards and increased distress tolerance. The difference in AAQ-II approached significance. Acceptance-based treatments may be a worthwhile option for decreasing delay discounting rates and, consequently, affecting the choices that underlie addiction and other problematic behaviors. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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Delay discounting and utility for money or weight loss.
Sze, Y Y; Slaven, E M; Bickel, W K; Epstein, L H
2017-03-01
Obesity is related to a bias towards smaller immediate over larger delayed rewards. This bias is typically examined by studying single commodity discounting. However, weight loss often involves choices among multiple commodities. To our knowledge, no research has examined delay discounting of delayed weight loss compared with other commodities. We examined single commodity discounting of money and cross commodity discounting of money and weight loss in a sample of 84 adults with obesity or overweight statuses interested in weight loss. The exchange rate between money and weight loss was calculated, and participants completed two delay discounting tasks: money now versus money later and money now versus weight loss later. Participants discounted weight loss more than money ( p < 0.001). When participants were divided into those who preferred weight loss ( n = 61) versus money ( n = 23), those who preferred money over weight loss discounted weight loss even more than individuals that preferred weight loss ( p = 0.003). Greater discounting of weight loss for those who preferred money suggest that idiosyncratic preferences are related to multiple commodity discounting, and greater discounting of weight loss across all participants provide insight on important challenges for weight control.
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Weinstein, Aviv; Abu, Hodaya Ben; Timor, Ayelet; Mama, Yaniv
2016-12-01
Background and aims There is a previous evidence for impulsivity in individuals with Internet and Video Gaming Disorders. The aim of this study was to examine whether Internet and video game addictions are associated with experiential delay discounting, risk-taking, and sensitivity to social rejection using computerized tasks and questionnaires. Methods Twenty participants (mean age 24, SD = 1.55) with high score on the Problematic Online Gaming Questionnaire (POGQ) were compared with 20 participants (mean age 24.8, SD = 1.34) with low score on the POGQ. They performed on computerized Balloon Analog Risk Task and Experiential Delay discounting Task (EDT), and filled in the sensitivity to social rejection questionnaire. Results Participants with high POGQ scores had lower measures of delay discounting, higher measures of risk-taking, and higher measures of sensitivity to social rejection compared with participants with low POGQ scores. Discussion The results of this study support the previous evidence of risk-taking and provide new evidence for difficulties in delay discounting and sensitivity to social rejection among those who score high on Internet and video games. Conclusions The results suggest that Internet- and video game-addicted individuals seek immediate gratification and cannot wait for later reward. Furthermore, these individuals spend time in the virtual world, where they feel safe, and avoid social interactions presumably due to fears of social rejection.
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The role of muscarinic cholinergic signaling in cost-benefit decision making
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Fobbs, Wambura
Animals regularly face decisions that affect both their immediate success and long term survival. Such decisions typically involve some form of cost-benefit analysis and engage a number of high level cognitive processes, including learning, memory and motivational influences. While decision making has been a focus of study for over a century, it's only in the last 20 years that researchers have begun to identify functional neural circuits that subserve different forms of cost-benefit decision making. Even though the cholinergic system is both functionally and anatomically positioned to modulate cost-benefit decision circuits, the contribution of the cholinergic system to decision making has been little studied. In this thesis, I investigated the cognitive and neural contribution of muscarinic cholinergic signaling to cost-benefit decision making. I, first, re-examined the effects of systemic administration of 0.3 mg/kg atropine on delay and probability discounting tasks and found that blockade of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors by atropine induced suboptimal choices (impulsive and risky) in both tasks. Since the effect on delay discounting was restricted to the No Cue version of the delay discounting task, I concluded that muscarinic cholinergic signaling mediates both forms of cost-benefit decision making and is selectively engaged when decisions require valuation of reward options whose costs are not externally signified. Second, I assessed the impact of inactivating the nucleus basalis (NBM) on both forms decision making and the effect of injecting atropine locally into the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), basolateral amygdala (BLA), or nucleus accumbens (NAc) core during the No Cue version of the delay discounting task. I discovered that although NBM inactivation failed to affect delay discounting, it induced risk aversion in the probability discounting task; and blockade of intra- NAc core, but not intra-OFC or intra-BLA, muscarinic cholinergic signaling lead to increased choice of the delayed reward. While those findings implicate the NBM in supporting risky choices and intra-NAc core muscarinic signaling in discouraging delayed choice, more work is needed to fully elucidate the underlying mechanisms.
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A behavioral economic analysis of texting while driving: Delay discounting processes.
Hayashi, Yusuke; Miller, Kimberly; Foreman, Anne M; Wirth, Oliver
2016-12-01
The purpose of the present study was to examine an impulsive decision-making process underlying texting while driving from a behavioral economic perspective. A sample of 108 college students completed a novel discounting task that presented participants with a hypothetical scenario in which, after receiving a text message while driving, they rated the likelihood of replying to a text message immediately versus waiting to reply for a specific period of time. Participants also completed a delay discounting task in which they made repeated hypothetical choices between obtaining a larger amount of money available after a delay and an equal or lesser amount of money available immediately. The results show that the duration of the delay is a critical variable that strongly determines whether participants choose to wait to reply to a text message, and that the decrease in the likelihood of waiting as a function of delay is best described by a hyperbolic delay discounting function. The results also show that participants who self-reported higher frequency of texting while driving discounted the opportunity to reply to a text message at greater rates, whereas there was no relation between the rates of discounting of hypothetical monetary rewards and the frequency of texting while driving. The results support the conclusion that texting while driving is fundamentally an impulsive choice. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Longitudinal and reciprocal relations between delay discounting and crime
Lee, Christine A.; Derefinko, Karen J.; Milich, Richard; Lynam, Donald R.; DeWall, C. Nathan
2017-01-01
Theorists argue that self-control failure is the underlying cause of criminal behavior, with previous research linking poor self-control to delinquency and drug use. The path from self-control to crime is well-established, but less is known about whether criminal behavior contributes to self-control deficits over time. We investigated bi-directional relations between self-control assessed via a delay discounting task and self-reported crime over a three-year period. During their first, second (73.38% retention rate), and third (63.12% retention rate) years of college, 526 undergraduates completed a delay discounting task and reported on their criminal behavior. In order to maximize variability, participants with conduct problems were overrecruited, comprising 23.1% of the final sample. As expected, more discounting of hypothetical monetary rewards significantly predicted future property crime across a one and two-year period, even when controlling for initial levels of both. This study also demonstrated evidence of a bi-directional relationship; violent crime predicted higher rates of delay discounting one year later. These results suggest that bi-directional relations exist between self-control and types of crime. PMID:28970645
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Bi-frontal direct current stimulation affects delay discounting choices.
Hecht, David; Walsh, Vincent; Lavidor, Michal
2013-01-01
In delay discounting tasks, participants decide between receiving a certain amount of money now or a larger sum sometime in the future. This study investigated the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on delay discounting. Participants made delay discounting choices while receiving a bi-frontal stimulation of right-hemisphere anodal/left-hemisphere cathodal, left-hemisphere anodal/right-hemisphere cathodal, and sham stimulation, in three separate sessions. When the difference between the alternatives was 10% or more, participants generally preferred to wait for the larger sum. Nevertheless, there were more choices of smaller "immediate" gains, instead of the larger delayed options, when the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) was facilitated and the right DLPFC inhibited, compared to the sham stimulation. These observations indicate the significant role of the prefrontal cortex in delay discounting choices, and demonstrate that increased left frontal activation combined with decreased right frontal activation can alter decision-making by intensifying a tendency to choose immediate gains.
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Differences in delay discounting between smokers and nonsmokers remain when both rewards are delayed
Mitchell, Suzanne H.; Wilson, Vanessa B.
2013-01-01
Rationale When offered a choice between a small monetary reward available immediately (SmallNow) versus a larger reward available after a delay (LargeLater), smokers select the SmallNow alternative more than nonsmokers. That is, smokers discount the value of the LargeLater reward more than nonsmokers. Objectives To investigate whether this group difference was due to smokers overweighing the value of rewards available immediately compared with nonsmokers, we examined whether the group difference was also seen when both alternatives were delayed, i.e., when choosing between a SmallSoon reward and a LargeLater reward. Methods In Experiment 1, smokers and nonsmokers completed a task including SmallNow versus LargeLater choices and SmallSoon versus LargeLater choices. In Experiment 2, smokers and nonsmokers completed the same task but with hypothetical choices. Results Analyses using hyperbolic and double exponential (β-δ) models replicate prior findings that smokers discount the LargeLater reward more than nonsmokers when the smaller reward is available immediately. The smoker-nonsmoker difference was also seen when the smaller reward was slightly delayed, though this effect was primarily driven by heightened discounting in male smokers. However, for potentially real rewards only, this smoker-nonsmoker difference was significantly reduced when the smaller reward was delayed. Conclusions The smoker-nonsmoker difference in discounting is not confined to situations involving immediate rewards. Differences associated with potentially real vs. hypothetical rewards and gender underscore the complexity of the smoking-delay discounting relationship. PMID:21983917
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Pornpattananangkul, Narun; Nusslock, Robin
2016-01-01
While almost everyone discounts the value of future rewards over immediate rewards, people differ in their so-called delay-discounting. One of the several factors that may explain individual differences in delay-discounting is reward-processing. To study individual-differences in reward-processing, however, one needs to consider the heterogeneity of neural-activity at each reward-processing stage. Here using EEG, we separated reward-related neural activity into distinct reward-anticipation and reward-outcome stages using time-frequency characteristics. Thirty-seven individuals completed a behavioral delay-discounting task. Reward-processing EEG activity was assessed using a separate reward-learning task, called a reward time-estimation task. During this task, participants were instructed to estimate time duration and were provided performance feedback on a trial-by-trial basis. Participants received monetary-reward for accurate-performance on Reward trials, but not on No-Reward trials. Reward trials, relative to No-Reward trials, enhanced EEG activity during both reward-anticipation stage (including, cued-locked delta power during cue-evaluation and pre-feedback alpha suppression during feedback-anticipation) and at the reward-outcome stage (including, feedback-locked delta, theta and beta power). Moreover, all of these EEG indices correlated with behavioral performance in the time-estimation task, suggesting their essential roles in learning and adjusting performance to maximize winnings in a reward-learning situation. Importantly, enhanced EEG power during Reward trials for 1) pre-feedback alpha suppression, 2) feedback-locked theta and 3) feedback-locked beta was associated with a greater preference for larger-but-delayed rewards. Results highlight the association between a stronger preference toward larger-but-delayed rewards and enhanced reward-processing. Moreover, our reward-processing EEG indices detail the specific stages of reward-processing where these associations occur. PMID:27477630
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Mendez, I A; Damborsky, J C; Winzer-Serhan, U H; Bizon, J L; Setlow, B
2013-01-29
Nicotinic receptors have been linked to a wide range of cognitive and behavioral functions, but surprisingly little is known about their involvement in cost benefit decision making. The goal of these experiments was to determine how nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) expression is related to two forms of cost benefit decision making. Male Long Evans rats were tested in probability- and delay-discounting tasks, which required discrete trial choices between a small reward and a large reward associated with varying probabilities of omission and varying delays to reward delivery, respectively. Following testing, radioligand binding to α4β2 and α7 nAChR subtypes in brain regions implicated in cost benefit decision making was examined. Significant linear relationships were observed between choice of the large delayed reward in the delay discounting task and α4β2 receptor binding in both the dorsal and ventral hippocampus. Additionally, trends were found suggesting that choice of the large costly reward in both discounting tasks was inversely related to α4β2 receptor binding in the medial prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens shell. Similar trends suggested that choice of the large delayed reward in the delay discounting task was inversely related to α4β2 receptor binding in the orbitofrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens core, and basolateral amygdala, as well as to α7 receptor binding in the basolateral amygdala. These data suggest that nAChRs (particularly α4β2) play both unique and common roles in decisions that require consideration of different types of reward costs. Copyright © 2012 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Rats bred for high alcohol drinking are more sensitive to delayed and probabilistic outcomes.
Wilhelm, C J; Mitchell, S H
2008-10-01
Alcoholics and heavy drinkers score higher on measures of impulsivity than nonalcoholics and light drinkers. This may be because of factors that predate drug exposure (e.g. genetics). This study examined the role of genetics by comparing impulsivity measures in ethanol-naive rats selectively bred based on their high [high alcohol drinking (HAD)] or low [low alcohol drinking (LAD)] consumption of ethanol. Replicates 1 and 2 of the HAD and LAD rats, developed by the University of Indiana Alcohol Research Center, completed two different discounting tasks. Delay discounting examines sensitivity to rewards that are delayed in time and is commonly used to assess 'choice' impulsivity. Probability discounting examines sensitivity to the uncertain delivery of rewards and has been used to assess risk taking and risk assessment. High alcohol drinking rats discounted delayed and probabilistic rewards more steeply than LAD rats. Discount rates associated with probabilistic and delayed rewards were weakly correlated, while bias was strongly correlated with discount rate in both delay and probability discounting. The results suggest that selective breeding for high alcohol consumption selects for animals that are more sensitive to delayed and probabilistic outcomes. Sensitivity to delayed or probabilistic outcomes may be predictive of future drinking in genetically predisposed individuals.
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Carrier Emond, Fannie; Gagnon, Jean; Nolet, Kevin; Cyr, Gaëlle; Rouleau, Joanne-Lucine
2018-02-01
Self-reported impulsivity has been found to predict the perpetration of sexual coercion in both sexual offenders and male college students. Impulsivity can be conceptualized as a generalized lack of self-control (i.e., general perspective) or as a multifaceted construct that can vary from one context to the other (i.e., domain-specific perspective). Delay discounting, the tendency to prefer sooner smaller rewards over larger delayed rewards, is a measure of impulsive decision making. Recent sexual adaptations of delay discounting tasks can be used to test domain-specific assumptions. The present study used the UPPS-P impulsivity questionnaire, a standard money discounting task, and a sexual discounting task to predict past use of sexual coercion in a sample of 98 male college students. Results indicated that higher negative urgency scores, less impulsive money discounting, and more impulsive sexual discounting all predicted sexual coercion. Consistent with previous studies, sexuality was discounted more steeply than money by both perpetrators and non-perpetrators of sexual coercion, but this difference was twice as large in perpetrators compared to non-perpetrators. Our study identified three different predictors of sexual coercion in male college students: a broad tendency to act rashly under negative emotions, a specific difficulty to postpone sexual gratification, and a pattern of optimal non-sexual decision making. Results highlight the importance of using multiple measures, including sexuality-specific measures, to get a clear portrait of the links between impulsivity and sexual coercion.
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Hill, Paul F; Yi, Richard; Spreng, R Nathan; Diana, Rachel A
2017-11-15
Behavioral studies using delay and social discounting as indices of self-control and altruism, respectively, have revealed functional similarities between farsighted and social decisions. However, neural evidence for this functional link is lacking. Twenty-five young adults completed a delay and social discounting task during fMRI scanning. A spatiotemporal partial least squares analysis revealed that both forms of discounting were well characterized by a pattern of brain activity in areas comprising frontoparietal control, default, and mesolimbic reward networks. Both forms of discounting appear to draw on common neurocognitive mechanisms, regardless of whether choices involve intertemporal or interpersonal outcomes. We also observed neural profiles differentiating between high and low discounters. High discounters were well characterized by increased medial temporal lobe and limbic activity. In contrast, low discount rates were associated with activity in the medial prefrontal cortex and right temporoparietal junction. This pattern may reflect biological mechanisms underlying behavioral heterogeneity in discount rates. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Texting while driving as impulsive choice: A behavioral economic analysis
Hayashi, Yusuke; Russo, Christopher T.; Wirth, Oliver
2015-01-01
The goal of the present study was to examine the utility of a behavioral economic analysis to investigate the role of delay discounting in texting while driving. A sample of 147 college students completed a survey to assess how frequently they send and read text messages while driving. Based on this information, students were assigned to one of two groups: 19 students who frequently text while driving and 19 matched-control students who infrequently text while driving but were similar in gender, age, years of education, and years driving. The groups were compared on the extent to which they discounted, or devalued, delayed hypothetical monetary rewards using a delay-discounting task. In this task, students made repeated choices between $1000 available after a delay (ranging from 1 week to 10 years) and an equal or lesser amount of money available immediately. The results show that the students who frequently text while driving discounted delayed rewards at a greater rate than the matched control students. The study supports the conclusions that texting while driving is fundamentally an impulsive choice made by drivers, and that a behavioral economic approach may be a useful research tool for investigating the decision-making processes underlying risky behaviors. PMID:26280804
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Seinstra, Maayke; Grzymek, Katharina; Kalenscher, Tobias
2015-01-01
As the population of older adults grows, their economic choices will have increasing impact on society. Research on the effects of aging on intertemporal decisions shows inconsistent, often opposing results, indicating that yet unexplored factors might play an essential role in guiding one's choices. Recent studies suggest that episodic future thinking, which is based on the same neural network involved in episodic memory functions, leads to reductions in discounting of future rewards. As episodic memory functioning declines with normal aging, but to greatly variable degrees, individual differences in delay discounting might be due to individual differences in the vitality of this memory system in older adults. We investigated this hypothesis, using a sample of healthy older adults who completed an intertemporal choice task as well as two episodic memory tasks. We found no clear evidence for a relationship between episodic memory performance and delay discounting in older adults. However, when additionally considering gender differences, we found an interaction effect of gender and autobiographical memory on delay discounting: while men with higher memory scores showed less delay discounting, women with higher memory scores tended to discount the future more. We speculate that this gender effect might stem from the gender-specific use of different modal representation formats (i.e. temporal or visual) during assessment of intertemporal choice options. PMID:26335426
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Dai, Junyi; Gunn, Rachel L; Gerst, Kyle R; Busemeyer, Jerome R; Finn, Peter R
2016-10-01
Previous studies have demonstrated that working memory capacity plays a central role in delay discounting in people with externalizing psychopathology. These studies used a hyperbolic discounting model, and its single parameter-a measure of delay discounting-was estimated using the standard method of searching for indifference points between intertemporal options. However, there are several problems with this approach. First, the deterministic perspective on delay discounting underlying the indifference point method might be inappropriate. Second, the estimation procedure using the R2 measure often leads to poor model fit. Third, when parameters are estimated using indifference points only, much of the information collected in a delay discounting decision task is wasted. To overcome these problems, this article proposes a random utility model of delay discounting. The proposed model has 2 parameters, 1 for delay discounting and 1 for choice variability. It was fit to choice data obtained from a recently published data set using both maximum-likelihood and Bayesian parameter estimation. As in previous studies, the delay discounting parameter was significantly associated with both externalizing problems and working memory capacity. Furthermore, choice variability was also found to be significantly associated with both variables. This finding suggests that randomness in decisions may be a mechanism by which externalizing problems and low working memory capacity are associated with poor decision making. The random utility model thus has the advantage of disclosing the role of choice variability, which had been masked by the traditional deterministic model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).
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Age Differences in Future Orientation and Delay Discounting
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Steinberg, Laurence; Graham, Sandra; O'Brien, Lia; Woolard, Jennifer; Cauffman, Elizabeth; Banich, Marie
2009-01-01
Age differences in future orientation are examined in a sample of 935 individuals between 10 and 30 years using a delay discounting task as well as a new self-report measure. Younger adolescents consistently demonstrate a weaker orientation to the future than do individuals aged 16 and older, as reflected in their greater willingness to accept a…
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Mendez, Ian A; Gilbert, Ryan J; Bizon, Jennifer L; Setlow, Barry
2012-12-01
Alterations in cost-benefit decision making accompany numerous neuropsychiatric conditions, including schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and addiction. Central cholinergic systems have been linked to the etiology and/or treatment of many of these conditions, but little is known about the role of cholinergic signaling in cost-benefit decision making. The goal of these experiments was to determine how cholinergic signaling is involved in cost-benefit decision making, using a behavioral pharmacological approach. Male Long-Evans rats were trained in either "probability discounting" or "delay discounting" tasks, in which rats made discrete-trial choices between a small food reward and a large food reward associated with either varying probabilities of omission or varying delays to delivery, respectively. The effects of acute administration of different doses of nicotinic and muscarinic acetylcholine receptor agonists and antagonists were assessed in each task. In the probability discounting task, acute nicotine administration (1.0 mg/kg) significantly increased choice of the large risky reward, and control experiments suggested that this was due to robust nicotine-induced impairments in behavioral flexibility. In the delay discounting task, the muscarinic antagonists scopolamine (0.03, 0.1, and 0.3 mg/kg) and atropine (0.3 mg/kg) both significantly increased choice of the small immediate reward. Neither mecamylamine nor oxotremorine produced reliable effects on either of the decision making tasks. These data suggest that cholinergic receptors play multiple roles in decision making contexts which include consideration of reward delay or probability. These roles should be considered when targeting these receptors for therapeutic purposes.
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Mitchell, Marci R.; Weiss, Virginia G.; Ouimet, Dominique J.; Fuchs, Rita A.; Morgan, Drake; Setlow, Barry
2014-01-01
Cocaine use is associated with high levels of impulsive choice (greater discounting of delayed rewards) in humans, but the cause/effect relationships between cocaine use and impulsive choice are not fully understood. In previous work, we found that both experimenter- and self-administration of fixed quantities of cocaine caused lasting increases in impulsive choice in rats. The present study extended these findings by taking into account baseline impulsive choice prior to self-administration, and by allowing rats free access to cocaine. Male Long-Evans rats were trained in a delay discounting task in which they made discrete-trial choices between small immediate and large delayed food rewards. Half of the rats were then implanted with intravenous catheters and, following recovery, allowed to self-administer cocaine HCl (1.0 mg/kg/infusion) in 6 hour sessions over 14 days. Control rats orally self-administered a sucrose solution under similar conditions. Upon completion of self-administration training, rats remained abstinent for 3 weeks before retesting in the delay discounting task. Cocaine and control groups did not differ prior to self-administration, but afterward, the cocaine group showed greater impulsive choice (fewer choices of large, delayed rewards) than controls. Additional analyses revealed that the effects of cocaine on impulsive choice were intake-dependent; rats classified as “low intake” did not differ from controls, whereas rats classified as “high intake” were significantly more impulsive than both controls and their pre-cocaine baseline. These findings are consistent with the idea that cocaine-induced, pharmacologically based neural adaptations promote the development of impulsive decision making. PMID:24841739
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Resource Slack and Propensity to Discount Delayed Investments of Time Versus Money
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Zauberman, Gal; Lynch, John G.
2005-01-01
The authors demonstrate that people discount delayed outcomes as a result of perceived changes over time in supplies of slack. Slack is the perceived surplus of a given resource available to complete a focal task. The present research shows that, in general, people expect slack for time to be greater in the future than in the present. Typically,…
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Texting while driving as impulsive choice: A behavioral economic analysis.
Hayashi, Yusuke; Russo, Christopher T; Wirth, Oliver
2015-10-01
The goal of the present study was to examine the utility of a behavioral economic analysis to investigate the role of delay discounting in texting while driving. A sample of 147 college students completed a survey to assess how frequently they send and read text messages while driving. Based on this information, students were assigned to one of two groups: 19 students who frequently text while driving and 19 matched-control students who infrequently text while driving but were similar in gender, age, years of education, and years driving. The groups were compared on the extent to which they discounted, or devalued, delayed hypothetical monetary rewards using a delay-discounting task. In this task, students made repeated choices between $1000 available after a delay (ranging from 1 week to 10 years) and an equal or lesser amount of money available immediately. The results show that the students who frequently text while driving discounted delayed rewards at a greater rate than the matched control students. The study supports the conclusions that texting while driving is fundamentally an impulsive choice made by drivers, and that a behavioral economic approach may be a useful research tool for investigating the decision-making processes underlying risky behaviors. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Wongsomboon, Val; Robles, Elias
2017-10-01
The value of safe sex may be discounted based on contextual factors associated with an opportunity for sex. College students in a within-subjects study selected hypothetical sexual partners from a set of pictures and classified them based on attractiveness and estimated chance of having an sexually transmitted infection (STI). In the Sexual Delay Discounting (SDD) task, participants rated their likelihood (0-100 %) of waiting for some period of time (e.g., 3 h) to have protected sex with their selected partners, when they could have immediate sex without protection. In the Sexual Probability Discounting (SPD) task, participants rated their likelihood of having protected sex if the opportunity was uncertain (e.g., 50 %), when they could have unprotected sex for sure (100 %). All participants included in the final analyses were aware of and had a positive attitude towards protection against STIs as they were likely to have immediate (or certain) protected sex. Results from 432 delay data in the SDD task and 488 probability data in the SPD task showed that participants' preference for safe sex systematically decreased as the delay to and odds against having safe sex increased. However, this preference was altered by the participants' perception of their partner's attractiveness and STI risk.
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Gambling, Delay, and Probability Discounting in Adults With and Without ADHD.
Dai, Zhijie; Harrow, Sarah-Eve; Song, Xianwen; Rucklidge, Julia J; Grace, Randolph C
2016-11-01
We investigated the relationship between impulsivity, as measured by delay and probability discounting, and gambling-related cognitions and behavior in adults with and without ADHD. Adults who met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV) diagnostic criteria for ADHD (n = 31) and controls (n = 29) were recruited from the community. All completed an interview that included an assessment of psychiatric disorders, gambling questionnaires, and simulated gambling, delay, and probability discounting tasks. The ADHD group was more likely to meet the criteria for problem gambling and was more impulsive than controls based on a composite discounting measure. ADHD symptoms were correlated with gambling-related cognitions and behavior. Probability, but not delay discounting, explained significant variance in gambling-related measures after controlling for ADHD symptoms. Results confirm an association between adult ADHD and gambling, and suggest that the facets of impulsivity related to risk proneness may be an independent risk factor for problem gambling in this population. © The Author(s) 2013.
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Victims' time discounting 2.5 years after the Wenchuan earthquake: an ERP study.
Li, Jin-Zhen; Gui, Dan-Yang; Feng, Chun-Liang; Wang, Wen-Zhong; Du, Bo-Qi; Gan, Tian; Luo, Yue-Jia
2012-01-01
Time discounting refers to the fact that the subjective value of a reward decreases as the delay until its occurrence increases. The present study investigated how time discounting has been affected in survivors of the magnitude-8.0 Wenchuan earthquake that occurred in China in 2008. Nineteen earthquake survivors and 22 controls, all school teachers, participated in the study. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) for time discounting tasks involving gains and losses were acquired in both the victims and controls. The behavioral data replicated our previous findings that delayed gains were discounted more steeply after a disaster. ERP results revealed that the P200 and P300 amplitudes were increased in earthquake survivors. There was a significant group (earthquake vs. non-earthquake) × task (gain vs. loss) interaction for the N300 amplitude, with a marginally significantly reduced N300 for gain tasks in the experimental group, which may suggest a deficiency in inhibitory control for gains among victims. The results suggest that post-disaster decisions might involve more emotional (System 1) and less rational thinking (System 2) in terms of a dual-process model of decision making. The implications for post-disaster intervention and management are also discussed.
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Heaven can wait. How religion modulates temporal discounting.
Paglieri, Fabio; Borghi, Anna M; Colzato, Lorenza S; Hommel, Bernhard; Scorolli, Claudia
2013-11-01
Evidence suggests that religious systems have specific effects on attentional and action control processes. The present study investigated whether religions also modulate choices that involve higher-order knowledge and the delay of gratification in particular. We tested Dutch Calvinists, Italian Catholics, and Atheists from both countries/cultures using an intertemporal choice task where participants could choose between a small immediate and a larger delayed monetary reward. Based on the Calvinist theory of predestination and the Catholic concept of a cycle of sin-confession-expiation, we predicted a reduced delay tolerance, i.e., higher discount rate, for Italian Catholics than for Dutch Calvinists, and intermediate rates for the two atheist groups. Analyses of discount rates support our hypotheses. We also found a magnitude effect on temporal discounting and faster responses for large than for small rewards across religions and countries/cultures. We conclude that temporal discounting is specifically modulated by religious upbringing rather than by generic cultural differences.
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Frontal Hyperconnectivity Related to Discounting and Reversal Learning in Cocaine Subjects
Camchong, Jazmin; MacDonald, Angus W; Nelson, Brent; Bell, Christopher; Mueller, Bryon A; Specker, Sheila; Lim, Kelvin O
2011-01-01
BACKGROUND Functional neuroimaging studies suggest that chronic cocaine use is associated with frontal lobe abnormalities. Functional connectivity (FC) alterations of cocaine dependent individuals (CD), however, are not yet clear. This is the first study to our knowledge that examines resting FC of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in CD. Because ACC is known to integrate inputs from different brain regions to regulate behavior, we hypothesize that CD will have connectivity abnormalities in ACC networks. In addition, we hypothesized that abnormalities would be associated with poor performance in delayed discounting and reversal learning tasks. METHODS Resting functional magnetic resonance imaging data were collected to look for FC differences between twenty-seven cocaine dependent individuals (CD) (5 females, age: M=39.73, SD=6.14) and twenty-four controls (5 females, age: M=39.76, SD = 7.09). Participants were assessed with delayed discounting and reversal learning tasks. Using seed-based FC measures, we examined FC in CD and controls within five ACC connectivity networks with seeds in subgenual, caudal, dorsal, rostral, and perigenual ACC. RESULTS CD showed increased FC within the perigenual ACC network in left middle frontal gyrus, ACC and middle temporal gyrus when compared to controls. FC abnormalities were significantly positively correlated with task performance in delayed discounting and reversal learning tasks in CD. CONCLUSIONS The present study shows that participants with chronic cocaine-dependency have hyperconnectivity within an ACC network known to be involved in social processing and mentalizing. In addition, FC abnormalities found in CD were associated with difficulties with delay rewards and slower adaptive learning. PMID:21371689
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Vickers, Steven P; Goddard, Simon; Brammer, Richard J; Hutson, Peter H; Heal, David J
2017-06-01
Freely-fed, female, rats were trained in a two-lever, delay-discounting task: one lever delivered a single chocolate-flavoured pellet immediately and the other a three-pellet reward after increasing delay (0, 4, 8, 16, 32 s). Rats were divided into two groups (i.e. binge-eating rats given irregular, limited access to chocolate in addition to normal chow and controls maintained on normal chow). Both groups exhibited increased preference for the immediate reward as the delay interval was lengthened. The discounting rate was significantly greater in binge-eating rats than non-binge-eating controls, especially as the behaviour became more established indicating that increased impulsivity and intolerance of delayed reward are part of the psychopathology of binge-eating. Lisdexamfetamine (0.8 mg/kg, orally ( d-amphetamine base)) reversed the reduced preference of binge-eating rats for larger rewards at delay intervals of 4 s, 8 s and 32 s and across all sessions. Lisdexamfetamine-treated binge-eating rats consumed the same number of pellets as vehicle-treated, binge-eating rats and non-binge-eating controls eliminating the possibility lisdexamfetamine's actions on appetite or satiety mediated its effects on operant responding for food pellets in delay-discounting. In summary, binge-eating rats showed increased impulsive choice compared with non-binge-eating controls that was reversed by lisdexamfetamine, complementing results showing lisdexamfetamine reduced impulsiveness scores in patients with binge-eating disorder.
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Schwager, Andrea L; Haack, Andrew K; Taha, Sharif A
2014-10-01
Stress-induced disruption of decision making has been hypothesized to contribute to drug-seeking behaviors and addiction. Noradrenergic signaling plays a central role in mediating stress responses. However, the effects of acute stress on decision making, and the role of noradrenergic signaling in regulating these effects, have not been well characterized. To characterize changes in decision making caused by acute pharmacological stress, the effects of yohimbine (an α2-adrenergic antagonist) were examined in a delay discounting task. Noradrenergic contributions to decision making were further characterized by examining the effects of propranolol (a β antagonist), prazosin (an α1 antagonist), and guanfacine (an α2 agonist). Sprague-Dawley rats were administered drugs prior to performance on a delay discounting task, in which the delay preceding the large reward increased within each session (ascending delays). To dissociate drug-induced changes in delay sensitivity from behavioral inflexibility, drug effects were subsequently tested in a modified version of the discounting task, in which the delay preceding the large reward decreased within each session (descending delays). Yohimbine increased choice of the large reward when tested with ascending delays but decreased choice of the same large reward when tested with descending delays, suggesting that drug effects could be attributed to perseverative choice of the lever preferred at the beginning of the session. Propranolol increased choice of the large reward when tested with ascending delays. Prazosin and guanfacine had no effect on reward choice. The stress-like effects of yohimbine administration may impair decision making by causing inflexible, perseverative behavior.
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Steinglass, Joanna E; Lempert, Karolina M; Choo, Tse-Hwei; Kimeldorf, Marcia B; Wall, Melanie; Walsh, B Timothy; Fyer, Abby J; Schneier, Franklin R; Simpson, H Blair
2017-05-01
Temporal discounting refers to the tendency for rewards to lose value as the expected delay to receipt increases. Individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) have been found to show reduced temporal discounting rates, indicating a greater preference for delayed rewards compared to healthy peers. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and social anxiety disorder (SAD) commonly co-occur with AN, and anxiety has been related to development and prognosis of AN. We examined whether reduced temporal discounting is present across these potentially related disorders, and explored the relationship between temporal discounting and anxiety transdiagnostically. One hundred ninety six individuals (75 healthy controls (HC); 50 OCD; 27 AN; 44 SAD) completed two temporal discounting tasks in which they chose between smaller-sooner and larger-later monetary rewards. Two measures of discounting-discount rate and discount factor-were compared between diagnostic groups, and associations with anxious traits were examined. Individuals with AN showed decreased temporal discounting compared to HC. OCD and SAD groups did not differ significantly from HC. Across the sample, anxiety was associated with decreased discounting; more anxious individuals showed a greater preference for delayed reward. We replicated the findings that individuals with AN show an increased preference for delayed reward relative to HC and that individuals with OCD do not differ from HC. We also showed that individuals with SAD do not differ from HC in discounting. Across this large sample, two measures of anxious temperament were associated with temporal discounting. These data raise new questions about the relationship between this dimensional trait and psychopathology. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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Sleep deprivation alters effort discounting but not delay discounting of monetary rewards.
Libedinsky, Camilo; Massar, Stijn A A; Ling, Aiqing; Chee, Weiyan; Huettel, Scott A; Chee, Michael W L
2013-06-01
To determine whether sleep deprivation would affect the discounting of delayed rewards, of rewards entailing the expense of effort, or both. We measured rates of two types of reward discounting under conditions of rested wakefulness (RW) and sleep deprivation (SD). Delay discounting was defined as the willingness to accept smaller monetary rewards sooner rather than larger monetary rewards later. Effort discounting was defined as the willingness to accept smaller rewards that require less effort to obtain (e.g., typing a small number of letter strings backward) over larger but more effortful rewards (e.g., typing more letter strings to receive the reward). The first two experiments used a crossover design in which one session was conducted after a normal night of sleep (RW), and the other after a night without sleep (SD). The first experiment evaluated only temporal discounting whereas the second evaluated temporal and effort discounting. In the second experiment, the discounting tasks were repeatedly administered prior to the state comparisons to minimize the effects of order and/or repeated testing. In a third experiment, participants were studied only once in a between-subject evaluation of discounting across states. The study took place in a research laboratory. Seventy-seven healthy young adult participants: 20 in Experiment 1, 27 in Experiment 2, and 30 in Experiment 3. N/A. Sleep deprivation elicited increased effort discounting but did not affect delay discounting. The dissociable effects of sleep deprivation on two forms of discounting behavior suggest that they may have differing underlying neural mechanisms.
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Zimmerman, Annie R; Ferriday, Danielle; Davies, Sarah R; Martin, Ashley A; Rogers, Peter J; Mason, Alice; Brunstrom, Jeffrey M
2017-09-01
'Dietary' delay discounting is typically framed as a trade-off between immediate rewards and long-term health concerns. Our contention is that prospective thinking also occurs over shorter periods, and is engaged to select portion sizes based on the interval between meals (inter-meal interval; IMI). We sought to assess the extent to which the length of an IMI influences portion-size selection. We predicted that delay discounters would show 'IMI insensitivity' (relative lack of concern about hunger or fullness between meals). In particular, we were interested in participants' sensitivity to an uncertain IMI. We hypothesized that when meal times were uncertain, delay discounters would be less responsive and select smaller portion sizes. Participants (N = 90) selected portion sizes for lunch. In different trials, they were told to expect dinner at 5pm, 9pm, and either 5pm or 9pm (uncertain IMI). Individual differences in future-orientation were measured using a monetary delay-discounting task. Participants chose larger portions when the IMI was longer (p < 0.001). When the IMI was uncertain, delay-discounting participants chose smaller portions than the average portion chosen in the certain IMIs (p < 0.05). Furthermore, monetary discounting mediated a relationship between BMI and smaller portion selection in uncertainty (p < 0.05). This is the first study to report an association between delay discounting and IMI insensitivity. We reason that delay discounters selected smaller portions because they were less sensitive to the uncertain IMI, and overlooked concerns about potential future hunger. These findings are important because they illustrate that differences in discounting are expressed in short-term portion-size decisions and suggest that IMI insensitivity increases when meal timings are uncertain. Further research is needed to confirm whether these findings generalise to other populations. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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Effects of acute and chronic caffeine on risk-taking behavior in children and adolescents.
Temple, Jennifer L; Ziegler, Amanda M; Graczyk, Adam M; Crandall, Amanda
2017-05-01
Consumption of caffeinated beverages is associated with increased risk-taking behavior. The purpose of this study was to determine if acute caffeine administration influences risk-taking behavior in a dose-dependent manner. Participants were pre- (ages 8-9) and post-pubertal (ages 15-17) children who visited the laboratory three times and consumed a beverage containing 0, 1, or 2 mg/kg of caffeine. Thirty minutes later, participants completed the balloon analogue risk task (BART), the Iowa gambling task (IGT), and a delay discounting task. The number of balloons exploded on the BART task was significantly increased after 2 mg/kg of caffeine in moderate caffeine consumers, but was decreased after 2 mg/kg of caffeine in high caffeine consumers. There were no main effects of caffeine dose on the delay discounting task or on the IGT. Post-pubertal participants showed reduced delay discounting compared with pre-pubertal participants. Finally, average daily caffeine use was significantly, positively correlated with scores on a risk-taking questionnaire. These data suggest that caffeine dose-dependently influences decision making and risk taking. More research is needed to determine the mechanism of this difference as well as the extent to which sex and pubertal phase influence these relationships.
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Reinforcer pathologies: Predicting alcohol related problems in college drinking men and women.
Lemley, Shea M; Kaplan, Brent A; Reed, Derek D; Darden, Alexandria C; Jarmolowicz, David P
2016-10-01
Alcohol use in college is common, and problematic consequences of alcohol may affect college men and women differently. Approaches within behavioral economics have been used to improve our understanding of alcohol use in college students. The current study assessed relations between college students' delay discounting, demand for alcohol, and alcohol problems as measured by the Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire (YAACQ). In this study, 80 college drinkers completed a monetary choice questionnaire that assessed delay discounting of money, a novel beer choice questionnaire that evaluated delay discounting of beer, and an alcohol purchase task that measured demand for alcohol. Behavioral economic measures associated with the reinforcer pathologies model (i.e., demand and discounting) predicted alcohol consequences as measured by the YAACQ. For men, these significant predictor variables included money discounting, beer discounting, and intensity of alcohol demand, whereas for women money discounting and essential value were significant predictors. These findings highlight the utility of the reinforcer pathologies approach for the study of alcohol use and the importance of considering gender differences in examining college drinking. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.
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Farris, Samantha G; Aston, Elizabeth R; Abrantes, Ana M; Zvolensky, Michael J
2017-10-01
Tobacco demand (i.e., relative value attributed to a given reinforcer) and delay discounting (i.e., relative preference for smaller immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards) are two behavioral economic processes that are linked to the progression of problematic substance use. These processes have not been studied among those with psychopathology, a vulnerable group of smokers. The current study examined differences in tobacco demand and delay discounting, and their association with smoking topography among smokers with (n=43) and without (n=64) past-year psychopathology. Adult daily smokers (n=107,M age =43.5; SD=9.7) participated in a study on "smoking behavior." Past-year psychological disorders were assessed via a clinician-administered diagnostic assessment. All subjects participated in an ad libitum smoking trial and then completed an assessment of delay discounting (Monetary Choice Questionnaire) and tobacco demand (Cigarette Purchase Task) approximately 45-60min post-smoking. Smokers with psychopathology, compared to those without, had significantly higher demand intensity and maximum expenditure on tobacco (O max ), but did not differ on other demand indices or delay discounting. Smokers with psychopathology had shorter average inter-puff intervals and shorter time to cigarette completion than smokers without psychopathology. Tobacco demand and delay discounting measures were significantly intercorrelated among smokers with psychopathology, but not those without. Both behavioral economic measures were associated with specific aspects of smoking topography in smokers with psychopathology. The association between tobacco demand and delay discounting is evident among smokers with psychopathology and both measures were most consistently related to smoking behavior. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Preference on cash-choice task predicts externalizing outcomes in 17-year-olds.
Sparks, Jordan C; Isen, Joshua D; Iacono, William G
2014-03-01
Delay-discounting, the tendency to prefer a smaller-sooner reward to a larger-later reward, has been associated with a range of externalizing behaviors. Laboratory delay-discounting tasks have emerged as a useful measure to index impulsivity and a proclivity towards externalizing pyschopathology. While many studies demonstrate the existence of a latent externalizing factor that is heritable, there have been few genetic studies of delay-discounting. Further, the increased vulnerability for risky behavior in adolescence makes adolescent samples an attractive target for future research, and expeditious, ecologically-valid delay-discounting measures are helpful in this regard. The primary goal of this study was to help validate the utility of a "cash-choice" measure for use in a sample of older adolescents. We used a sample of 17-year-old twins (n = 791) from the Minnesota Twin Family Enrichment study. Individuals who chose the smaller-sooner reward were more likely to have used a range of addictive substances, engaged in sexual intercourse, and earned lower GPAs. Best fitting biometric models from univariate analyses supported the heritability of cash-choice and externalizing, but bivariate modeling results indicated that the correlation between cash-choice and externalizing was determined largely by shared environmental influences, thus failing to support cash-choice as a possible endophenotype for externalizing in this age group. Our findings lend further support to the utility of cash-choice as a measure of individual differences in decision making and suggest that, by late adolescence, this task indexes shared environmental risk for externalizing behavior.
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Steinglass, Joanna E.; Lempert, Karolina M.; Choo, Tse-Hwei; Kimeldorf, Marcia B.; Wall, Melanie; Walsh, B. Timothy; Fyer, Abby J.; Schneier, Franklin R.; Simpson, H. Blair
2018-01-01
Background Temporal discounting refers to the tendency for rewards to lose value as the expected delay to receipt increases. Individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) have been found to show reduced temporal discounting rates, indicating a greater preference for delayed rewards compared to healthy peers. Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) and social anxiety disorder (SAD) commonly co-occur with AN, and anxiety has been related to development and prognosis of AN. We examined whether reduced temporal discounting is present across these potentially related disorders, and explored the relationship between temporal discounting and anxiety trans-diagnostically. Methods One hundred ninety six individuals (75 healthy controls (HC); 50 OCD; 27 AN; 44 SAD) completed two temporal discounting tasks in which they chose between smaller-sooner and larger-later monetary rewards. Two measures of discounting—discount rate and discount factor—were compared between diagnostic groups, and associations with anxious traits were examined. Results Individuals with AN showed decreased temporal discounting compared to HC. OCD and SAD groups did not differ significantly from HC. Across the sample, anxiety was associated with decreased discounting; more anxious individuals showed a greater preference for delayed reward. Conclusions We replicated the findings that individuals with AN show an increased preference for delayed reward relative to HC and that individuals with OCD do not differ from HC. We also showed that individuals with SAD do not differ from HC in discounting. Across this large sample, two measures of anxious temperament were associated with temporal discounting. These data raise new questions about the relationship between this dimensional trait and psychopathology. PMID:28009473
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Brown, Hannah E; Hart, Kamber L; Snapper, Leslie A; Roffman, Joshua L; Perlis, Roy H
2018-05-28
A measure of planning and impulse control, the delay-discounting (DD) task estimates the extent to which an individual decreases the perceived value of a reward as the reward is delayed. We examined cross-disorder performance between healthy controls (n = 88), individuals with bipolar disorder (n = 23), major depressive disorder (n = 43), and primary psychotic disorders (schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder; n = 51) on the DD task (using a $10 delayed larger reward), as well as the interaction of DD scores with other symptom domains (cognition, psychosis, and affect). We found that individuals with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder display significantly greater rates of discounting compared to healthy controls, while individuals with a primary mood disorder do not differ from healthy controls after adjustment for IQ. Further, impairment in working memory is associated with higher discounting rates among individuals with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, but cognitive dysfunction alone does not account for the extent of impairment in DD. Taken together, these results suggest an impaired ability to plan for the future and make adaptive decisions that are specific to individuals with psychotic disorders, and likely related to adverse functional outcomes. More generally, this work demonstrates the presence of variation in impulsivity across major psychiatric illnesses, supporting the use of a trans-diagnostic perspective.
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Wang, Yifan; Hu, Yanbo; Xu, Jiaojing; Zhou, Hongli; Lin, Xiao; Du, Xiaoxia; Dong, Guangheng
2017-01-01
Internet gaming disorder (IGD), defined as the persistent use of online games with ignorance of adverse consequences, has increasingly raised widespread public concerns. This study aimed at elucidating the precise mechanisms underlying IGD by comparing intertemporal decision-making process between 18 IGD participants and 21 matched healthy controls (HCs). Both behavioral and fMRI data were recorded from a delay discounting task. At the behavioral level, the IGD showed a higher discount rate k than HC; and in IGD group, both the reaction time (delay - immediate) and the discount rate k were significantly positively correlated with the severity of IGD. At the neural level, the IGD exhibited reduced brain activations in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and bilateral inferior frontal gyrus compared to HC during performing delay trials relative to immediate ones. Taken together, the results suggested that IGD showed deficits in making decisions and tended to pursuit immediate satisfaction. The underlying mechanism arises from the deficient ability in evaluating between delayed reward and immediate satisfaction, and the impaired ability in impulse inhibition, which may be associated with the dysfunction of the prefrontal activation. These might be the reason why IGD continue playing online games in spite of facing severe negative consequences.
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Haloperidol and Rimonabant Increase Delay Discounting in Rats Fed High-Fat and Standard-Chow Diets
Boomhower, Steven R.; Rasmussen, Erin B.
2016-01-01
The dopamine and endocannabinoid neurotransmitter systems have been implicated in delay discounting, a measure of impulsive choice, and obesity. The current study was designed to determine the extent to which haloperidol and rimonabant affected delay discounting in rats fed standard-chow and high-fat diets. Sprague-Dawley rats were allowed to free-feed under a high-fat diet (4.73 kcal/g) or a standard-chow diet (3.0 kcal/g) for three months. Then, operant sessions began in which rats (n = 9 standard chow; n = 10 high-fat) chose between one sucrose pellet delivered immediately vs. three sucrose pellets after a series of delays. In another condition, carrot-flavored pellets replaced sucrose pellets. After behavior stabilized, acute injections of rimonabant (0.3-10 mg/kg) and haloperidol (0.003-0.1 mg/kg) were administered i.p. before some choice sessions in both pellet conditions. Haloperidol and rimonabant increased discounting in both groups of rats by decreasing percent choice for the larger reinforcer and area-under-the-curve (AUC) values. Rats in the high-fat diet condition demonstrated increased sensitivity to haloperidol compared to chow-fed controls: haloperidol increased discounting in both dietary groups in the sucrose condition,, but only in the high-fat-fed rats in the carrot-pellet condition. These findings indicate that blocking D2 and CB1 receptors results in increased delay discounting, and that a high-fat diet may alter sensitivity to dopaminergic compounds using the delay-discounting task. PMID:25000488
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Hendrickson, Kelsie L; Rasmussen, Erin B
2013-07-01
Obese individuals tend to behave more impulsively than healthy weight individuals across a variety of measures, but it is unclear whether this pattern can be altered. The present study examined the effects of a mindful eating behavioral strategy on impulsive and risky choice patterns for hypothetical food and money. In Experiment 1, 304 participants completed computerized delay and probability discounting tasks for food-related and monetary outcomes. High percent body fat (PBF) predicted more impulsive choice for food, but not small-value money, replicating previous work. In Experiment 2, 102 randomly selected participants from Experiment 1 were assigned to participate in a 50-min workshop on mindful eating or to watch an educational video. They then completed the discounting tasks again. Participants who completed the mindful eating session showed more self-controlled and less risk-averse discounting patterns for food compared to baseline; those in the control condition discounted similarly to baseline rates. There were no changes in discounting for money for either group, suggesting stimulus specificity for food for the mindful eating condition. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Delay discounting and impulsivity traits in young and older gambling disorder patients.
Steward, Trevor; Mestre-Bach, Gemma; Fernández-Aranda, Fernando; Granero, Roser; Perales, José C; Navas, Juan Francisco; Soriano-Mas, Carles; Baño, Marta; Fernández-Formoso, Jose A; Martín-Romera, Virginia; Menchón, José M; Jiménez-Murcia, Susana
2017-08-01
Impulsivity is understood to be a multidimensional construct involving aspects such as impulsive choice and impulsive traits. Delay discounting, the tendency to place greater value in immediate rewards over larger, long-term rewards, has been associated with maladaptive choices in gambling disorder (GD). Delay discounting is known to evolve with age; though no study to date has evaluated the interactions between impulsivity, GD severity and age in treatment-seeking patients. We aimed to examine whether associations between delay discounting and impulsivity traits differed between younger and older-aged GD patients. Secondly, we sought to untangle the mediating role of impulsivity in determining gambling behavior in these two age groups. GD patients (N=335) were evaluated using the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale and a delay discounting task. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to explore associations between impulsivity measures and gambling severity in young (18-30years) and old (31-70) GD patients. No differences in delay discounting were found between young and old GD patients. Significant correlations between delay discounting and urgency levels (the tendency to act rashly under emotional states) were identified only in the young GD group. Path analyses also revealed both positive and negative urgency to be a mediator of GD severity levels in young GD patients. Significant associations between impulsive choice and positive urgency are only present in young gamblers, suggesting that positive urgency influence choice behavior to a greater degree at younger ages. Implications for targeted interventions are discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Frontal hyperconnectivity related to discounting and reversal learning in cocaine subjects.
Camchong, Jazmin; MacDonald, Angus W; Nelson, Brent; Bell, Christopher; Mueller, Bryon A; Specker, Sheila; Lim, Kelvin O
2011-06-01
Functional neuroimaging studies suggest that chronic cocaine use is associated with frontal lobe abnormalities. Functional connectivity (FC) alterations of cocaine-dependent individuals (CD), however, are not yet clear. This is the first study to our knowledge that examines resting FC of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in CD. Because ACC is known to integrate inputs from different brain regions to regulate behavior, we hypothesized that CD will have connectivity abnormalities in ACC networks. In addition, we hypothesized that abnormalities would be associated with poor performance in delayed discounting and reversal learning tasks. Resting functional magnetic resonance imaging data were collected to look for FC differences between 27 CD (5 women, age: M = 39.73, SD = 6.14 years) and 24 control subjects (5 women, age: M = 39.76, SD = 7.09 years). Participants were assessed with delayed discounting and reversal learning tasks. With seed-based FC measures, we examined FC in CD and control subjects within five ACC connectivity networks with seeds in subgenual, caudal, dorsal, rostral, and perigenual ACC. The CD showed increased FC within the perigenual ACC network in left middle frontal gyrus, ACC, and middle temporal gyrus when compared with control subjects. The FC abnormalities were significantly positively correlated with task performance in delayed discounting and reversal learning tasks in CD. The present study shows that participants with chronic cocaine-dependency have hyperconnectivity within an ACC network known to be involved in social processing and "mentalizing." In addition, FC abnormalities found in CD were associated with difficulties with delay rewards and slower adaptive learning. Copyright © 2011 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Bañuelos, Cristina; Gilbert, Ryan J.; Montgomery, Karienn S.; Fincher, Annette S.; Wang, Haiying; Frye, Gerald D.; Setlow, Barry; Bizon, Jennifer L.
2012-01-01
Ethanol exposure during perinatal development can cause cognitive abnormalities including difficulties in learning, attention, and memory, as well as heightened impulsivity. The purpose of this study was to assess performance in spatial learning and impulsive choice tasks in rats subjected to an intragastric intubation model of binge ethanol exposure during human third trimester-equivalent brain development. Male and female Sprague–Dawley rat pups were intubated with ethanol (5.25 g/kg/day) on postnatal days 4–9. At adolescence (between postnatal days 35–38), these rats and sham intubated within-litter controls were trained in both spatial and cued versions of the Morris water maze. A subset of the male rats was subsequently tested on a delay-discounting task to assess impulsive choice. Ethanol-exposed rats were spatially impaired relative to controls, but performed comparably to controls on the cued version of the water maze. Ethanol-exposed rats also showed greater preference for large delayed rewards on the delay discounting task, but no evidence for altered reward sensitivity or perseverative behavior. These data demonstrate that early postnatal intermittent binge-like ethanol exposure has prolonged, detrimental, but selective effects on cognition, suggesting that even relatively brief ethanol exposure late in human pregnancy can be deleterious for cognitive function. PMID:22129556
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Stein, Jeffrey S; Tegge, Allison N; Turner, Jamie K; Bickel, Warren K
2018-04-01
Episodic future thinking (EFT), an intervention involving mental simulation of future events, has been shown to reduce both delay discounting and cigarette self-administration. In the present study, we extended these findings by showing that EFT in a web-based sample of smokers reduces delay discounting and intensity of demand for cigarettes (ad libitum consumption) in a hypothetical purchase task. No effect was observed on elasticity of demand (sensitivity to price) or cigarette craving. We also explored whether demand characteristics (specifically, the "good-subject" effect) might be responsible for observed effects. EFT participants were significantly better able than control participants to discern the experimental hypothesis. However, EFT participants were not better than controls at identifying whether they had been assigned to the experimental group and, likewise, showed no differences in attitudes about the experiment and experimenter. Importantly, effects of EFT on delay discounting and demand remained significant even when controlling for measures of demand characteristics, indicating that EFT's effects are independent of participants' perceptions about the experiment.
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Reflection impulsivity in binge drinking: behavioural and volumetric correlates
Banca, Paula; Lange, Iris; Worbe, Yulia; Howell, Nicholas A.; Irvine, Michael; Harrison, Neil A.; Moutoussis, Michael
2015-01-01
Abstract The degree to which an individual accumulates evidence prior to making a decision, also known as reflection impulsivity, can be affected in psychiatric disorders. Here, we study decisional impulsivity in binge drinkers, a group at elevated risk for developing alcohol use disorders, comparing two tasks assessing reflection impulsivity and a delay discounting task, hypothesizing impairments in both subtypes of impulsivity. We also assess volumetric correlates of reflection impulsivity focusing on regions previously implicated in functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. Sixty binge drinkers and healthy volunteers were tested using two different information‐gathering paradigms: the beads task and the Information Sampling Task (IST). The beads task was analysed using a behavioural approach and a Bayesian model of decision making. Delay discounting was assessed using the Monetary Choice Questionnaire. Regression analyses of primary outcomes were conducted with voxel‐based morphometry analyses. Binge drinkers sought less evidence prior to decision in the beads task compared with healthy volunteers in both the behavioural and computational modelling analysis. There were no group differences in the IST or delay discounting task. Greater impulsivity as indexed by lower evidence accumulation in the beads task was associated with smaller dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and inferior parietal volumes. In contrast, greater impulsivity as indexed by lower evidence accumulation in the IST was associated with greater dorsal cingulate and precuneus volumes. Binge drinking is characterized by impaired reflection impulsivity suggesting a deficit in deciding on the basis of future outcomes that are more difficult to represent. These findings emphasize the role of possible therapeutic interventions targeting decision‐making deficits. PMID:25678093
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Buelow, Melissa T.; Okdie, Bradley M.; Blaine, Amber L.
2013-01-01
Introduction: The present study sought to examine two methods by which to improve decision making on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT): inducing a negative mood and providing additional learning trials. Method: In the first study, 194 undergraduate students [74 male; Mage = 19.44 (SD = 3.69)] were randomly assigned to view a series of pictures to induce a positive, negative, or neutral mood immediately prior to the IGT. In the second study, 276 undergraduate students [111 male; Mage = 19.18 (SD = 2.58)] completed a delay discounting task and back-to-back administrations of the IGT. Results: Participants in an induced negative mood selected more from Deck C during the final trials than those in an induced positive mood. Providing additional learning trials resulted in better decision making: participants shifted their focus from the frequency of immediate gains/losses (i.e., a preference for Decks B and D) to long-term outcomes (i.e., a preference for Deck D). In addition, disadvantageous decision making on the additional learning trials was associated with larger delay discounting (i.e., a preference for more immediate but smaller rewards). Conclusions: The present results indicate that decision making is affected by negative mood state, and that decision making can be improved by increasing the number of learning trials. In addition, the current results provide evidence of a relationship between performance on the IGT and on a separate measure of decision making, the delay discounting task. Moreover, the present results indicate that improved decision making on the IGT can be attributed to shifting focus toward long-term outcomes, as evidenced by increased selections from advantageous decks as well as correlations between the IGT and delay discounting task. Implications for the assessment of decision making using the IGT are discussed. PMID:24151485
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Aston, Elizabeth R.; Metrik, Jane; Amlung, Michael; Kahler, Christopher W.; MacKillop, James
2016-01-01
Background Distinct behavioral economic domains, including high perceived drug value (demand) and delay discounting (DD), have been implicated in the initiation of drug use and the progression to dependence. However, it is unclear whether frequent marijuana users conform to a “reinforcer pathology” addiction model wherein marijuana demand and DD jointly increase risk for problematic marijuana use and cannabis dependence (CD). Methods Participants (n=88, 34% female, 14% cannabis dependent) completed a marijuana purchase task at baseline. A delay discounting task was completed following placebo marijuana cigarette (0% THC) administration during a separate experimental session. Results Marijuana demand and DD were quantified using area under the curve (AUC). In multiple regression models, demand uniquely predicted frequency of marijuana use while DD did not. In contrast, DD uniquely predicted CD symptom count while demand did not. There were no significant interactions between demand and DD in either model. Conclusions These findings suggest that frequent marijuana users exhibit key constituents of the reinforcer pathology model: high marijuana demand and steep discounting of delayed rewards. However, demand and DD appear to be independent rather than synergistic risk factors for elevated marijuana use and risk for progression to CD. Findings also provide support for using AUC as a singular marijuana demand metric, particularly when also examining other behavioral economic constructs that apply similar statistical approaches, such as DD, to support analytic methodological convergence. PMID:27810657
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Stoeckel, Luke E; Murdaugh, Donna L; Cox, James E; Cook, Edwin W; Weller, Rosalyn E
2013-06-01
Impulsivity and poor inhibitory control are associated with higher rates of delay discounting (DD), or a greater preference for smaller, more immediate rewards at the expense of larger, but delayed rewards. Of the many functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of DD, few have investigated the correlation between individual differences in DD rate and brain activation related to DD trial difficulty, with difficult DD trials expected to activate putative executive function brain areas involved in impulse control. In the current study, we correlated patterns of brain activation as measured by fMRI during difficult vs. easy trials of a DD task with DD rate (k) in obese women. Difficulty was defined by how much a reward choice deviated from an individual's 'indifference point', or the point where the subjective preference for an immediate and a delayed reward was approximately equivalent. We found that greater delay discounting was correlated with less modulation of activation in putative executive function brain areas, such as the middle and superior frontal gyri and inferior parietal lobule, in response to difficult compared to easy DD trials. These results support the suggestion that increased impulsivity is associated with deficient functioning of executive function areas of the brain.
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College Students Discount Money "Won" More than Money "Owed"
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Weatherly, Jeffrey N.; Derenne, Adam; Terrell, Heather K.
2010-01-01
Evidence in the research literature indicates people may treat "won" money differently than they would their own money. The present study had a sample of 648 college students complete a delay-discounting task that involved the hypothetical monetary amounts of $1,000 or $100,000. Participants were asked repeatedly what amount they would…
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Scheres, Anouk; Dijkstra, Marianne; Ainslie, Eleanor; Balkan, Jaclyn; Reynolds, Brady; Sonuga-Barke, Edmund; Castellanos, F Xavier
2006-01-01
This study investigated whether age and ADHD symptoms affected choice preferences in children and adolescents when they chose between (1) small immediate rewards and larger delayed rewards and (2) small certain rewards and larger probabilistic uncertain rewards. A temporal discounting (TD) task and a probabilistic discounting (PD) task were used to measure the degree to which the subjective value of a large reward decreased as one had to wait longer for it (TD), and as the probability of obtaining it decreased (PD). Rewards used were small amounts of money. In the TD task, the large reward (10 cents) was delayed by between 0 and 30s, and the immediate reward varied in magnitude (0-10 cents). In the PD task, receipt of the large reward (10 cents) varied in likelihood, with probabilities of 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1.0 used, and the certain reward varied in magnitude (0-10 cents). Age and diagnostic group did not affect the degree of PD of rewards: All participants made choices so that total gains were maximized. As predicted, young children, aged 6-11 years (n = 25) demonstrated steeper TD of rewards than adolescents, aged 12-17 years (n = 21). This effect remained significant even when choosing the immediate reward did not shorten overall task duration. This, together with the lack of interaction between TD task version and age, suggests that steeper discounting in young children is driven by reward immediacy and not by delay aversion. Contrary to our predictions, participants with ADHD (n = 22) did not demonstrate steeper TD of rewards than controls (n = 24). These results raise the possibility that strong preferences for small immediate rewards in ADHD, as found in previous research, depend on factors such as total maximum gain and the use of fixed versus varied delay durations. The decrease in TD as observed in adolescents compared to children may be related to developmental changes in the (dorsolateral) prefrontal cortex. Future research needs to investigate these possibilities.
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Weafer, Jessica; Baggott, Matthew J; de Wit, Harriet
2013-12-01
Behavioral measures of impulsivity are widely used in substance abuse research, yet relatively little attention has been devoted to establishing their psychometric properties, especially their reliability over repeated administration. The current study examined the test-retest reliability of a battery of standardized behavioral impulsivity tasks, including measures of impulsive choice (i.e., delay discounting, probability discounting, and the Balloon Analogue Risk Task), impulsive action (i.e., the stop signal task, the go/no-go task, and commission errors on the continuous performance task), and inattention (i.e., attention lapses on a simple reaction time task and omission errors on the continuous performance task). Healthy adults (n = 128) performed the battery on two separate occasions. Reliability estimates for the individual tasks ranged from moderate to high, with Pearson correlations within the specific impulsivity domains as follows: impulsive choice (r range: .76-.89, ps < .001); impulsive action (r range: .65-.73, ps < .001); and inattention (r range: .38-.42, ps < .001). Additionally, the influence of day-to-day fluctuations in mood, as measured by the Profile of Mood States, was assessed in relation to variability in performance on each of the behavioral tasks. Change in performance on the delay discounting task was significantly associated with change in positive mood and arousal. No other behavioral measures were significantly associated with mood. In sum, the current analysis demonstrates that behavioral measures of impulsivity are reliable measures and thus can be confidently used to assess various facets of impulsivity as intermediate phenotypes for drug abuse.
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Weafer, Jessica; Baggott, Matthew J.; de Wit, Harriet
2014-01-01
Behavioral measures of impulsivity are widely used in substance abuse research, yet relatively little attention has been devoted to establishing their psychometric properties, especially their reliability over repeated administration. The current study examined the test-retest reliability of a battery of standardized behavioral impulsivity tasks, including measures of impulsive choice (delay discounting, probability discounting, and the Balloon Analogue Risk Task), impulsive action (the stop signal task, the go/no-go task, and commission errors on the continuous performance task), and inattention (attention lapses on a simple reaction time task and omission errors on the continuous performance task). Healthy adults (n=128) performed the battery on two separate occasions. Reliability estimates for the individual tasks ranged from moderate to high, with Pearson correlations within the specific impulsivity domains as follows: impulsive choice (r = .76 - .89, ps < .001); impulsive action (r = .65 - .73, ps < .001); and inattention (r = .38-.42, ps < .001). Additionally, the influence of day-to-day fluctuations in mood as measured by the Profile of Mood States was assessed in relation to variability in performance on each of the behavioral tasks. Change in performance on the delay discounting task was significantly associated with change in positive mood and arousal. No other behavioral measures were significantly associated with mood. In sum, the current analysis demonstrates that behavioral measures of impulsivity are reliable measures and thus can be confidently used to assess various facets of impulsivity as intermediate phenotypes for drug abuse. PMID:24099351
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Dariotis, Jacinda K.; Johnson, Matthew W.
2014-01-01
Youth under 25 show substantial sexual and substance use risk behaviors. One factor associated with risk behaviors is delay discounting, the devaluation of delayed outcomes. This study determined if delay discounting for sexual outcomes is related to sexual risk and substance use among 18–24 year olds. Females (70) and males (56) completed the Sexual Discounting Task, which assessed their likelihood of having unprotected immediate sex vs. waiting for sex with a condom, at various delays, with four hypothetical sexual partners selected from photographs: the person they (1) most wanted to have sex with, (2) least wanted to have sex with, (3) judged most likely to have an STI, and (4) judged least likely to have an STI. They also completed instruments assessing HIV knowledge, sexual behaviors, substance use, risk attitudes, inhibition, impulsivity, and sensation seeking. Condom use likelihood generally decreased with increasing delay. Preference for immediate, unprotected sex was greater for partners whom participants most (vs. least) wanted to have sex with, and judged least (vs. most) likely to have an STI. Preference for immediate, unprotected sex in the 'most want to have sex with' and ‘least likely to have an STI' conditions was related to greater lifetime risky sexual partners, lifetime number of unique substances used, disregard of social approval/danger, disinhibition, and sensation/excitement seeking. Males showed greater likelihood of unprotected sex than females when condom use was un-delayed, but delay affected condom use similarly between sexes. Delay discounting should be considered in strategies to minimize youth risk behavior. PMID:25545764
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Aston, Elizabeth R; Metrik, Jane; Amlung, Michael; Kahler, Christopher W; MacKillop, James
2016-12-01
Distinct behavioral economic domains, including high perceived drug value (demand) and delay discounting (DD), have been implicated in the initiation of drug use and the progression to dependence. However, it is unclear whether frequent marijuana users conform to a "reinforcer pathology" addiction model wherein marijuana demand and DD jointly increase risk for problematic marijuana use and cannabis dependence (CD). Participants (n=88, 34% female, 14% cannabis dependent) completed a marijuana purchase task at baseline. A delay discounting task was completed following placebo marijuana cigarette (0% THC) administration during a separate experimental session. Marijuana demand and DD were quantified using area under the curve (AUC). In multiple regression models, demand uniquely predicted frequency of marijuana use while DD did not. In contrast, DD uniquely predicted CD symptom count while demand did not. There were no significant interactions between demand and DD in either model. These findings suggest that frequent marijuana users exhibit key constituents of the reinforcer pathology model: high marijuana demand and steep discounting of delayed rewards. However, demand and DD appear to be independent rather than synergistic risk factors for elevated marijuana use and risk for progression to CD. Findings also provide support for using AUC as a singular marijuana demand metric, particularly when also examining other behavioral economic constructs that apply similar statistical approaches, such as DD, to support analytic methodological convergence. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Koffarnus, Mikhail N; Johnson, Matthew W; Thompson-Lake, Daisy G Y; Wesley, Michael J; Lohrenz, Terry; Montague, P Read; Bickel, Warren K
2016-08-01
Cocaine users have a higher incidence of risky sexual behavior and HIV infection than nonusers. Our aim was to measure whether safer sex discount rates-a measure of the likelihood of having immediate unprotected sex versus waiting to have safer sex-differed between controls and cocaine users of varying severity. Of the 162 individuals included in the primary data analyses, 69 met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev.; DSM-IV-TR) criteria for cocaine dependence, 29 were recreational cocaine users who did not meet the dependence criteria, and 64 were controls. Participants completed the Sexual Discounting Task, which measures a person's likelihood of using a condom when one is immediately available and how that likelihood decreases as a function of delay to condom availability with regard to 4 images chosen by the participants of hypothetical sexual partners differing in perceived desirability and likelihood of having a sexually transmitted infection. When a condom was immediately available, the stated likelihood of condom use sometimes differed between cocaine users and controls, which depended on the image condition. Even after controlling for rates of condom use when one is immediately available, the cocaine-dependent and recreational users groups were more sensitive to delay to condom availability than controls. Safer sex discount rates were also related to intelligence scores. The Sexual Discounting Task identifies delay as a key variable that impacts the likelihood of using a condom among these groups and suggests that HIV prevention efforts may be differentially effective based on an individual's safer sex discount rate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).
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Biased and less sensitive: A gamified approach to delay discounting in heroin addiction.
Scherbaum, Stefan; Haber, Paul; Morley, Kirsten; Underhill, Dylan; Moustafa, Ahmed A
2018-03-01
People with addiction will continue to use drugs despite adverse long-term consequences. We hypothesized (a) that this deficit persists during substitution treatment, and (b) that this deficit might be related not only to a desire for immediate gratification, but also to a lower sensitivity for optimal decision making. We investigated how individuals with a history of heroin addiction perform (compared to healthy controls) in a virtual reality delay discounting task. This novel task adds to established measures of delay discounting an assessment of the optimality of decisions, especially in how far decisions are influenced by a general choice bias and/or a reduced sensitivity to the relative value of the two alternative rewards. We used this measure of optimality to apply diffusion model analysis to the behavioral data to analyze the interaction between decision optimality and reaction time. The addiction group consisted of 25 patients with a history of heroin dependency currently participating in a methadone maintenance program; the control group consisted of 25 healthy participants with no history of substance abuse, who were recruited from the Western Sydney community. The patient group demonstrated greater levels of delay discounting compared to the control group, which is broadly in line with previous observations. Diffusion model analysis yielded a reduced sensitivity for the optimality of a decision in the patient group compared to the control group. This reduced sensitivity was reflected in lower rates of information accumulation and higher decision criteria. Increased discounting in individuals with heroin addiction is related not only to a generally increased bias to immediate gratification, but also to reduced sensitivity for the optimality of a decision. This finding is in line with other findings about the sensitivity of addicts in distinguishing optimal from nonoptimal choice options.
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Telomere length in alcohol dependence: A role for impulsive choice and childhood maltreatment.
Kang, Jee In; Hwang, Syung Shick; Choi, Jong Rak; Lee, Seung-Tae; Kim, Jieun; Hwang, In Sik; Kim, Hae Won; Kim, Chan-Hyung; Kim, Se Joo
2017-09-01
Telomere shortening, a marker of cellular aging, has been considered to be linked with psychosocial stress as well as with chronic alcohol consumption, possibly mediated by oxidative stress and inflammatory response. Recent findings suggested that early life adversity on telomere dynamics may be related to impulsive choice. To further our understanding of the association of impulsive choice and childhood trauma on telomere length, we examined whether delayed discounting and childhood trauma or their interaction is related to leukocyte telomere length, while controlling for multiple potential confounding variables, in patients with alcohol dependence who are considered to have higher impulsive choice and shorter telomere length. We recruited 253 male patients with chronic alcohol dependence. All participants performed the delay discounting task, and the area under curve was used as a measure of delay discounting. Steeper delay discounting represents more impulsive choices. The modified Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale was used to measure childhood maltreatment. In addition, confounding factors, including socio-demographic characteristics, the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire, the Resilience Quotient, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Beck Anxiety Inventory, were also assessed. Hierarchical regression analyses showed a significant main effect of delay discounting (β=0.161, t=2.640, p=0.009), and an interaction effect between delay discounting and childhood maltreatment on leukocyte telomere length (β=0.173, t=2.138, p=0.034). In subsequent analyses stratified by childhood maltreatment, patients with alcohol dependence and high childhood trauma showed a significant relationship between delay discounting and leukocyte telomere length (β=0.279, t=3.183, p=0.002), while those with low trauma showed no association between them. Our findings suggest that higher impulsive choice is associated with shorter telomere length, and childhood trauma may exert a moderating effect in the relationship between impulsive choice and telomere length. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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Insulin, Central Dopamine D2 Receptors, and Monetary Reward Discounting in Obesity
Eisenstein, Sarah A.; Gredysa, Danuta M.; Antenor–Dorsey, Jo Ann; Green, Leonard; Arbeláez, Ana Maria; Koller, Jonathan M.; Black, Kevin J.; Perlmutter, Joel S.; Moerlein, Stephen M.; Hershey, Tamara
2015-01-01
Animal research finds that insulin regulates dopamine signaling and reward behavior, but similar research in humans is lacking. We investigated whether individual differences in body mass index, percent body fat, pancreatic β-cell function, and dopamine D2 receptor binding were related to reward discounting in obese and non-obese adult men and women. Obese (n = 27; body mass index>30) and non-obese (n = 20; body mass index<30) adults were assessed for percent body fat with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and for β-cell function using disposition index. Choice of larger, but delayed or less certain, monetary rewards relative to immediate, certain smaller monetary rewards was measured using delayed and probabilistic reward discounting tasks. Positron emission tomography using a non-displaceable D2-specific radioligand, [11C](N-methyl)benperidol quantified striatal D2 receptor binding. Groups differed in body mass index, percent body fat, and disposition index, but not in striatal D2 receptor specific binding or reward discounting. Higher percent body fat in non-obese women related to preference for a smaller, certain reward over a larger, less likely one (greater probabilistic discounting). Lower β-cell function in the total sample and lower insulin sensitivity in obese related to stronger preference for an immediate and smaller monetary reward over delayed receipt of a larger one (greater delay discounting). In obese adults, higher striatal D2 receptor binding related to greater delay discounting. Interestingly, striatal D2 receptor binding was not significantly related to body mass index, percent body fat, or β-cell function in either group. Our findings indicate that individual differences in percent body fat, β-cell function, and striatal D2 receptor binding may each contribute to altered reward discounting behavior in non-obese and obese individuals. These results raise interesting questions about whether and how striatal D2 receptor binding and metabolic factors, including β-cell function, interact to affect reward discounting in humans. PMID:26192187
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Insulin, Central Dopamine D2 Receptors, and Monetary Reward Discounting in Obesity.
Eisenstein, Sarah A; Gredysa, Danuta M; Antenor-Dorsey, Jo Ann; Green, Leonard; Arbeláez, Ana Maria; Koller, Jonathan M; Black, Kevin J; Perlmutter, Joel S; Moerlein, Stephen M; Hershey, Tamara
2015-01-01
Animal research finds that insulin regulates dopamine signaling and reward behavior, but similar research in humans is lacking. We investigated whether individual differences in body mass index, percent body fat, pancreatic β-cell function, and dopamine D2 receptor binding were related to reward discounting in obese and non-obese adult men and women. Obese (n = 27; body mass index>30) and non-obese (n = 20; body mass index<30) adults were assessed for percent body fat with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and for β-cell function using disposition index. Choice of larger, but delayed or less certain, monetary rewards relative to immediate, certain smaller monetary rewards was measured using delayed and probabilistic reward discounting tasks. Positron emission tomography using a non-displaceable D2-specific radioligand, [11C](N-methyl)benperidol quantified striatal D2 receptor binding. Groups differed in body mass index, percent body fat, and disposition index, but not in striatal D2 receptor specific binding or reward discounting. Higher percent body fat in non-obese women related to preference for a smaller, certain reward over a larger, less likely one (greater probabilistic discounting). Lower β-cell function in the total sample and lower insulin sensitivity in obese related to stronger preference for an immediate and smaller monetary reward over delayed receipt of a larger one (greater delay discounting). In obese adults, higher striatal D2 receptor binding related to greater delay discounting. Interestingly, striatal D2 receptor binding was not significantly related to body mass index, percent body fat, or β-cell function in either group. Our findings indicate that individual differences in percent body fat, β-cell function, and striatal D2 receptor binding may each contribute to altered reward discounting behavior in non-obese and obese individuals. These results raise interesting questions about whether and how striatal D2 receptor binding and metabolic factors, including β-cell function, interact to affect reward discounting in humans.
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Oshri, Assaf; Kogan, Steven; Liu, Sihong; Sweet, Lawrence; Mackillop, James
2017-12-01
African American men experience increases in smoking during the young adult transition. Exposure to childhood adversity, a risk factor which disproportionately affects African American men, has been identified as a robust precursor to health risk behavior in general and cigarette smoking in particular. The intermediate mechanisms that transmit the influence of early adversity to smoking behavior are not well understood. We tested a model of the escalation of smoking behaviors among young adult African American men, investigating sleep disturbance and delayed reward discounting as intermediate factors linking adverse childhood experiences with smoking. Hypotheses were tested with three waves of data (M age-T1 = 20.34, M age-T2 = 21.92, M age-T3 = 23.02) from 505 African American men living in rural counties in South Georgia. Men provided self-report data on their adverse childhood experiences, sleep problems, and smoking behavior using audio-assisted computer self-interviews. Men also completed a computer-based delayed reward discounting task. Structural equation modeling analyses supported our hypotheses: Adverse childhood experiences predicted poor sleep adequacy, which forecast increases in delayed reward discounting; discounting, in turn, predicted increased smoking. Significant indirect pathways were detected linking adversity to discounting via sleep adequacy and linking sleep adequacy to smoking via discounting. Prevention and intervention researchers can draw on these findings to develop programs that focus on sleep adequacy to reduce smoking in African American men exposed to childhood adversity.
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Utsumi, Daniel Augusto; Miranda, Mônica Carolina; Muszkat, Mauro
2016-12-30
Temporal Discounting (TD) reflects a tendency to discount a reward more deeply the longer its delivery is delayed. TD tasks and behavioral scales have been used to investigate 'hot' executive functions in ADHD. The present study analyzed TD task performance shown by ADHD and control groups for correlations with emotional self-regulation metrics from two scales, the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functions (BRIEF) and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Children (ages 8-12) with ADHD (n=25) and controls (n=24) were assessed using material rewards (toys) for three types of task: Hypothetical (H); Hypothetical with temporal expectation (HTE); and Real (R). Between-group differences were found for the HTE task, on which the ADHD group showed a higher rate of discounting their favorite toy over time, especially at 10s and 20s. This was the only task on which performance significantly correlated with BRIEF metrics, thus suggesting associations between impulsivity and low emotional self-regulation, but no task was correlated with CBCL score. The conclusion is that tasks involving toys and HTE in particular may be used to investigate TD in children with ADHD and as a means of evaluating the interface between the reward system and emotional self-regulation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Mellis, Alexandra M; Snider, Sarah E; Bickel, Warren K
2018-04-01
Reading experimenter-provided narratives of negative income shock has been previously demonstrated to increase impulsivity, as measured by discounting of delayed rewards. We hypothesized that writing these narratives would potentiate their effects of negative income shock on decision-making more than simply reading them. In the current study, 193 cigarette-smoking individuals from Amazon Mechanical Turk were assigned to either read an experimenter-provided narrative or self-generate a narrative describing either the negative income shock of job loss or a neutral condition of job transfer. Individuals then completed a task of delay discounting and measures of affective response to narratives, as well as rating various narrative qualities such as personal relevance and vividness. Consistent with past research, narratives of negative income shock increased delay discounting compared to control narratives. No significant differences existed in delay discounting after self-generating compared to reading experimenter-provided narratives. Positive affect was lower and negative affect was higher in response to narratives of job loss, but affect measures did not differ based on whether narratives were experimenter-provided or self-generated. All narratives were rated as equally realistic, but self-generated narratives (whether negative or neutral) were rated as more vivid and relevant than experimenter-provided narratives. These results indicate that the content of negative income shock narratives, regardless of source, consistently drives short-term choices. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
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Dombrovski, Alexandre Y.; Siegle, Greg J.; Szanto, Katalin; Clark, Luke; Reynolds, Charles F.; Aizenstein, Howard
2012-01-01
Background Converging evidence implicates basal ganglia alterations in impulsivity and suicidal behavior. For example, D2/D3 agonists and subthalamic nucleus stimulation in Parkinson’s disease trigger impulse control disorders and possibly suicidal behavior. Further, suicidal behavior has been associated with structural basal ganglia abnormalities. Finally, low-lethality, unplanned suicide attempts are associated with increased discounting of delayed rewards, a behavior dependent upon the striatum. Thus, we tested whether, in late-life depression, changes in the basal ganglia were associated with suicide attempts and with increased delay discounting. Methods Fifty-two persons aged ≥60 underwent extensive clinical and cognitive characterization: 33 with major depression (13 suicide attempters [SA], 20 non-suicidal depressed elderly), and 19 non-depressed controls. Participants had high-resolution T1-weighted MPRAGE MRI scans. Basal ganglia gray matter voxel counts were estimated using atlas-based segmentation, with a highly-deformable automated algorithm. Discounting of delayed rewards was assessed using the Monetary Choice Questionnaire, and delay aversion with the Cambridge Gamble Task. Results SA had lower putamen but not caudate or pallidum gray matter voxel counts, compared to the control groups. This difference persisted after accounting for substance use disorders and possible brain injury from suicide attempts. SA with lower putamen gray matter voxel counts displayed higher delay discounting on the MCQ, but not delay aversion on the CGT. Secondary analyses revealed that SA had lower voxel counts in associative and possibly ventral, but not sensorimotor striatum. Conclusions Our findings, while limited by small sample size and case-control design, suggest that striatal lesions could contribute to suicidal behavior by increasing impulsivity. PMID:21999930
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Dombrovski, A Y; Siegle, G J; Szanto, K; Clark, L; Reynolds, C F; Aizenstein, H
2012-06-01
Converging evidence implicates basal ganglia alterations in impulsivity and suicidal behavior. For example, D2/D3 agonists and subthalamic nucleus stimulation in Parkinson's disease (PD) trigger impulse control disorders and possibly suicidal behavior. Furthermore, suicidal behavior has been associated with structural basal ganglia abnormalities. Finally, low-lethality, unplanned suicide attempts are associated with increased discounting of delayed rewards, a behavior dependent upon the striatum. Thus, we tested whether, in late-life depression, changes in the basal ganglia were associated with suicide attempts and with increased delay discounting. Fifty-two persons aged ≥ 60 years underwent extensive clinical and cognitive characterization: 33 with major depression [13 suicide attempters (SA), 20 non-suicidal depressed elderly] and 19 non-depressed controls. Participants had high-resolution T1-weighted magnetization prepared rapid acquisition gradient-echo (MPRAGE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Basal ganglia gray matter voxel counts were estimated using atlas-based segmentation, with a highly deformable automated algorithm. Discounting of delayed rewards was assessed using the Monetary Choice Questionnaire (MCQ) and delay aversion with the Cambridge Gamble Task (CGT). SA had lower putamen but not caudate or pallidum gray matter voxel counts, compared to the control groups. This difference persisted after accounting for substance use disorders and possible brain injury from suicide attempts. SA with lower putamen gray matter voxel counts displayed higher delay discounting but not delay aversion. Secondary analyses revealed that SA had lower voxel counts in associative and ventral but not sensorimotor striatum. Our findings, although limited by small sample size and the case-control design, suggest that striatal lesions could contribute to suicidal behavior by increasing impulsivity.
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Yates, Justin R; Bardo, Michael T
2017-10-01
Nucleus accumbens core (NAcc) has been implicated in impulsive choice, as measured in delay discounting. The role of dopamine (DA) in impulsive choice has received considerable attention, whereas glutamate (Glu) has recently been shown to be an important mediator of discounting. However, research has not examined how DA or Glu receptors in NAcc mediate different aspects of delay discounting performance, that is, (a) sensitivity to reinforcer magnitude and (b) sensitivity to delayed reinforcement. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were first trained in a delay discounting task, in which the delay to a large magnitude food reinforcer increased across blocks of trials. Following behavioral training, rats received bilateral implantation of guide cannulas into NAcc. Half of the rats (n = 12) received infusions of the DA-selective ligands SKF 38393 (D1-like agonist: 0.03 or 0.1 μg), SCH 23390 (D1-like antagonist: 0.3 or 1.0 μg), quinpirole (D2-like agonist: 0.3 or 1.0 μg), and eticlopride (D2-like antagonist: 0.3 or 1.0 μg). The other half received infusions of the ionotropic Glu ligands MK-801 (NMDA uncompetitive antagonist: 0.3 or 1.0 μg), AP-5 (NMDA competitive antagonist: 0.3 or 1.0 μg), ifenprodil (noncompetitive antagonist at NR2B-containing NMDA receptors: 0.3 or 1.0 μg), and CNQX (AMPA competitive antagonist: 0.2 or 0.5 μg). Results showed that SCH 23390 (0.3 μg) decreased sensitivity to reinforcer magnitude without altering impulsive choice, whereas ifenprodil (1.0 μg) decreased sensitivity to delayed reinforcement (i.e., impulsive choice). The current results show that DA and NMDA receptors in NAcc mediate distinct aspects of discounting performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).
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The impact of depressed mood, working memory capacity, and priming on delay discounting.
Szuhany, Kristin L; MacKenzie, Danny; Otto, Michael W
2018-09-01
The impaired ability to delay rewards, delay discounting (DD), is associated with several problematic conditions in which impulsive decision-making derails long-term goals. Working memory (WM), the ability to actively store and manipulate information, is associated with DD. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of cognitive priming on DD and to identify moderation of this effect dependent on degree of WM capacity (WMC) and depressed mood. A WM task (n-back) was used as a cognitive prime before assessment of DD (Monetary Choice Questionnaire) and was compared to a similar prime from an inhibition task in a factorial design in 183 community participants. All participants completed a DD task and assessment of depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory-II). Priming effects were evaluated relative to WMC of participants. Higher WMC and lower depression scores were associated with greater relative preference for larger, delayed rewards. The effects of a WM prime were moderated by WMC; benefits of the prime were only evident for individuals with lower WMC. No effects were found for an alternative inhibition task. Limitations included depression scores mainly in subclinical range, use of hypothetical instead of real rewards in the DD task, and no examination of the time course of effects. This study provides support for the effectiveness of a brief WM prime in enhancing ability to delay rewards. Priming may be a useful adjunctive intervention for individuals with WM dysfunction or conditions in which impulsive decision-making may derail long-term goals. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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Episodic Future Thinking: Expansion of the Temporal Window in Individuals with Alcohol Dependence.
Snider, Sarah E; LaConte, Stephen M; Bickel, Warren K
2016-07-01
Episodic future thinking (EFT) requires an individual to vividly pre-experience a realistic future event. Inspired by previous reports of reducing delay discounting following EFT in other populations, we examined the effects of engaging alcohol-dependent individuals in EFT or episodic recent thinking (ERT; control) to examine its effects on delay discounting and alcohol purchasing. Participants (n = 50) with alcohol dependence were allocated into EFT or ERT groups and asked to generate positive future or recent past events for each of 5 time points. Participants then completed a delay-discounting task, during which event cues were displayed, and a hypothetical alcohol purchase task. EFT significantly increased valuation of future monetary rewards, while decreasing initial consumption (Q0 ) of alcoholic drinks indicative of lower demand intensity. Two additional findings suggest potential moderators of this effect. EFT more readily influenced individuals with lower Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test scores, and self-reported cue valence differed between groups. Together, these results suggest a widening of alcohol-dependent individuals' temporal window following engagement of EFT. While our data suggest that EFT may be moderated by certain susceptibility criteria, exercises such as EFT could be easily adaptable as a potential therapeutic tool for use in rehabilitation programs. Copyright © 2016 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.
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Impaired Decisional Impulsivity in Pathological Videogamers
Irvine, Michael A.; Worbe, Yulia; Bolton, Sorcha; Harrison, Neil A.; Bullmore, Edward T.; Voon, Valerie
2013-01-01
Background Pathological gaming is an emerging and poorly understood problem. Impulsivity is commonly impaired in disorders of behavioural and substance addiction, hence we sought to systematically investigate the different subtypes of decisional and motor impulsivity in a well-defined pathological gaming cohort. Methods Fifty-two pathological gaming subjects and age-, gender- and IQ-matched healthy volunteers were tested on decisional impulsivity (Information Sampling Task testing reflection impulsivity and delay discounting questionnaire testing impulsive choice), and motor impulsivity (Stop Signal Task testing motor response inhibition, and the premature responding task). We used stringent diagnostic criteria highlighting functional impairment. Results In the Information Sampling Task, pathological gaming participants sampled less evidence prior to making a decision and scored fewer points compared with healthy volunteers. Gaming severity was also negatively correlated with evidence gathered and positively correlated with sampling error and points acquired. In the delay discounting task, pathological gamers made more impulsive choices, preferring smaller immediate over larger delayed rewards. Pathological gamers made more premature responses related to comorbid nicotine use. Greater number of hours played also correlated with a Motivational Index. Greater frequency of role playing games was associated with impaired motor response inhibition and strategy games with faster Go reaction time. Conclusions We show that pathological gaming is associated with impaired decisional impulsivity with negative consequences in task performance. Decisional impulsivity may be a potential target in therapeutic management. PMID:24146789
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Krause-Utz, A; Cackowski, S; Daffner, S; Sobanski, Esther; Plichta, Michael M; Bohus, M; Ende, G; Schmahl, C
2016-11-01
Impulsivity is a core feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In BPD, impulsive behavior primarily occurs under acute stress; impulse control deficits under non-stress conditions may be partly related to co-morbid ADHD. We aimed to investigate whether acute experimental stress has an impact on self-reported impulsivity, response inhibition (action withholding, action cancelation) and delay discounting in BPD compared to ADHD. Thirty female BPD patients, 28 female ADHD patients (excluding patients with co-morbid BPD and ADHD), and 30 female healthy controls (HC) completed self-reports and behavioral measures of impulsivity (IMT, assessing action withholding; GoStop, measuring action cancelation, Delay Discounting Task) under baseline conditions and after an experimental stress induction (Mannheim Multicomponent Stress Test). Both patient groups reported higher impulsivity than HC, ADHD reported higher trait impulsivity than BPD. On the IMT, ADHD showed significant action-withholding deficits under both conditions, while BPD performed significantly worse than HC under stress. In BPD but not ADHD and HC, action-withholding deficits (IMT) were significantly increased under stress compared to baseline, while no group/stress effects were found for action cancelation (GoStop). Delay discounting was significantly more pronounced in BPD than in HC (no stress effect was found). In BPD, behavioral deficits in action withholding (but not in action cancelation) appear to be influenced by acute experimental stress. Delay discounting seems to be a general feature of BPD, independent of co-morbid ADHD and acute stress, possibly underlying typical expressions of behavioral impulsivity in the disorder.
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Bridge, Jeffrey A; Reynolds, Brady; McBee-Strayer, Sandra M; Sheftall, Arielle H; Ackerman, John; Stevens, Jack; Mendoza, Kristen; Campo, John V; Brent, David A
2015-03-01
Impulsive-aggressive behaviors have been consistently implicated in the phenomenology, neurobiology, and familial aggregation of suicidal behavior. The purpose of this study was to extend previous work by examining laboratory behavioral measures of delayed reward impulsivity and impulsive aggression in adolescent suicide attempters and never-suicidal comparison subjects. Using the Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm (PSAP) and the Delay Discounting Task (DDQ), the authors examined delay discounting and impulsive aggression in 40 adolescent suicide attempters, ages 13-18, and 40 never-suicidal, demographically matched psychiatric comparison subjects. Overall, suicide attempters and comparison subjects performed similarly on the PSAP and DDQ. There was a significant group by current psychotropic medication use interaction (p=0.013) for mean aggressive responses on the PSAP. Group comparisons revealed that attempters emitted more aggressive responses per provocation than comparison subjects, only in those not on psychotropic medication (p=0.049), whereas for those currently treated with psychotropic medication, there were no group differences (p>0.05). This interaction effect was specific to current antidepressant use. Among all subjects, family history of suicidal behavior (suicide or suicide attempt) in first degree relatives was significantly correlated with both delay discounting (r=-0.22, p=0.049), and aggressive responding (r=0.27, p=0.015). Family history of suicidal behavior was associated with delay discounting, but not with aggressive responding on the PSAP, after controlling for relevant covariates. In this study, impulsive-aggressive responding was associated with suicide attempt only in those not being treated with antidepressants. Future work to replicate and extend these findings could have important therapeutic implications for the treatment of depressed suicide attempters, many of whom are affected by impulsive aggression.
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Reynolds, Brady; McBee-Strayer, Sandra M.; Sheftall, Arielle H.; Ackerman, John; Stevens, Jack; Mendoza, Kristen; Campo, John V.; Brent, David A.
2015-01-01
Abstract Objective: Impulsive-aggressive behaviors have been consistently implicated in the phenomenology, neurobiology, and familial aggregation of suicidal behavior. The purpose of this study was to extend previous work by examining laboratory behavioral measures of delayed reward impulsivity and impulsive aggression in adolescent suicide attempters and never-suicidal comparison subjects. Methods: Using the Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm (PSAP) and the Delay Discounting Task (DDQ), the authors examined delay discounting and impulsive aggression in 40 adolescent suicide attempters, ages 13–18, and 40 never-suicidal, demographically matched psychiatric comparison subjects. Results: Overall, suicide attempters and comparison subjects performed similarly on the PSAP and DDQ. There was a significant group by current psychotropic medication use interaction (p=0.013) for mean aggressive responses on the PSAP. Group comparisons revealed that attempters emitted more aggressive responses per provocation than comparison subjects, only in those not on psychotropic medication (p=0.049), whereas for those currently treated with psychotropic medication, there were no group differences (p>0.05). This interaction effect was specific to current antidepressant use. Among all subjects, family history of suicidal behavior (suicide or suicide attempt) in first degree relatives was significantly correlated with both delay discounting (r=−0.22, p=0.049), and aggressive responding (r=0.27, p=0.015). Family history of suicidal behavior was associated with delay discounting, but not with aggressive responding on the PSAP, after controlling for relevant covariates. Conclusions: In this study, impulsive-aggressive responding was associated with suicide attempt only in those not being treated with antidepressants. Future work to replicate and extend these findings could have important therapeutic implications for the treatment of depressed suicide attempters, many of whom are affected by impulsive aggression. PMID:25745870
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Age differences in future orientation and delay discounting.
Steinberg, Laurence; Graham, Sandra; O'Brien, Lia; Woolard, Jennifer; Cauffman, Elizabeth; Banich, Marie
2009-01-01
Age differences in future orientation are examined in a sample of 935 individuals between 10 and 30 years using a delay discounting task as well as a new self-report measure. Younger adolescents consistently demonstrate a weaker orientation to the future than do individuals aged 16 and older, as reflected in their greater willingness to accept a smaller reward delivered sooner than a larger one that is delayed, and in their characterizations of themselves as less concerned about the future and less likely to anticipate the consequences of their decisions. Planning ahead, in contrast, continues to develop into young adulthood. Future studies should distinguish between future orientation and impulse control, which may have different neural underpinnings and follow different developmental timetables.
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Shimoni, Einav; Asbe, Marwa; Eyal, Tal; Berger, Andrea
2016-01-01
We examined the effect of the distinct positive emotions pride and joy on children's self-regulation, focusing on their ability to delay gratification (i.e., resist a temptation in favor of a long-term goal). We hypothesized that because pride corresponds to the attainment of long-term goals and joy corresponds to the attainment of immediate desires, the experience of pride may signal sufficient progress toward a long-term goal, resulting in less delay of gratification than the experience of joy. To test this hypothesis, we induced an experience of pride or joy in 8-year-old children. At this age, the ability to self-regulate--and to experience pride and joy distinctively--is relatively mature. We then measured performance in a delay discounting task. We found that, compared with the joy condition and a control condition, children who experienced pride performed worse on the delay discounting task (p=.045), indicating poorer self-regulation. This result suggests that emotions may function as cues for sufficient goal pursuit, thereby influencing self-regulation from a very young age. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Development of Hot and Cool Executive Function during the Transition to Adolescence
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Prencipe, Angela; Kesek, Amanda; Cohen, Julia; Lamm, Connie; Lewis, Marc D.; Zelazo, Philip David
2011-01-01
This study examined the development of executive function (EF) in a typically developing sample from middle childhood to adolescence using a range of tasks varying in affective significance. A total of 102 participants between 8 and 15 years of age completed the Iowa Gambling Task, the Color Word Stroop, a Delay Discounting task, and a Digit Span…
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DISCOUNTING OF DELAYED AND PROBABILISTIC LOSSES OVER A WIDE RANGE OF AMOUNTS
Green, Leonard; Myerson, Joel; Oliveira, Luís; Chang, Seo Eun
2014-01-01
The present study examined delay and probability discounting of hypothetical monetary losses over a wide range of amounts (from $20 to $500,000) in order to determine how amount affects the parameters of the hyperboloid discounting function. In separate conditions, college students chose between immediate payments and larger, delayed payments and between certain payments and larger, probabilistic payments. The hyperboloid function accurately described both types of discounting, and amount of loss had little or no systematic effect on the degree of discounting. Importantly, the amount of loss also had little systematic effect on either the rate parameter or the exponent of the delay and probability discounting functions. The finding that the parameters of the hyperboloid function remain relatively constant across a wide range of amounts of delayed and probabilistic loss stands in contrast to the robust amount effects observed with delayed and probabilistic rewards. At the individual level, the degree to which delayed losses were discounted was uncorrelated with the degree to which probabilistic losses were discounted, and delay and probability loaded on two separate factors, similar to what is observed with delayed and probabilistic rewards. Taken together, these findings argue that although delay and probability discounting involve fundamentally different decision-making mechanisms, nevertheless the discounting of delayed and probabilistic losses share an insensitivity to amount that distinguishes it from the discounting of delayed and probabilistic gains. PMID:24745086
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Delay discounting moderates the effect of food reinforcement on energy intake among non-obese women☆
Rollins, Brandi Y.; Dearing, Kelly K.; Epstein, Leonard H.
2011-01-01
Recent theoretical approaches to food intake hypothesize that eating represents a balance between reward-driven motivation to eat versus inhibitory executive function processes, however this hypothesis remains to be tested. The objective of the current study was to test the hypothesis that the motivation to eat, operationalized by the relative reinforcing value (RRV) of food, and inhibitory processes, assessed by delay discounting (DD), interact to influence energy intake in an ad libitum eating task. Female subjects (n = 24) completed a DD of money procedure, RRV task, and an ad libitum eating task in counterbalanced sessions. RRV of food predicted total energy intake, however the effect of the RRV of food on energy intake was moderated by DD. Women higher in DD and RRV of food consumed greater total energy, whereas women higher in RRV of food but lower in DD consumed less total energy. Our findings support the hypothesis that reinforcing value and executive function mediated processes interactively influence food consumption. PMID:20678532
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Delay Discounting: Pigeon, Rat, Human – Does it Matter?
Vanderveldt, Ariana; Oliveira, Luís; Green, Leonard
2016-01-01
Delay discounting refers to the decrease in subjective value of an outcome as the time to its receipt increases. Across species and situations, animals discount delayed rewards, and their discounting is well-described by a hyperboloid function. The current review begins with a comparison of discounting models and the procedures used to assess delay discounting in nonhuman animals. We next discuss the generality of discounting, reviewing the effects of different variables on the degree of discounting delayed reinforcers by nonhuman animals. Despite the many similarities in discounting observed between human and nonhuman animals, several differences have been proposed (e.g., the magnitude effect; nonhuman animals discount over a matter of seconds whereas humans report willing to wait months, if not years before receiving a reward), raising the possibility of fundamental species differences in intertemporal choice. After evaluating these differences, we discuss delay discounting from an adaptationist perspective. The pervasiveness of discounting across species and situations suggests it is a fundamental process underlying decision making. PMID:26881899
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Time discounting and time preference in animals: A critical review.
Hayden, Benjamin Y
2016-02-01
Animals are an important model for studies of impulsivity and self-control. Many studies have made use of the intertemporal choice task, which pits small rewards available sooner against larger rewards available later (typically several seconds), repeated over many trials. Preference for the sooner reward is often taken to indicate impulsivity and/or a failure of self-control. This review shows that very little evidence supports this assumption; on the contrary, ostensible discounting behavior may reflect a boundedly rational but not necessarily impulsive reward-maximizing strategy. Specifically, animals may discount weakly, or even adopt a long-term rate-maximizing strategy, but fail to fully incorporate postreward delays into their choices. This failure may reflect learning biases. Consequently, tasks that measure animal discounting may greatly overestimate the true discounting and may be confounded by processes unrelated to time preferences. If so, animals may be much more patient than is widely believed; human and animal intertemporal choices may reflect unrelated mental operations; and the shared hyperbolic shape of the human and animal discount curves, which is used to justify cross-species comparisons, may be coincidental. The discussion concludes with a consideration of alternative ways to measure self-control in animals.
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Brain Structure Linking Delay Discounting and Academic Performance.
Wang, Song; Kong, Feng; Zhou, Ming; Chen, Taolin; Yang, Xun; Chen, Guangxiang; Gong, Qiyong
2017-08-01
As a component of self-discipline, delay discounting refers to the ability to wait longer for preferred rewards and plays a pivotal role in shaping students' academic performance. However, the neural basis of the association between delay discounting and academic performance remains largely unknown. Here, we examined the neuroanatomical substrates underlying delay discounting and academic performance in 214 adolescents via voxel-based morphometry (VBM) by performing structural magnetic resonance imaging (S-MRI). Behaviorally, we confirmed the significant correlation between delay discounting and academic performance. Neurally, whole-brain regression analyses indicated that regional gray matter volume (rGMV) of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) was associated with both delay discounting and academic performance. Furthermore, delay discounting partly accounted for the association between academic performance and brain structure. Differences in the rGMV of the left DLPFC related to academic performance explained over one-third of the impact of delay discounting on academic performance. Overall, these results provide the first evidence for the common neural basis linking delay discounting and academic performance. Hum Brain Mapp 38:3917-3926, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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Jarmolowicz, David P; Landes, Reid D; Christensen, Darren R; Jones, Bryan A; Jackson, Lisa; Yi, Richard; Bickel, Warren K
2014-11-01
Research on delay discounting has contributed to the understanding of numerous addiction-related phenomena. For example, studies have shown that substance dependent individuals discount their addictive substances (e.g., cocaine) more rapidly than they do other commodities (e.g., money). Recent research has shown that substance dependent individuals discount delayed sex more rapidly than delayed money, and their discounting rates for delayed sex were higher than those of non-addicted individuals. The particular reason that delay discounting rates for sex are higher than those for money, however, are unclear. Do individuals discount delayed sex rapidly because immediate sex is particularly appealing or because delayed sex does not retain its value? Moreover, do the same factors influence men and women's choices? The current study examined delay discounting in four conditions (money now versus money later; sex now versus sex later; money now, versus sex later; sex now versus money later) in cocaine dependent men and women. The procedures used isolated the role of the immediate versus delayed commodity. For men, the higher rates of delay discounting for sex were because delayed sex did not retain its value, whereas both the immediate and delayed commodity influenced the female participants' decisions. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Hendrickson, Kelsie L; Rasmussen, Erin B; Lawyer, Steven R
2015-07-01
The present study established a brief measure of delay discounting for food, the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ), and compared it to another more established measure of food discounting that uses the adjusting amount (AA) procedure. One hundred forty-four undergraduate participants completed either two measures of hypothetical food discounting (a computerized food AA procedure or the FCQ) or two measures of hypothetical money discounting [a computerized monetary AA procedure or the Monetary Choice questionnaire (MCQ)]. The money condition was used as a replication of previous work. Results indicated that the FCQ yielded consistent data that strongly correlated with the AA food discounting task. Moreover, a magnitude effect was found with the FCQ, such that smaller amounts of food were discounted more steeply than larger amounts. In addition, individuals with higher percent body fat (PBF) discounted food more steeply than individuals with lower PBF. The MCQ, which also produced a magnitude effect, and the monetary adjusting amount procedure yielded data that were orderly, consistent, and correlated strongly with one another, replicating previous literature. This study is the first to show that a novel measure of food discounting (the FCQ) yields consistent data strongly correlated with an established measure of food discounting and is sensitive to PBF. Moreover, the FCQ is easier and quicker to administer than the AA procedure, which may interest researchers who use discounting tasks in food-related research. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Demoto, Yoshihiko; Okada, Go; Okamoto, Yasumasa; Kunisato, Yoshihiko; Aoyama, Shiori; Onoda, Keiichi; Munakata, Ayumi; Nomura, Michio; Tanaka, Saori C; Schweighofer, Nicolas; Doya, Kenji; Yamawaki, Shigeto
2012-01-01
In general, humans tend to discount the value of delayed reward. An increase in the rate of discounting leads to an inability to select a delayed reward over a smaller immediate reward (reward-delay impulsivity). Although deficits in the serotonergic system are implicated in this reward-delay impulsivity, there is individual variation in response to serotonin depletion. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the effects of serotonin depletion on the ability to evaluate future reward are affected by individual personality traits or brain activation. Personality traits were assessed using the NEO-Five Factor Inventory and Temperament and Character Inventory. The central serotonergic levels of 16 healthy volunteers were manipulated by dietary tryptophan depletion. Subjects performed a delayed reward choice task that required the continuous estimation of reward value during functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. Discounting rates were increased in 9 participants, but were unchanged or decreased in 7 participants in response to tryptophan depletion. Participants whose discounting rate was increased by tryptophan depletion had significantly higher neuroticism and lower self-directedness. Furthermore, tryptophan depletion differentially affected the groups in terms of hemodynamic responses to the value of predicted future reward in the right insula. These results suggest that individuals who have high neuroticism and low self-directedness as personality traits are particularly vulnerable to the effect of low serotonin on future reward evaluation accompanied by altered brain activation patterns. Copyright © 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel.
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Parabolic discounting of monetary rewards by physical effort.
Hartmann, Matthias N; Hager, Oliver M; Tobler, Philippe N; Kaiser, Stefan
2013-11-01
When humans and other animals make decisions in their natural environments prospective rewards have to be weighed against costs. It is well established that increasing costs lead to devaluation or discounting of reward. While our knowledge about discount functions for time and probability costs is quite advanced, little is known about how physical effort discounts reward. In the present study we compared three different models in a binary choice task in which human participants had to squeeze a handgrip to earn monetary rewards: a linear, a hyperbolic, and a parabolic model. On the group as well as the individual level, the concave parabolic model explained most variance of the choice data, thus contrasting with the typical hyperbolic discounting of reward value by delay. Research on effort discounting is not only important to basic science but also holds the potential to quantify aberrant motivational states in neuropsychiatric disorders. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Impact of episodic thinking on altruism
Yi, Richard; Pickover, Alison; Stuppy-Sullivan, Allison M.; Baker, Sydney; Landes, Reid D.
2016-01-01
Episodic future thinking, which refers to the use of prospective imagery to concretely imagine oneself in future scenarios, has been shown to reduce delay discounting (enhance self-control). A parallel approach, in which prospective imagery is used to concretely imagine other’s scenarios, may similarly reduce social discounting (i.e., enhance altruism). In study 1, participants engaged in episodic thinking about the self or others, in a repeated-measures design, while completing a social discounting task. Reductions in social discounting were observed as a function of episodic thinking about others, though an interaction with order was also observed. Using an independent-measures design in study 2, the effect of episodic thinking about others was replicated. Study 3 addressed a limitation of studies 1 and 2, the possibility that simply thinking about others decreased social discounting. Capitalizing on Construal Level Theory, which specifies that social distance and time in the future are both dimensions of a common psychological distance, we hypothesized that episodic future thinking should also decrease social discounting. Participants engaged in episodic future thinking or episodic present thinking, in a repeated-measures design, while completing a social discounting task. The pattern of results was similar to study 1, providing support for the notion that episodic thinking about psychologically distant outcomes (for others or in the future) reduces social discounting. Application of similar episodic thinking approaches may enhance altruism. PMID:27821875
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Costa Dias, Taciana G.; Wilson, Vanessa B.; Bathula, Deepti R.; Iyer, Swathi P.; Mills, Kathryn L.; Thurlow, Bria L.; Stevens, Corinne A.; Musser, Erica D.; Carpenter, Samuel D.; Grayson, David S.; Mitchell, Suzanne H.; Nigg, Joel T.; Fair, Damien A.
2012-01-01
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent psychiatric disorder that has poor long-term outcomes and remains a major public health concern. Recent theories have proposed that ADHD arises from alterations in multiple neural pathways. Alterations in reward circuits are hypothesized as one core dysfunction, leading to altered processing of anticipated rewards. The nucleus accumbens (NAcc) is particularly important for reward processes; task-based fMRI studies have found atypical activation of this region while the participants performed a reward task. Understanding how reward circuits are involved with ADHD may be further enhanced by considering how the NAcc interacts with other brain regions. Here we used the technique of resting-state functional connectivity MRI (rs-fcMRI) to examine the alterations in the NAcc interactions and how they relate to impulsive decision making in ADHD. Using rs-fcMRI, this study: examined differences in functional connectivity of the NAcc between children with ADHD and control children; correlated the functional connectivity of NAcc with impulsivity, as measured by a delay discounting task; and combined these two initial segments to identify the atypical NAcc connections that were associated with impulsive decision making in ADHD. We found that functional connectivity of NAcc was atypical in children with ADHD and the ADHD-related increased connectivity between NAcc and the prefrontal cortex was associated with greater impulsivity (steeper delayed-reward discounting). These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that atypical signaling of the NAcc to the prefrontal cortex in ADHD may lead to excessive approach and failure in estimating future consequences; thus, leading to impulsive behavior. PMID:23206930
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Drinking status but not acute alcohol consumption influences delay discounting.
Adams, Sally; Attwood, Angela S; Munafò, Marcus R
2017-09-01
The aim of this study was to investigate the following: (a) the effects of acute alcohol on delay discounting; (b) the effects of drinking status on delayed discounting; and (c) whether these effects differ according to reward type (alcohol vs. money). Heavy and light social alcohol users (n = 96) were randomized to receive either an acute dose of alcohol at 0.4 or 0.6 g/kg or placebo in a between-subjects, double-blind design. Delay discounting of alcohol and monetary rewards was measured using a hyperbolic model, with higher scores indicative of greater delay discounting. ANOVA of discount scores indicated a main effect of reward type, where all participants had higher discount scores for alcohol versus money rewards. A main effect of drinking status was also observed, where heavier drinkers had higher discount scores compared with lighter drinkers. We did not observe a main effect of acute alcohol use on delay discounting or the hypothesized interactions between acute alcohol use and drinking status with reward type. Our data suggest that heavier drinkers discount the value of delayed rewards more steeply than lighter drinkers. Delay discounting may therefore be a promising marker of heavy alcohol consumption in social drinkers. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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A money management-based substance use treatment increases valuation of future rewards.
Black, Anne C; Rosen, Marc I
2011-01-01
A positive association between delay discounting and substance use has been documented; substance users tend to discount future rewards more than non-users. However, studies detailing the responsiveness of delay discounting to interventions are lacking, and few have examined how any behavioral intervention affects delay discounting and whether these effects moderate changes in substance abuse. This study assesses the effectiveness of a money management intervention, Advisor-Teller Money Manager (ATM), in reducing delay discounting over time and the relationship of these effects to changes in cocaine use. Ninety psychiatric patients with histories of cocaine and/or alcohol use were randomly assigned to 36-weeks of ATM treatment or to a minimal-attention control condition. Delay discounting and cocaine use were measured throughout the intervention with a 52-week follow up measure of cocaine use. Analyses were conducted of (a) the effect of ATM on slopes of delay discounting and cocaine abstinence and (b) the relationship between change in delay discounting and change in cocaine abstinence. The ATM intervention was associated with significantly less delay discounting and less cocaine use over time relative to controls. Increases in delay discounting were associated with decreased abstinence from cocaine. ATM treatment decreased delay discounting rates and these effects extended to cocaine use. Concrete conceptualizations of future events, as occur in financial planning, with higher perceived probability may account for higher valuation of future rewards in counseled patients. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Mendez, Ian A.; Gilbert, Ryan J.; Bizon, Jennifer L.
2012-01-01
Rationale Alterations in cost–benefit decision making accompany numerous neuropsychiatric conditions, including schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and addiction. Central cholinergic systems have been linked to the etiology and/or treatment of many of these conditions, but little is known about the role of cholinergic signaling in cost–benefit decision making. Objectives The goal of these experiments was to determine how cholinergic signaling is involved in cost–benefit decision making, using a behavioral pharmacological approach. Methods Male Long-Evans rats were trained in either “probability discounting” or “delay discounting” tasks, in which rats made discrete-trial choices between a small food reward and a large food reward associated with either varying probabilities of omission or varying delays to delivery, respectively. The effects of acute administration of different doses of nicotinic and muscarinic acetylcholine receptor agonists and antagonists were assessed in each task. Results In the probability discounting task, acute nicotine administration (1.0 mg/kg) significantly increased choice of the large risky reward, and control experiments suggested that this was due to robust nicotine-induced impairments in behavioral flexibility. In the delay discounting task, the muscarinic antagonists scopolamine (0.03, 0.1, and 0.3 mg/kg) and atropine (0.3 mg/kg) both significantly increased choice of the small immediate reward. Neither mecamylamine nor oxotremorine produced reliable effects on either of the decision making tasks. Conclusions These data suggest that cholinergic receptors play multiple roles in decision making contexts which include consideration of reward delay or probability. These roles should be considered when targeting these receptors for therapeutic purposes. PMID:22760484
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Regret Expression and Social Learning Increases Delay to Sexual Gratification.
Quisenberry, Amanda J; Eddy, Celia R; Patterson, David L; Franck, Christopher T; Bickel, Warren K
2015-01-01
Modification and prevention of risky sexual behavior is important to individuals' health and public health policy. This study employed a novel sexual discounting task to elucidate the effects of social learning and regret expression on delay to sexual gratification in a behavioral task. Amazon Mechanical Turk Workers were assigned to hear one of three scenarios about a friend who engages in similar sexual behavior. The scenarios included a positive health consequence, a negative health consequence or a negative health consequence with the expression of regret. After reading one scenario, participants were asked to select from 60 images, those with whom they would have casual sex. Of the selected images, participants chose one image each for the person they most and least want to have sex with and person most and least likely to have a sexually transmitted infection. They then answered questions about engaging in unprotected sex now or waiting some delay for condom-protected sex in each partner condition. Results indicate that the negative health outcome scenario with regret expression resulted in delayed sexual gratification in the most attractive and least STI partner conditions, whereas in the least attractive and most STI partner conditions the negative health outcome with and without regret resulted in delayed sexual gratification. Results suggest that the sexual discounting task is a relevant laboratory measure and the framing of information to include regret expression may be relevant for prevention of risky sexual behavior.
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Regret Expression and Social Learning Increases Delay to Sexual Gratification
Quisenberry, Amanda J.; Eddy, Celia R.; Patterson, David L.; Franck, Christopher T.; Bickel, Warren K.
2015-01-01
Objective Modification and prevention of risky sexual behavior is important to individuals’ health and public health policy. This study employed a novel sexual discounting task to elucidate the effects of social learning and regret expression on delay to sexual gratification in a behavioral task. Methods Amazon Mechanical Turk Workers were assigned to hear one of three scenarios about a friend who engages in similar sexual behavior. The scenarios included a positive health consequence, a negative health consequence or a negative health consequence with the expression of regret. After reading one scenario, participants were asked to select from 60 images, those with whom they would have casual sex. Of the selected images, participants chose one image each for the person they most and least want to have sex with and person most and least likely to have a sexually transmitted infection. They then answered questions about engaging in unprotected sex now or waiting some delay for condom-protected sex in each partner condition. Results Results indicate that the negative health outcome scenario with regret expression resulted in delayed sexual gratification in the most attractive and least STI partner conditions, whereas in the least attractive and most STI partner conditions the negative health outcome with and without regret resulted in delayed sexual gratification. Conclusions Results suggest that the sexual discounting task is a relevant laboratory measure and the framing of information to include regret expression may be relevant for prevention of risky sexual behavior. PMID:26280349
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Stanis, Jessica J.; Burns, Randi M.; Sherrill, Luke K.; Gulley, Joshua M.
2008-01-01
Heightened impulsivity and differential sensitivity to a drug's behavioral effects are traits that, individually, have been associated with chronic drug use and dependence. Here, we used an animal model to test whether individual differences in cocaine-induced activity are predictive of impulsive choice behavior. Adult, male Sprague-Dawley rats were given cocaine (10 mg/kg, i.p.) and classified into low or high cocaine responders (LCRs and HCRs, respectively) based on their locomotor response in an open-field arena. Rats were then trained in a delay-discounting task that offers a choice between immediately delivered, but smaller reinforcements, or larger reinforcements that are delivered after a delay. We also examined the effects of amphetamine (AMPH; 0.3-1.0 mg/kg) and the 5-HT1A agonist 8-OH-DPAT (0.3-1.0 mg/kg) on delay discounting. Lastly, all rats were retested in the open-field to determine if phenotypes were stable. We observed baseline differences in choice behavior between the groups, with HCRs behaving more impulsively (i.e., choosing the small reinforcement) compared to LCRs. AMPH decreased choice of the large reinforcement in LCRs, but did not alter choice in HCRs. Impulsive choice was increased in both phenotypes following 8-OH-DPAT, with LCRs exhibiting changes across a wider range of delays. When cocaine-induced open-field behavior was retested, responses in LCRs were similar whereas HCRs showed evidence of tolerance. Our results suggest that differential sensitivity to cocaine-induced locomotion is predictive of impulsivity and the potential neurobiological differences in LCRs and HCRs may provide insight into mechanisms contributing to vulnerability for chronic drug use and/or dependence. PMID:18539407
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Kuo, Hsu-Chan; Lee, Chun-Chia; Chiou, Wen-Bin
2016-02-01
The tendency to discount larger future benefits in favor of smaller immediate gains (i.e., temporal discounting) is relevant to the issue of obesity. Successful weight loss requires individuals to sacrifice immediate culinary pleasures in favor of future health gains. Based on the notion that increasing the vividness of one's future self may mitigate temporal discounting and promote the ability to delay gratification, we examined whether viewing one's weight-reduced self (i.e., the ideal self) in a virtual environment can decrease temporal discounting and lead to better regulation of dietary practices. Seventy-six undergraduates who had reported an intention to lose weight were recruited to participate in a laboratory experiment and were randomly assigned to interact with either the weight-reduced self (experimental condition) or the present self (control condition) by looking into a dressing mirror in a virtual fitting room. A temporal-discounting task and a taste test were subsequently administered. Results showed that, compared with control participants, participants who viewed their weight-reduced avatars ate less ice cream in a taste test and were more likely to choose a sugar-free drink as a reward. The discounting rate mediated the association between the avatar manipulation and the amount of ice cream eaten in the subsequent taste test. Overall, our findings suggest that a computer-generated image of one's weight-reduced self may assist in resisting impulses that promote immediate gratification over delayed benefits. This research provides a new approach for controlling impulsive behavior such as dietary regulation and weight control.
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Gilman, Jodi M; Curran, Max T; Calderon, Vanessa; Stoeckel, Luke E; Evins, A Eden
2014-01-01
Adolescents and young adults who affiliate with friends who engage in impulsive behavior are more likely to engage in impulsive behaviors themselves, and those who associate with prosocial (i.e. more prudent, future oriented) peers are more likely to engage in prosocial behavior. However, it is difficult to disentangle the contribution of peer influence vs. peer selection (i.e., whether individuals choose friends with similar traits) when interpreting social behaviors. In this study, we combined a novel social manipulation with a well-validated delay discounting task assessing impulsive behavior to create a social influence delay discounting task, in which participants were exposed to both impulsive (smaller, sooner or SS payment) and non-impulsive (larger, later or LL payment) choices from their peers. Young adults in this sample, n = 51, aged 18-25 had a higher rate of SS choices after exposure to impulsive peer influence than after exposure to non-impulsive peer influence. Interestingly, in highly susceptible individuals, the rate of non-impulsive choices did not increase after exposure to non-impulsive influence. There was a positive correlation between self-reported suggestibility and degree of peer influence on SS choices. These results suggest that, in young adults, SS choices appear to be influenced by the choices of same-aged peers, especially for individuals who are highly susceptible to influence.
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Gilman, Jodi M.; Curran, Max T.; Calderon, Vanessa; Stoeckel, Luke E.; Evins, A. Eden
2014-01-01
Adolescents and young adults who affiliate with friends who engage in impulsive behavior are more likely to engage in impulsive behaviors themselves, and those who associate with prosocial (i.e. more prudent, future oriented) peers are more likely to engage in prosocial behavior. However, it is difficult to disentangle the contribution of peer influence vs. peer selection (i.e., whether individuals choose friends with similar traits) when interpreting social behaviors. In this study, we combined a novel social manipulation with a well-validated delay discounting task assessing impulsive behavior to create a social influence delay discounting task, in which participants were exposed to both impulsive (smaller, sooner or SS payment) and non-impulsive (larger, later or LL payment) choices from their peers. Young adults in this sample, n = 51, aged 18–25 had a higher rate of SS choices after exposure to impulsive peer influence than after exposure to non-impulsive peer influence. Interestingly, in highly susceptible individuals, the rate of non-impulsive choices did not increase after exposure to non-impulsive influence. There was a positive correlation between self-reported suggestibility and degree of peer influence on SS choices. These results suggest that, in young adults, SS choices appear to be influenced by the choices of same-aged peers, especially for individuals who are highly susceptible to influence. PMID:24988440
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Johnson, Matthew W; Bruner, Natalie R; Johnson, Patrick S
2015-01-01
Cocaine dependence and other forms of drug dependence are associated with steeper devaluation of future outcomes (delay discounting). Although studies in this domain have typically assessed choices between monetary gains (e.g., receive less money now versus receive more money after a delay), delay discounting is also applicable to decisions involving losses (e.g., small loss now versus larger delayed loss), with gains typically discounted more than losses (the "sign effect"). It is also known that drugs are discounted more than equivalently valued money. In the context of drug dependence, however, relatively little is known about the discounting of delayed monetary and drug losses and the presence of the sign effect. In this within-subject, laboratory study, delay discounting for gains and losses was assessed for cocaine and money outcomes in cocaine-dependent individuals (n=89). Both cocaine and monetary gains were discounted at significantly greater rates than cocaine and monetary losses, respectively (i.e., the sign effect). Cocaine gains were discounted significantly more than monetary gains, but cocaine and monetary losses were discounted similarly. Results suggest that cocaine is discounted by cocaine-dependent individuals in a systematic manner similar to other rewards. Because the sign effect was shown for both cocaine and money, delayed aversive outcomes may generally have greater impact than delayed rewards in shaping present behavior in this population. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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Delayed discounting and hedonic hunger in the prediction of lab-based eating behavior.
Ely, Alice V; Howard, Janna; Lowe, Michael R
2015-12-01
Research suggests that characteristics identified in obese individuals, such as impulsive decision-making and hedonic hunger, may exist in nonobese populations. This study examined the independent and interactive effects of impulsive decision-making (measured via delay discounting, DD) and hedonic hunger (assessed with the Power of Food Scale, PFS) on food intake. Female participants (N=78) ate a self-determined amount of plain oatmeal, completed self-report measures and the delay discounting task, and participated in a sham taste test of palatable sweet and salty foods. Unexpectedly, PFS and DD scores interacted to predict consumption of the total amount of food consumed, and of oatmeal alone, but not of snack food alone. High-PFS participants consumed more when also high in DD, while low-PFS participants showed the opposite pattern of consumption. The findings identify variables that may increase propensity toward overconsumption and potential weight gain; future research is necessary to evaluate the utility of these constructs to predict increases in BMI over time. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Now for Me, Later for Us? Effects of Group Context on Temporal Discounting
Charlton, Shawn R.; Yi, Richard; Porter, Caitlin; Carter, Anne E.; Bickel, Warren; Rachlin, Howard
2013-01-01
Delayed rewards are less valuable than immediate rewards. This well-established finding has focused almost entirely on individual outcomes. However, are delayed rewards similarly discounted if they are shared by a group? The current article reports on three experiments exploring the effect of group context on delay discounting. Results indicate that discount rates of individual and group rewards were highly correlated, but that respondents were more willing to wait (decreased discounting) for shared outcomes than for individual outcomes. An explanatory model is proposed suggesting that decreased discount rates in group contexts may be due to the way the effects of both delay and social discounting are combined. That is, in a group context, a person values both a future reward (discounted by delay) and a present reward to another person (discounted by the social distance between them). The results are explained by a combined discount function containing a delay factor and a factor representing the social distance between the decision maker and group members. Practical implications of the fact that shared consequences can increase individual self-control are also discussed. PMID:23641123
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Beauchaine, Theodore P; Ben-David, Itzhak; Sela, Aner
2017-01-01
Delay discounting-often referred to as hyperbolic discounting in the financial literature-is defined by a consistent preference for smaller, immediate rewards over larger, delayed rewards, and by failure of future consequences to curtail current consummatory behaviors. Previous research demonstrates (1) excessive delay discounting among individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), (2) common neural substrates of delay discounting and hyperactive-impulsive symptoms of ADHD, and (3) associations between delay discounting and both debt burden and high interest rate borrowing. This study extends prior research by examining associations between ADHD symptoms, delay discounting, and an array of previously unevaluated financial outcomes among 544 individuals (mean age 35 years). Controlling for age, income, sex, education, and substance use, ADHD symptoms were associated with delay discounting, late credit card payments, credit card balances, use of pawn services, personal debt, and employment histories (less time spent at more jobs). Consistent with neural models of reward processing and associative learning, more of these relations were attributable to hyperactive-impulsive symptoms than inattentive symptoms. Implications for financial decision-making and directions for future research are discussed.
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Using Crowdsourcing to Examine Relations Between Delay and Probability Discounting
Jarmolowicz, David P.; Bickel, Warren K.; Carter, Anne E.; Franck, Christopher T.; Mueller, E. Terry
2016-01-01
Although the extensive lines of research on delay and/or probability discounting have greatly expanded our understanding of human decision-making processes, the relation between these two phenomena remains unclear. For example, some studies have reported robust associations between delay and probability discounting, whereas others have failed to demonstrate a consistent relation between the two. The current study sought to clarify this relation by examining the relation between delay and probability discounting in a large sample of internet users (n= 904) using the Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) crowdsourcing service. Because AMT is a novel data collection platform, the findings were validated through the replication of a number of previously established relations (e.g., relations between delay discounting and cigarette smoking status). A small but highly significant positive correlation between delay and probability discounting rates was obtained, and principal component analysis suggested that two (rather than one) components were preferable to account for the variance in both delay and probability discounting. Taken together, these findings suggest that delay and probability discounting may be related, but are not manifestations of a single component (e.g., impulsivity). PMID:22982370
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Delay, probability, and social discounting in a public goods game.
Jones, Bryan A; Rachlin, Howard
2009-01-01
A human social discount function measures the value to a person of a reward to another person at a given social distance. Just as delay discounting is a hyperbolic function of delay, and probability discounting is a hyperbolic function of odds-against, social discounting is a hyperbolic function of social distance. Experiment 1 obtained individual social, delay, and probability discount functions for a hypothetical $75 reward; participants also indicated how much of an initial $100 endowment they would contribute to a common investment in a public good. Steepness of discounting correlated, across participants, among all three discount dimensions. However, only social and probability discounting were correlated with the public-good contribution; high public-good contributors were more altruistic and also less risk averse than low contributors. Experiment 2 obtained social discount functions with hypothetical $75 rewards and delay discount functions with hypothetical $1,000 rewards, as well as public-good contributions. The results replicated those of Experiment 1; steepness of the two forms of discounting correlated with each other across participants but only social discounting correlated with the public-good contribution. Most participants in Experiment 2 predicted that the average contribution would be lower than their own contribution.
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Delay, Probability, and Social Discounting in a Public Goods Game
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jones, Bryan A.; Rachlin, Howard
2009-01-01
A human social discount function measures the value to a person of a reward to another person at a given social distance. Just as delay discounting is a hyperbolic function of delay, and probability discounting is a hyperbolic function of odds-against, social discounting is a hyperbolic function of social distance. Experiment 1 obtained individual…
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Enhanced Neural Responses to Imagined Primary Rewards Predict Reduced Monetary Temporal Discounting.
Hakimi, Shabnam; Hare, Todd A
2015-09-23
The pervasive tendency to discount the value of future rewards varies considerably across individuals and has important implications for health and well-being. Here, we used fMRI with human participants to examine whether an individual's neural representation of an imagined primary reward predicts the degree to which the value of delayed monetary payments is discounted. Because future rewards can never be experienced at the time of choice, imagining or simulating the benefits of a future reward may play a critical role in decisions between alternatives with either immediate or delayed benefits. We found that enhanced ventromedial prefrontal cortex response during imagined primary reward receipt was correlated with reduced discounting in a separate monetary intertemporal choice task. Furthermore, activity in enhanced ventromedial prefrontal cortex during reward imagination predicted temporal discounting behavior both between- and within-individual decision makers with 62% and 73% mean balanced accuracy, respectively. These results suggest that the quality of reward imagination may impact the degree to which future outcomes are discounted. Significance statement: We report a novel test of the hypothesis that an important factor influencing the discount rate for future rewards is the quality with which they are imagined or estimated in the present. Previous work has shown that temporal discounting is linked to individual characteristics ranging from general intelligence to the propensity for addiction. We demonstrate that individual differences in a neurobiological measure of primary reward imagination are significantly correlated with discounting rates for future monetary payments. Moreover, our neurobiological measure of imagination can be used to accurately predict choice behavior both between and within individuals. These results suggest that improving reward imagination may be a useful therapeutic target for individuals whose high discount rates promote detrimental behaviors. Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/3513103-07$15.00/0.
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Monetary delay discounting in gambling and cocaine dependence with personality comorbidities.
Albein-Urios, Natalia; Martinez-González, José M; Lozano, Oscar; Verdejo-Garcia, Antonio
2014-11-01
Cocaine addiction and pathological gambling are commonly associated with steeper (impulsive) discounting of delayed rewards, which promotes ongoing drug and gambling behaviors. However, it is yet unclear whether impulsive delay discounting is a stable trait in cocaine and gambling disorders during abstinence, and whether it is significantly impacted by dysfunctional personality beliefs. The aim of this study was to compare the delay discounting rates of four groups: 47 cocaine users with comorbid personality disorders, 41 cocaine users without psychiatric comorbidities, 28 pathological gamblers without psychiatric comorbidities, and 36 healthy comparison individuals. We also examined the association between dysfunctional personality beliefs and delay discounting rates. Participants completed the Kirby Delay Discounting Questionnaire and the Beck Personality Belief Questionnaire as part of a larger battery. We used non-parametric tests to compare discounting rates between the groups, and bivariate correlation analyses to examine the association between beliefs and discounting rates within each of the groups. We found that discounting rates were significantly higher in individuals with disordered gambling compared to controls. Specifically in cocaine users with Cluster B personality disorders, higher discounting rates were associated with the intensity of "dependent" dysfunctional beliefs (e.g., "I am needy and weak"). Conclusion:We conclude that impulsive delay discounting is increased in gambling relative to controls and linked to personality beliefs in cocaine users with Cluster B personality disorders. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Delay discounting and intake of ready-to-eat and away-from-home foods in overweight and obese women.
Appelhans, Bradley M; Waring, Molly E; Schneider, Kristin L; Pagoto, Sherry L; DeBiasse, Michelle A; Debiasse, Michelle A; Whited, Matthew C; Lynch, Elizabeth B
2012-10-01
A shift from home-prepared to away-from-home and ready-to-eat foods has occurred in recent decades, which has implications for obesity and health. This study tested whether delay discounting, a facet of impulsivity reflecting sensitivity to immediate reward, is associated with the frequency of consumption and typical amount consumed of home-prepared, away-from-home, and ready-to-eat foods among overweight and obese women. Seventy-eight participants completed a binary choice task assessing discounting of delayed monetary rewards. Nutrient analysis of weighed food records characterized dietary intake over seven consecutive days. Foods were categorized as home-prepared, away-from-home, or ready-to-eat by a registered dietitian from information provided by participants. Delay discounting was not associated with the frequency of consuming home-prepared, away-from-home, and ready-to-eat foods as reflected in the percentages of recorded foods or total energy intake from each category. However, once consuming away-from-home and ready-to-eat foods (but not home-prepared foods), impulsive women consumed more energy than less impulsive women. Exploratory analyses indicated that more impulsive women chose away-from-home foods with a higher energy density (kcal/g). Impulsivity was associated with the quantity of away-from-home and ready-to-eat foods consumed, but not the frequency of their consumption. Home food preparation may be critical to weight control for impulsive individuals. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Delay discounting and intake of ready-to-eat and away-from-home foods in overweight and obese women
Appelhans, Bradley M.; Waring, Molly E.; Schneider, Kristin L.; Pagoto, Sherry L.; DeBiasse, Michelle A.; Whited, Matthew C.; Lynch, Elizabeth B.
2012-01-01
A shift from home-prepared to away-from-home and ready-to-eat foods has occurred in recent decades, which has implications for obesity and health. This study tested whether delay discounting, a facet of impulsivity reflecting sensitivity to immediate reward, is associated with the frequency of consumption and typical amount consumed of home-prepared, away-from-home, and ready-to-eat foods among overweight and obese women. Seventy-eight participants completed a binary choice task assessing discounting of delayed monetary rewards. Nutrient analysis of weighed food records characterized dietary intake over seven consecutive days. Foods were categorized as home-prepared, away-from-home, or ready-to-eat by a registered dietitian from information provided by participants. Delay discounting was not associated with the frequency of consuming home-prepared, away-from-home, and ready-to-eat foods as reflected in the percentages of recorded foods or total energy intake from each category. However, once consuming away-from-home and ready-to-eat foods (but not home-prepared foods), impulsive women consumed more energy than less impulsive women. Exploratory analyses indicated that more impulsive women chose away-from-home foods with a higher energy density (kcal/g). Impulsivity was associated with the quantity of away-from-home and ready-to-eat foods consumed, but not the frequency of their consumption. Home food preparation may be critical to weight control for impulsive individuals. PMID:22819735
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Veilleux, Jennifer C; Skinner, Kayla D
2016-09-01
In the current study, we aimed to extend smoking cue-reactivity research by evaluating delay discounting as an outcome of cigarette cue exposure. We also separated introspection in response to cues (e.g., self-reporting craving and affect) from cue exposure alone, to determine if introspection changes behavioral responses to cigarette cues. Finally, we included measures of quit motivation and resistance to smoking to assess motivational influences on cue exposure. Smokers were invited to participate in an online cue-reactivity study. Participants were randomly assigned to view smoking images or neutral images, and were randomized to respond to cues with either craving and affect questions (e.g., introspection) or filler questions. Following cue exposure, participants completed a delay discounting task and then reported state affect, craving, and resistance to smoking, as well as an assessment of quit motivation. We found that after controlling for trait impulsivity, participants who introspected on craving and affect showed higher delay discounting, irrespective of cue type, but we found no effect of response condition on subsequent craving (e.g., craving reactivity). We also found that motivation to quit interacted with experimental conditions to predict state craving and state resistance to smoking. Although asking about craving during cue exposure did not increase later craving, it resulted in greater delaying of discounted rewards. Overall, our findings suggest the need to further assess the implications of introspection and motivation on behavioral outcomes of cue exposure. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Huskinson, Sally L; Woolverton, William L; Green, Leonard; Myerson, Joel; Freeman, Kevin B
2015-06-01
Research on delay discounting has focused largely on nondrug reinforcers in an isomorphic context in which choice is between alternatives that involve the same type of reinforcer. Less often, delay discounting has been studied with drug reinforcers in a more ecologically valid allomorphic context where choice is between alternatives involving different types of reinforcers. The present experiment is the first to examine discounting of drug and nondrug reinforcers in both isomorphic and allomorphic situations using a theoretical model (i.e., the hyperbolic discounting function) that allows for comparisons of discounting rates between reinforcer types and amounts. The goal of the current experiment was to examine discounting of a delayed, nondrug reinforcer (food) by male rhesus monkeys when the immediate alternative was either food (isomorphic situation) or cocaine (allomorphic situation). In addition, we sought to determine whether there was a magnitude effect with delayed food in the allomorphic situation. Choice of immediate food and immediate cocaine increased with amount and dose, respectively. Choice functions for immediate food and cocaine generally shifted leftward as delay increased. Compared to isomorphic situations in which food was the immediate alternative, delayed food was discounted more steeply in allomorphic situations where cocaine was the immediate alternative. Notably, discounting was not affected by the magnitude of the delayed reinforcer. These data indicate that how steeply a delayed nondrug reinforcer is discounted may depend more on the qualitative characteristics of the immediate reinforcer and less on the magnitude of the delayed one. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).
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Maintained Physical Activity Induced Changes in Delay Discounting.
Sofis, Michael J; Carrillo, Ale; Jarmolowicz, David P
2017-07-01
Those who discount the subjective value of delayed rewards less steeply are more likely to engage in physical activity. There is limited research, however, showing whether physical activity can change rates of delay discounting. In a two-experiment series, treatment and maintenance effects of a novel, effort-paced physical activity intervention on delay discounting were evaluated with multiple baseline designs. Using a lap-based method, participants were instructed to exercise at individualized high and low effort levels and to track their own perceived effort. The results suggest that treatment-induced changes in discounting were maintained at follow-up for 13 of 16 participants. In Experiment 2, there were statistically significant group-level improvements in physical activity and delay discounting when comparing baseline with both treatment and maintenance phases. Percentage change in delay discounting was significantly correlated with session attendance and relative pace (min/mile) improvement over the course of the 7-week treatment. Implications for future research are discussed.
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Temporal discounting in major depressive disorder.
Pulcu, E; Trotter, P D; Thomas, E J; McFarquhar, M; Juhasz, G; Sahakian, B J; Deakin, J F W; Zahn, R; Anderson, I M; Elliott, R
2014-07-01
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with abnormalities in financial reward processing. Previous research suggests that patients with MDD show reduced sensitivity to frequency of financial rewards. However, there is a lack of conclusive evidence from studies investigating the evaluation of financial rewards over time, an important aspect of reward processing that influences the way people plan long-term investments. Beck's cognitive model posits that patients with MDD hold a negative view of the future that may influence the amount of resources patients are willing to invest into their future selves. We administered a delay discounting task to 82 participants: 29 healthy controls, 29 unmedicated participants with fully remitted MDD (rMDD) and 24 participants with current MDD (11 on medication). Patients with current MDD, relative to remitted patients and healthy subjects, discounted large-sized future rewards at a significantly higher rate and were insensitive to changes in reward size from medium to large. There was a main effect of clinical group on discounting rates for large-sized rewards, and discounting rates for large-sized rewards correlated with severity of depressive symptoms, particularly hopelessness. Higher discounting of delayed rewards in MDD seems to be state dependent and may be a reflection of depressive symptoms, specifically hopelessness. Discounting distant rewards at a higher rate means that patients are more likely to choose immediate financial options. Such impairments related to long-term investment planning may be important for understanding value-based decision making in MDD, and contribute to ongoing functional impairment.
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Demurie, Ellen; Roeyers, Herbert; Baeyens, Dieter; Sonuga-Barke, Edmund
2012-11-01
It has been difficult to differentiate attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in terms of some aspects of their cognitive profile. While both show deficits in executive functions, it has been suggested that they may differ in their response to monetary reward. For instance, children with ADHD prefer small immediate over large delayed rewards more than typically developing controls. One explanation for this is that they discount the value of rewards to a higher degree as they are moved into the future. The current study investigated whether children with ADHD can be differentiated from those with ASD in terms of reward discounting. Thirty-nine children (8-16 y) with ADHD, 34 children with ASD and 46 typically developing controls performed a hypothetical monetary temporal discounting task. Participants were instructed to make repeated choices between small variable rewards (0, 5, 10, 20, 30€) delivered immediately and large rewards delivered after a variable delay. Children with ADHD but not ASD discounted future rewards at a higher rate than typically developing controls. These data confirm steeper discounting of future rewards in ADHD and add to a small but growing literature showing that the psychological profile of ADHD can be distinguished from that of ASD in terms of disrupted motivational processes. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
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Impulsivity, Rejection Sensitivity, and Reactions to Stressors in Borderline Personality Disorder
Berenson, Kathy R.; Gregory, Wesley Ellen; Glaser, Erin; Romirowsky, Aliza; Rafaeli, Eshkol; Yang, Xiao; Downey, Geraldine
2016-01-01
This research investigated baseline impulsivity, rejection sensitivity, and reactions to stressors in individuals with borderline personality disorder compared to healthy individuals and those with avoidant personality disorder. The borderline group showed greater impulsivity than the avoidant and healthy groups both in a delay-discounting task with real monetary rewards and in self-reported reactions to stressors; moreover, these findings could not be explained by co-occurring substance use disorders. Distress reactions to stressors were equally elevated in both personality disorder groups (relative to the healthy group). The borderline and avoidant groups also reported more maladaptive reactions to a stressor of an interpersonal vs. non-interpersonal nature, whereas the healthy group did not. Finally, self-reported impulsive reactions to stressors were associated with baseline impulsivity in the delay-discounting task, and greater self-reported reactivity to interpersonal than non-interpersonal stressors was associated with rejection sensitivity. This research highlights distinct vulnerabilities contributing to impulsive behavior in borderline personality disorder. PMID:27616800
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Heroin addicts have higher discount rates for delayed rewards than non-drug-using controls.
Kirby, K N; Petry, N M; Bickel, W K
1999-03-01
Fifty-six heroin addicts and 60 age-matched controls were offered choices between monetary rewards ($11-$80) available immediately and larger rewards ($25-$85) available after delays ranging from 1 week to 6 months. Participants had a 1-in-6 chance of winning a reward that they chose on one randomly selected trial. Delay-discounting rates were estimated from the pattern of participants' choices. The discounting model of impulsiveness (Ainslie, 1975) implies that delay-discounting rates are positively correlated with impulsiveness. On average, heroin addicts' discount rates were twice those of controls (p = .004), and discount rates were positively correlated with impulsivity as measured by self-report questionnaires (p < .05). The results lend external validity to the delay-discounting rate as a measure of impulsiveness, a characteristic associated with substance abuse.
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Delay discounting of qualitatively different reinforcers in rats.
Calvert, Amanda L; Green, Leonard; Myerson, Joel
2010-03-01
Humans discount larger delayed rewards less steeply than smaller rewards, whereas no such magnitude effect has been observed in rats (and pigeons). It remains possible that rats' discounting is sensitive to differences in the quality of the delayed reinforcer even though it is not sensitive to amount. To evaluate this possibility, Experiment 1 examined discounting of qualitatively different food reinforcers: highly preferred versus nonpreferred food pellets. Similarly, Experiment 2 examined discounting of highly preferred versus nonpreferred liquid reinforcers. In both experiments, an adjusting-amount procedure was used to determine the amount of immediate reinforcer that was judged to be of equal subjective value to the delayed reinforcer. The amount and quality of the delayed reinforcer were varied across conditions. Discounting was well described by a hyperbolic function, but no systematic effects of the quantity or the quality of the delayed reinforcer were observed.
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Vanderveldt, Ariana; Green, Leonard; Myerson, Joel
2014-01-01
The value of an outcome is affected both by the delay until its receipt (delay discounting) and by the likelihood of its receipt (probability discounting). Despite being well-described by the same hyperboloid function, delay and probability discounting involve fundamentally different processes, as revealed, for example, by the differential effects of reward amount. Previous research has focused on the discounting of delayed and probabilistic rewards separately, with little research examining more complex situations in which rewards are both delayed and probabilistic. In two experiments, participants made choices between smaller rewards that were both immediate and certain and larger rewards that were both delayed and probabilistic. Analyses revealed significant interactions between delay and probability factors inconsistent with an additive model. In contrast, a hyperboloid discounting model in which delay and probability were combined multiplicatively provided an excellent fit to the data. These results suggest that the hyperboloid is a good descriptor of decision making in complicated monetary choice situations like those people encounter in everyday life. PMID:24933696
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Hogarth, Lee; Stillwell, David J; Tunney, Richard J
2013-01-01
The Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS) provides a transdiagnostic marker for a number of psychiatric conditions and drug abuse, but the precise psychological trait(s) tapped by this questionnaire remain obscure. To address this, 51 smokers completed in counterbalanced order the BIS, a delay discounting task and a Harvard game that measured choice between a response that yielded a high immediate monetary payoff but decreased opportunity to earn money overall (local choice) versus a response that yielded a lower immediate payoff but afforded a greater opportunity to earn overall (global choice). Individual level of BIS impulsivity and self-elected smoking prior to the study were independently associated with increased preference for the local over the global choice in the Harvard game, but not delay discounting. BIS impulsivity and acute nicotine exposure reflect a bias in the governance of choice by immediate reward contingencies over global consequences, consistent with contemporary dual-process instrumental learning theories. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Pinto, Anthony; Steinglass, Joanna E.; Greene, Ashley L.; Weber, Elke U.; Simpson, H. Blair
2013-01-01
Background Although the relationship between obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and obsessive compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) has long been debated, clinical samples of OCD (without OCPD) and OCPD (without OCD) have never been systematically compared. We studied whether individuals with OCD, OCPD, or both conditions differ on symptomatology, functioning, and a measure of self-control: the capacity to delay reward. Methods 25 OCD, 25 OCPD, 25 comorbid OCD+OCPD, and 25 healthy controls (HC) completed clinical assessments and a validated intertemporal choice task that measures capacity to forego small immediate rewards for larger delayed rewards. Results OCD and OCPD subjects both showed impairment in psychosocial functioning and quality of life, as well as compulsive behavior, but only subjects with OCD reported obsessions. Individuals with OCPD, with or without comorbid OCD, discounted the value of delayed monetary rewards significantly less than OCD and HC. This excessive capacity to delay reward discriminates OCPD from OCD, and is associated with perfectionism and rigidity. Conclusions OCD and OCPD are both impairing disorders marked by compulsive behaviors, but they can be differentiated by the presence of obsessions in OCD and by excessive capacity to delay reward in OCPD. That individuals with OCPD show less temporal discounting (suggestive of excessive self-control) whereas prior studies have shown that individuals with substance use disorders show greater discounting (suggestive of impulsivity) supports the premise that this component of self-control lies on a continuum in which both extremes (impulsivity and overcontrol) contribute to psychopathology. PMID:24199665
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2017-01-01
Delay discounting—often referred to as hyperbolic discounting in the financial literature—is defined by a consistent preference for smaller, immediate rewards over larger, delayed rewards, and by failure of future consequences to curtail current consummatory behaviors. Previous research demonstrates (1) excessive delay discounting among individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), (2) common neural substrates of delay discounting and hyperactive-impulsive symptoms of ADHD, and (3) associations between delay discounting and both debt burden and high interest rate borrowing. This study extends prior research by examining associations between ADHD symptoms, delay discounting, and an array of previously unevaluated financial outcomes among 544 individuals (mean age 35 years). Controlling for age, income, sex, education, and substance use, ADHD symptoms were associated with delay discounting, late credit card payments, credit card balances, use of pawn services, personal debt, and employment histories (less time spent at more jobs). Consistent with neural models of reward processing and associative learning, more of these relations were attributable to hyperactive-impulsive symptoms than inattentive symptoms. Implications for financial decision-making and directions for future research are discussed. PMID:28481903
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Koffarnus, Mikhail N; Jarmolowicz, David P; Mueller, E Terry; Bickel, Warren K
2013-01-01
Excessively devaluing delayed reinforcers co-occurs with a wide variety of clinical conditions such as drug dependence, obesity, and excessive gambling. If excessive delay discounting is a trans-disease process that underlies the choice behavior leading to these and other negative health conditions, efforts to change an individual's discount rate are arguably important. Although discount rate is often regarded as a relatively stable trait, descriptions of interventions and environmental manipulations that successfully alter discount rate have begun to appear in the literature. In this review, we compare published examples of procedures that change discount rate and classify them into categories of procedures, including therapeutic interventions, direct manipulation of the executive decision-making system, framing effects, physiological state effects, and acute drug effects. These changes in discount rate are interpreted from the perspective of the competing neurobehavioral decision systems theory, which describes a combination of neurological and behavioral processes that account for delay discounting. We also suggest future directions that researchers could take to identify the mechanistic processes that allow for changes in discount rate and to test whether the competing neurobehavioral decision systems view of delay discounting is correct. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.
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Koffarnus, Mikhail N.; Jarmolowicz, David P.; Mueller, E. Terry; Bickel, Warren K.
2014-01-01
Excessively devaluing delayed reinforcers co-occurs with a wide variety of clinical conditions such as drug dependence, obesity, and excessive gambling. If excessive delay discounting is a trans-disease process that underlies the choice behavior leading to these and other negative health conditions, efforts to change an individual’s discount rate are arguably important. Although discount rate is often regarded as a relatively stable trait, descriptions of interventions and environmental manipulations that successfully alter discount rate have begun to appear in the literature. In this review, we compare published examples of procedures that change discount rate and classify them into categories of procedures, including therapeutic interventions, direct manipulation of the executive decision-making system, framing effects, physiological state effects, and acute drug effects. These changes in discount rate are interpreted from the perspective of the competing neurobehavioral decision systems theory, which describes a combination of neurological and behavioral processes that account for delay discounting. We also suggest future directions that researchers could take to identify the mechanistic processes that allow for changes in discount rate and to test whether the competing neurobehavioral decision systems view of delay discounting is correct. PMID:23344987
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How Many Impulsivities? A Discounting Perspective
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Green, Leonard; Myerson, Joel
2013-01-01
People discount the value of delayed and uncertain outcomes, and how steeply individuals discount is thought to reflect how impulsive they are. From this perspective, steep discounting of delayed outcomes (which fails to maximize long-term welfare) and shallow discounting of probabilistic outcomes (which fails to adequately take risk into account)…
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Multidimensional Assessment of Impulsivity in Relation to Obesity and Food Addiction
VanderBroek-Stice, Lauren; Stojek, Monika K.; Beach, Steven R. H.; vanDellen, Michelle R.; MacKillop, James
2017-01-01
Based on similarities between overconsumption of food and addictive drugs, there is increasing interest in “food addiction,” a compulsive eating pattern defined using symptoms parallel to substance use disorders. Impulsivity, a multidimensional construct robustly linked to drug addiction, has been increasingly examined as an obesity determinant, but with mixed findings. This study sought to clarify relations between three major domains of impulsivity (i.e., impulsive personality traits, discounting of delayed rewards, and behavioral inhibition) in both obesity and food addiction. Based on the association between impulsivity and compulsive drug use, the general hypothesis was that the impulsivity-food addiction relation would be stronger than and responsible for the impulsivity-obesity relation. Using a cross-sectional dimensional design, participants (N = 181; 32% obese) completed a biometric assessment, the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS), the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scales, a Go/NoGo task, and measures of monetary delay discounting. Results revealed significantly higher prevalence of food addiction among obese participants and stronger zero-order associations between impulsivity indices and YFAS compared to obesity. Two aspects of impulsivity were independently significantly associated with food addiction: (a) a composite of Positive and Negative Urgency, reflecting proneness to act impulsively during intense mood states, and (b) steep discounting of delayed rewards. Furthermore, the results supported food addiction as a mediator connecting both urgency and delay discounting with obesity. These findings provide further evidence linking impulsivity to food addiction and obesity, and suggest that food addiction may be a candidate etiological pathway to obesity for individuals exhibiting elevations in these domains. PMID:28087369
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Multidimensional assessment of impulsivity in relation to obesity and food addiction.
VanderBroek-Stice, Lauren; Stojek, Monika K; Beach, Steven R H; vanDellen, Michelle R; MacKillop, James
2017-05-01
Based on similarities between overconsumption of food and addictive drugs, there is increasing interest in "food addiction," a compulsive eating pattern defined using symptoms parallel to substance use disorders. Impulsivity, a multidimensional construct robustly linked to drug addiction, has been increasingly examined as an obesity determinant, but with mixed findings. This study sought to clarify relations between three major domains of impulsivity (i.e., impulsive personality traits, discounting of delayed rewards, and behavioral inhibition) in both obesity and food addiction. Based on the association between impulsivity and compulsive drug use, the general hypothesis was that the impulsivity-food addiction relation would be stronger than and responsible for the impulsivity-obesity relation. Using a cross-sectional dimensional design, participants (N = 181; 32% obese) completed a biometric assessment, the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS), the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scales, a Go/NoGo task, and measures of monetary delay discounting. Results revealed significantly higher prevalence of food addiction among obese participants and stronger zero-order associations between impulsivity indices and YFAS compared to obesity. Two aspects of impulsivity were independently significantly associated with food addiction: (a) a composite of Positive and Negative Urgency, reflecting proneness to act impulsively during intense mood states, and (b) steep discounting of delayed rewards. Furthermore, the results supported food addiction as a mediator connecting both urgency and delay discounting with obesity. These findings provide further evidence linking impulsivity to food addiction and obesity, and suggest that food addiction may be a candidate etiological pathway to obesity for individuals exhibiting elevations in these domains. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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The Impact of Delays on Parents' Perceptions of Treatments for Problem Behavior
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Call, Nathan A.; Reavis, Andrea R.; McCracken, Courtney E.; Gillespie, Scott E.; Scheithauer, Mindy C.
2015-01-01
Parent engagement in behavioral interventions is critical for treatments to succeed. Parental decision-making regarding treatments can be impacted by systematic biases, such as the tendency to discount the value of delayed benefits, or "delay discounting". This study examined the impact of delay discounting on parents' perceptions of…
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Gratitude intervention modulates P3 amplitude in a temporal discounting task.
Patalano, Andrea L; Lolli, Sydney L; Sanislow, Charles A
2018-06-23
Gratitude has been shown to reduce economic impatience. In particular, individuals induced to experience heightened gratitude are more willing to choose delayed larger rewards over immediate smaller rewards (i.e., they have lower discounting rates) than those in a neutral condition. Using the event-related potential (ERP) method, we investigated the relation between gratitude level and neurophysiological correlates. Of interest was motivated information processing, as indexed by the P3 component. Participants were administered a gratitude or a neutral mood induction followed by a temporal discounting task (choosing between a fixed immediate reward versus a future reward that varied across trials) while electroencephalogram (EEG) activity was recorded. Individuals in the gratitude condition had greater P3 amplitude, suggesting greater attention to the future-reward option (the choice option that varied across trials), even when this option was not selected, and providing the first evidence of gratitude-induced changes in electrophysiological activity. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.
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A Discounting Framework for Choice With Delayed and Probabilistic Rewards
Green, Leonard; Myerson, Joel
2005-01-01
When choosing between delayed or uncertain outcomes, individuals discount the value of such outcomes on the basis of the expected time to or the likelihood of their occurrence. In an integrative review of the expanding experimental literature on discounting, the authors show that although the same form of hyperbola-like function describes discounting of both delayed and probabilistic outcomes, a variety of recent findings are inconsistent with a single-process account. The authors also review studies that compare discounting in different populations and discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the findings. The present effort illustrates the value of studying choice involving both delayed and probabilistic outcomes within a general discounting framework that uses similar experimental procedures and a common analytical approach. PMID:15367080
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Gardiner, Casey K; Karoly, Hollis C; Thayer, Rachel E; Gillman, Arielle S; Sabbineni, Amithrupa; Bryan, Angela D
2018-04-19
Identifying cognitive and neural mechanisms of decision making in adolescence can enhance understanding of, and interventions to reduce, risky health behaviors in adolescence. Delay discounting, or the propensity to discount the magnitude of temporally distal rewards, has been associated with diverse health risk behaviors, including risky sex. This cognitive process involves recruitment of reward and cognitive control brain regions, which develop on different trajectories in adolescence and are also implicated in real-world risky decision making. However, no extant research has examined how neural activation during delay discounting is associated with adolescents' risky sexual behavior. To determine whether a relationship exists between adolescents' risky sexual behavior and neural activation during delay discounting. Adolescent participants completed a delay discounting paradigm during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning, and they reported risky sexual behavior at baseline, 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month follow-up time points. Latent growth curve models were employed to determine relationships between brain activation during delay discounting and change in risky sexual behavior over time. Greater activation in brain regions associated with reward and cognitive control (caudate, putamen, nucleus accumbens, anterior cingulate, insula, orbitofrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) during delay discounting was associated with lower mean levels of risky sexual behavior but greater growth over the period from baseline to 6 months. Neural activation during delay discounting is cross-sectionally and prospectively associated with risky sexual behavior in adolescence, highlighting a neural basis of risky decision-making as well as opportunities for early identification and intervention.
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Gray, Joshua C; MacKillop, James
2014-01-01
Introduction Delay discounting is a behavioral economic index of impulsivity that reflects preferences for small immediate rewards relative to larger delayed rewards. It has been consistently linked to pathological gambling and other forms of addictive behavior, and has been proposed to be a behavioral characteristic that may link genetic variation and risk of developing addictive disorders (i.e., an endophenotype). Studies to date have revealed significant associations with polymorphisms associated with dopamine neurotransmission. The current study examined associations between delay discounting and both previously linked variants and a novel panel of dopamine-related variants in a sample of frequent gamblers. Methods Participants were 175 weekly gamblers of European ancestry who completed the Monetary Choice Questionnaire to assess delay discounting preferences and provided a DNA via saliva. Results In a priori tests, two loci previously associated with delayed reward discounting (rs1800497 and rs4680) were not replicated, however, the long form of DRD4 VNTR was significantly associated with lower discounting of delayed rewards. Exploratory analysis of the dopamine-related panel revealed 11 additional significant associations in genes associated with dopamine synthesis, breakdown, reuptake, and receptor function (DRD3, SLC6A3, DDC, DBH, and SLC18A2). An aggregate genetic risk score from the nominally significant loci accounted for 17% of the variance in discounting. Mediational analyses largely supported the presence of indirect effects between the associated loci, delay discounting, and pathological gambling severity. Conclusions These findings do not replicate previously reported associations but identify several novel candidates and provide preliminary support for a systems biology approach to understand the genetic basis of delay discounting. PMID:25365808
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The amount effect and marginal value.
Rachlin, Howard; Arfer, Kodi B; Safin, Vasiliy; Yen, Ming
2015-07-01
The amount effect of delay discounting (by which the value of larger reward amounts is discounted by delay at a lower rate than that of smaller amounts) strictly implies that value functions (value as a function of amount) are steeper at greater delays than they are at lesser delays. That is, the amount effect and the difference in value functions at different delays are actually a single empirical finding. Amount effects of delay discounting are typically found with choice experiments. Value functions for immediate rewards have been empirically obtained by direct judgment. (Value functions for delayed rewards have not been previously obtained.) The present experiment obtained value functions for both immediate and delayed rewards by direct judgment and found them to be steeper when the rewards were delayed--hence, finding an amount effect with delay discounting. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.
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Cross-cultural comparisons of delay discounting of gain and loss.
Ishii, Keiko; Gang, Lili; Takahashi, Taiki
2016-11-01
People generally tend to discount future outcomes in favor of smaller but immediate gains (i.e., delay discounting). The present research examined cultural similarities and differences in delay discounting of gain and loss between Chinese and Japanese, based on a q-exponential model of intertemporal choice. Using a hypothetical situation, we asked 65 Japanese participants and 51 Chinese participants to choose between receiving (or paying) a different amount of money immediately or with a specified delay (1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, and 25 years). For each delay, participants completed a series of 40 binary choices for gain or loss. Regardless of cultures, the q-exponential model was the optimal model. Both impulsivity and time-inconsistency were higher for future gains than for future losses. In addition to the cultural similarities, Chinese participants discounted future gains and losses more steeply than did Japanese. In contrast, Japanese participants were more time-inconsistent in delay discounting than were Chinese, suggesting that the reduction in their subjective value depended relatively on delay.
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Food reinforcement and delay discounting in zBMI-discordant siblings.
Feda, Denise M; Roemmich, James N; Roberts, April; Epstein, Leonard H
2015-02-01
The interaction of food reinforcement and the inability to delay gratification are related to adult energy intake and obesity. This study was designed to test the association of sibling pair differences in relative reinforcing efficacy of food and delay discounting on sibling pair differences in zBMI scores of same-gender zBMI-discordant siblings. We tested main and interactive relationships between delay discounting and relative reinforcing efficacy of food on zBMI discordance in 14 zBMI-discordant biological sibling pairs (6 female pairs) using a discordant sibling study design. Sibling pair differences in relative reinforcing efficacy of food were associated with sibling pair differences in zBMI (p= 0.046); this effect was moderated by delay discounting (p <0.002). Sibling pairs with greater differences in relative reinforcing efficacy and delay discounting had greater differences in zBMI. The combination of greater sibling pair differences in delay discounting and relative reinforcing efficacy is associated with greater discordance in zBMI in adolescent sibling pairs. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Food reinforcement and delay discounting in zBMI-discordant siblings ☆
Feda, Denise M.; Roemmich, James N.; Roberts, April; Epstein, Leonard H.
2014-01-01
Objective The interaction of food reinforcement and the inability to delay gratification are related to adult energy intake and obesity. This study was designed to test the association of sibling pair differences in relative reinforcing efficacy of food and delay discounting on sibling pair differences in zBMI scores of same-gender zBMI-discordant siblings. Design and methods We tested main and interactive relationships between delay discounting and relative reinforcing efficacy of food on zBMI discordance in 14 zBMI-discordant biological sibling pairs (6 female pairs) using a discordant sibling study design. Results Sibling pair differences in relative reinforcing efficacy of food were associated with sibling pair differences in zBMI (p = 0.046); this effect was moderated by delay discounting (p < 0.002). Sibling pairs with greater differences in relative reinforcing efficacy and delay discounting had greater differences in zBMI. Conclusions The combination of greater sibling pair differences in delay discounting and relative reinforcing efficacy is associated with greater discordance in zBMI in adolescent sibling pairs. PMID:25464024
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Tabri, Nassim; Will Shead, N; Wohl, Michael J A
2017-12-01
In the current research, we examined whether the known link between relative deprivation and disordered gambling (via delay discounting; i.e., preferences for immediate smaller rewards relative to delayed larger rewards) is moderated by the extent to which gamblers have a financially focused self-concept. Specifically, we hypothesized that delay discounting would be a strong predictor of disordered gambling among those who base their self-worth on their financial success. To test this moderated-mediation model, a community sample of gamblers (N = 239) completed measures that assessed relative deprivation, delay discounting, financially focused self-concept, and disordered gambling severity. As predicted, people who felt more relative deprivation reported more severe symptoms of disordered gambling and this association was mediated by delay discounting. Importantly, this mediated relationship was moderated by the extent to which participants' self-concept was focused on financial success. Among participants whose self-concept was high in financial focus, greater delay discounting (stemming from relative deprivation) was a strong predictor of disordered gambling. Among people whose self-concept was low in financial focus, delay discounting (stemming from relative deprivation) was a weak predictor of disordered gambling. Thus, the magnitude of the indirect effect of relative deprivation on disordered gambling severity was larger among people with a more financially focused self-concept-an effect mediated by delay discounting. These findings suggest that targeting gamblers' financial focus in prevention and treatment interventions may be instrumental in curtailing the development and maintenance of disordered gambling.
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Steeper discounting of delayed rewards in schizophrenia but not first-degree relatives.
Yu, Linda Q; Lee, Sangil; Katchmar, Natalie; Satterthwaite, Theodore D; Kable, Joseph W; Wolf, Daniel H
2017-06-01
Excessive discounting of future rewards has been related to a variety of risky behaviors and adverse clinical conditions. Prior work examining delay discounting in schizophrenia suggests an elevated discount rate. However, it remains uncertain whether this reflects the disease process itself or an underlying genetic vulnerability, whether it is selective for delay discounting or reflects pervasive changes in decision-making, and whether it is driven by specific clinical dimensions such as cognitive impairment. Here we investigated delay discounting, as well as loss aversion and risk aversion, in three groups: schizophrenia (SZ), unaffected first-degree family members (FM), and controls without a family history of psychosis (NC). SZ had elevated discounting, without changes in loss aversion or risk aversion. Contrary to expectations, the FM group did not show an intermediate phenotype in discounting. Higher discount rates correlated with lower cognitive performance on verbal reasoning, but this did not explain elevated discount rates in SZ. Group differences were driven primarily by the non-smoking majority of the sample. This study provides further evidence for elevated discounting in schizophrenia, and demonstrates that steeper discounting is not necessarily associated with familial risk, cannot be wholly accounted for by cognitive deficits, and is not attributable to smoking-related impulsivity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Pinto, Anthony; Steinglass, Joanna E; Greene, Ashley L; Weber, Elke U; Simpson, H Blair
2014-04-15
Although the relationship between obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) has long been debated, clinical samples of OCD (without OCPD) and OCPD (without OCD) have never been systematically compared. We studied whether individuals with OCD, OCPD, or both conditions differ on symptomatology, functioning, and a measure of self-control: the capacity to delay reward. Twenty-five OCD, 25 OCPD, 25 comorbid OCD + OCPD, and 25 healthy control subjects completed clinical assessments and a validated intertemporal choice task that measures capacity to forego small immediate rewards for larger delayed rewards. OCD and OCPD subjects both showed impairment in psychosocial functioning and quality of life, as well as compulsive behavior, but only subjects with OCD reported obsessions. Individuals with OCPD, with or without comorbid OCD, discounted the value of delayed monetary rewards significantly less than OCD and healthy control subjects. This excessive capacity to delay reward discriminates OCPD from OCD and is associated with perfectionism and rigidity. OCD and OCPD are both impairing disorders marked by compulsive behaviors, but they can be differentiated by the presence of obsessions in OCD and by excessive capacity to delay reward in OCPD. That individuals with OCPD show less temporal discounting (suggestive of excessive self-control), whereas prior studies have shown that individuals with substance use disorders show greater discounting (suggestive of impulsivity), supports the premise that this component of self-control lies on a continuum in which both extremes (impulsivity and overcontrol) contribute to psychopathology. © 2013 Society of Biological Psychiatry Published by Society of Biological Psychiatry All rights reserved.
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Berry, Meredith S; Nickerson, Norma P; Odum, Amy L
2017-09-01
Poor air quality and resulting annual deaths represent significant public health concerns. Recently, rapid delay discounting (the devaluation of future outcomes) of air quality has been considered a potential barrier for engaging in long term, sustainable behaviors that might help to reduce emissions (e.g., reducing private car use, societal support for clean air initiatives). Delay discounting has been shown to be predictive of real world behavior outside of laboratory settings, and therefore may offer an important framework beyond traditional variables thought to measure sustainable behavior such as importance of an environmental issue, or environmental attitudes/values, although more research is needed in this area. We examined relations between discounting of air quality, respiratory health, and monetary gains and losses. We also examined, relations between discounting and self-reported importance of air quality and respiratory health, and nature relatedness. Results showed rapid delay discounting of all outcomes across the time frames assessed, and significant positive correlations between delay discounting of air quality, respiratory health, and monetary outcomes. Steeper discounting of monetary outcomes relative to air quality and respiratory health outcomes was observed in the context of gains; however, no differences in discounting were observed across losses of monetary, air quality, and respiratory health. Replicating the sign effect, monetary outcomes were discounted more steeply than monetary losses. Importance of air quality, respiratory health and nature relatedness were significantly and positively correlated with one another, but not with degree of delay discounting of any outcome, demonstrating the need for more comprehensive measures that predict pro-environmental behaviors that might benefit individuals and public health over time. These results add to our understanding of decision-making, and demonstrate alarming rates of delay discounting of air quality and health. These results implicate a major public health concern and potential barriers to individual and societal behavior that reduce pollution and emissions for conservation of clean air.
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Berry, Meredith S.; Nickerson, Norma P.; Odum, Amy L.
2017-01-01
Poor air quality and resulting annual deaths represent significant public health concerns. Recently, rapid delay discounting (the devaluation of future outcomes) of air quality has been considered a potential barrier for engaging in long term, sustainable behaviors that might help to reduce emissions (e.g., reducing private car use, societal support for clean air initiatives). Delay discounting has been shown to be predictive of real world behavior outside of laboratory settings, and therefore may offer an important framework beyond traditional variables thought to measure sustainable behavior such as importance of an environmental issue, or environmental attitudes/values, although more research is needed in this area. We examined relations between discounting of air quality, respiratory health, and monetary gains and losses. We also examined, relations between discounting and self-reported importance of air quality and respiratory health, and nature relatedness. Results showed rapid delay discounting of all outcomes across the time frames assessed, and significant positive correlations between delay discounting of air quality, respiratory health, and monetary outcomes. Steeper discounting of monetary outcomes relative to air quality and respiratory health outcomes was observed in the context of gains; however, no differences in discounting were observed across losses of monetary, air quality, and respiratory health. Replicating the sign effect, monetary outcomes were discounted more steeply than monetary losses. Importance of air quality, respiratory health and nature relatedness were significantly and positively correlated with one another, but not with degree of delay discounting of any outcome, demonstrating the need for more comprehensive measures that predict pro-environmental behaviors that might benefit individuals and public health over time. These results add to our understanding of decision-making, and demonstrate alarming rates of delay discounting of air quality and health. These results implicate a major public health concern and potential barriers to individual and societal behavior that reduce pollution and emissions for conservation of clean air. PMID:28862671
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Athamneh, Liqa N; Stein, Jeffrey S; Quisenberry, Amanda J; Pope, Derek; Bickel, Warren K
2017-10-01
Family history of addiction is a risk factor for substance use disorders. Delay discounting (DD) is associated with the risk of substance use and dependence, and is predictive of the likelihood of successful abstinence and treatment outcomes; thus, we investigated the extent to which having parents with addiction (parental history of addiction) and number of addicted parents affect DD among individuals in recovery from addiction. Data from 177 individuals in recovery from addiction from The International Quit and Recovery Registry (IQRR), an ongoing online data collection program that aims to understand addiction and how people succeed in recovery, were included in the analysis. Participants with no, one, or two parents with addiction were compared on measures of DD using an adjusting-amount task. Parental history of addiction was significantly associated with delay discounting. After controlling for age and gender, which were significantly different between groups, participants reporting two biological parents with addiction had significantly higher DD rates compared to those reporting one or no parents with addiction. Participants with two parents with addiction had significantly higher rates of discounting compared to those with no or only one parent with addiction. This information can serve as a foundation to better identify and target important subgroups that need additional or non-traditional intervention strategies to address their larger degree of impulsivity and help maintain abstinence or achieve better treatment outcomes. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
MacKillop, James
2013-01-01
Delayed reward discounting is a behavioral economic index of impulsivity, referring to how much an individual devalues a reward based on its delay in time. As a behavioral process that varies considerably across individuals, delay discounting has been studied extensively as a model for self-control, both in the general population and in clinical…
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Norman, Luke J; Carlisi, Christina O; Christakou, Anastasia; Chantiluke, Kaylita; Murphy, Clodagh; Simmons, Andrew; Giampietro, Vincent; Brammer, Michael; Mataix-Cols, David; Rubia, Katya
2017-11-30
Both Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) are associated with choice impulsivity, i.e. the tendency to prefer smaller immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards. However, the extent to which this impulsivity is mediated by shared or distinct underlying neural mechanisms is unclear. Twenty-six boys with ADHD, 20 boys with OCD and 20 matched controls (aged 12-18) completed an fMRI version of an individually adjusted temporal discounting (TD) task which requires choosing between a variable amount of money now or £100 in one week, one month or one year. Activations to immediate and delayed reward choices were compared between groups using a three-way ANCOVA. ADHD patients had steeper discounting rates on the task relative to controls. OCD patients did not differ from controls or patients with ADHD. Patients with ADHD and OCD showed predominantly shared activation deficits during TD in fronto-striato-insular-cerebellar regions responsible for self-control and temporal foresight, suggesting that choice impulsivity is mediated by overlapping neural dysfunctions in both disorders. OCD patients alone showed dysfunction relative to controls in right orbitofrontal and rostrolateral prefrontal cortex, extending previous findings of abnormalities in these regions in OCD to the domain of choice impulsiveness. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Wu, Wen-Hsiung; Cheng, Wen; Chiou, Wen-Bin
2017-01-01
Delay discounting refers to a pervasive tendency toward preferring smaller immediate gains over larger future gains. Recent empirical research has shown that episodic future thinking (EFT; i.e., projecting oneself into the future to pre-experience forthcoming events) can reduce the tendency toward discounting. A common tenet of psychological theories of crime is that delinquency results from focusing on short-term gains while failing to consider adequately the longer-term consequences of delinquent behavior. We investigated whether an EFT intervention involving the ideal self could induce lower discounting rates and, as a consequence, reduced delinquency. The results showed that, compared with control participants, participants engaging in EFT, that is, envisaging life events that would be experienced by their ideal selves, exhibited a lower discounting rate in a monetary choice task (Experiments 1 and 2), as well as a decreased tendency to make delinquent choices in imaginary scenarios (Experiment 1) and cheat in a matrix task (Experiment 2). The discounting tendency mediated the relationship between engaging in EFT pertaining to the ideal self and the tendency toward morally questionable behavior (Experiments 1 and 2). The findings of the two experiments indicate that engagement in EFT with a focus on the ideal self is sufficient to induce lower discounting rates, by promoting consideration of distant costs and thus increasing resistance to delinquent involvement and cheating (given the temptation of the immediate benefits that may accrue from such behavior). The current research constitutes an innovative approach to delinquency prevention and the promotion of morality.
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Wu, Wen-Hsiung; Cheng, Wen; Chiou, Wen-Bin
2017-01-01
Delay discounting refers to a pervasive tendency toward preferring smaller immediate gains over larger future gains. Recent empirical research has shown that episodic future thinking (EFT; i.e., projecting oneself into the future to pre-experience forthcoming events) can reduce the tendency toward discounting. A common tenet of psychological theories of crime is that delinquency results from focusing on short-term gains while failing to consider adequately the longer-term consequences of delinquent behavior. We investigated whether an EFT intervention involving the ideal self could induce lower discounting rates and, as a consequence, reduced delinquency. The results showed that, compared with control participants, participants engaging in EFT, that is, envisaging life events that would be experienced by their ideal selves, exhibited a lower discounting rate in a monetary choice task (Experiments 1 and 2), as well as a decreased tendency to make delinquent choices in imaginary scenarios (Experiment 1) and cheat in a matrix task (Experiment 2). The discounting tendency mediated the relationship between engaging in EFT pertaining to the ideal self and the tendency toward morally questionable behavior (Experiments 1 and 2). The findings of the two experiments indicate that engagement in EFT with a focus on the ideal self is sufficient to induce lower discounting rates, by promoting consideration of distant costs and thus increasing resistance to delinquent involvement and cheating (given the temptation of the immediate benefits that may accrue from such behavior). The current research constitutes an innovative approach to delinquency prevention and the promotion of morality. PMID:28303111
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Ashe, Melinda L.; Newman, Michelle G.; Wilson, Stephen J.
2015-01-01
In recent decades, researchers have integrated measurements of delay discounting, how the subjective valuation of a reward changes as a function of time, into their study of addiction. Research has begun to explore the idea that delay discounting may serve as both a marker for the effectiveness of existing treatments for addiction and a potential target for novel intervention strategies. As this work is in its infancy, many potentially significant connections between the construct of delay discounting and the treatment of addiction have yet to be explored. Here, we present a conceptual review highlighting novel points of intersection between delay discounting and two approaches to treating addiction that have become increasingly popular in recent years: those that focus on the development of mindfulness skills and those that emphasize the use of distraction techniques. Viewing these two techniques through the lens of delay discounting is particularly intriguing because of the very different way that they address the experience of drug cravings in the present moment (nonjudgmentally attending to versus shifting attention away from subjective cravings, respectively). We propose that these opposing strategies for dealing with cravings may interact with delay discounting in ways that have important implications for treatment effectiveness. PMID:25545725
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Schutten, Dan; Stokes, Kirk A; Arnell, Karen M
2017-01-01
Media multitasking, the concurrent use of multiple media forms, has been shown to be related to greater self-reported impulsivity and less self-control. These measures are both hallmarks of the need for immediate gratification which has been associated with fast, intuitive 'system-1' decision making, as opposed to more deliberate and effortful 'system-2' decision making. In Study 1, we used the Cognitive Reflection Task (CRT) to examine whether individuals who engage heavily in media multitasking differ from those who are light media multitaskers in their degree of system-1 versus system-2 thinking. In Study 2 we examined whether heavy and light media multitaskers differ in delay of gratification, using the delay discounting measure which estimates the preference for smaller immediate rewards, relative to larger delayed rewards in a hypothetical monetary choice task. We found that heavy media multitaskers were more likely than light media multitaskers to endorse intuitive, but wrong, decisions on the CRT indicating a greater reliance on 'system-1' thinking. Heavy media multitaskers were also willing to settle for less money immediately relative to light media multitaskers who were more willing to wait for the larger delayed reward. These results suggest that heavy media multitaskers have a reactive decision-making style that promotes current desires (money, ease of processing) at the expense of accuracy and future rewards. These findings highlight the potential for heavy media multitaskers to be at risk for problematic behaviors associated with delay discounting - behaviors such as substance abuse, overeating, problematic gambling, and poor financial management.
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Stein, Jeffrey S; Pinkston, Jonathan W; Brewer, Adam T; Francisco, Monica T; Madden, Gregory J
2012-01-01
Lewis rats have been shown to make more impulsive choices than Fischer 344 rats in discrete-trial choice procedures that arrange fixed (i.e., nontitrating) reinforcement parameters. However, nontitrating procedures yield only gross estimates of preference, as choice measures in animal subjects are rarely graded at the level of the individual subject. The present study was designed to examine potential strain differences in delay discounting using an adjusting-amount procedure, in which distributed (rather than exclusive) choice is observed due to dynamic titration of reinforcer magnitude across trials. Using a steady-state version of the adjusting-amount procedure in which delay was manipulated between experimental conditions, steeper delay discounting was observed in Lewis rats compared to Fischer 344 rats; further, delay discounting in both strains was well described by the traditional hyperbolic discounting model. However, upon partial completion of the present study, a study published elsewhere (Wilhelm & Mitchell, 2009) demonstrated no difference in delay discounting between these strains with the use of a more rapid version of the adjusting-amount procedure (i.e., in which delay is manipulated daily). Thus, following completion of the steady-state assessment in the present study, all surviving Lewis and Fischer 344 rats completed an approximation of this rapid-determination procedure in which no strain difference in delay discounting was observed. PMID:22693360
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Stein, Jeffrey S; Pinkston, Jonathan W; Brewer, Adam T; Francisco, Monica T; Madden, Gregory J
2012-05-01
Lewis rats have been shown to make more impulsive choices than Fischer 344 rats in discrete-trial choice procedures that arrange fixed (i.e., nontitrating) reinforcement parameters. However, nontitrating procedures yield only gross estimates of preference, as choice measures in animal subjects are rarely graded at the level of the individual subject. The present study was designed to examine potential strain differences in delay discounting using an adjusting-amount procedure, in which distributed (rather than exclusive) choice is observed due to dynamic titration of reinforcer magnitude across trials. Using a steady-state version of the adjusting-amount procedure in which delay was manipulated between experimental conditions, steeper delay discounting was observed in Lewis rats compared to Fischer 344 rats; further, delay discounting in both strains was well described by the traditional hyperbolic discounting model. However, upon partial completion of the present study, a study published elsewhere (Wilhelm & Mitchell, 2009) demonstrated no difference in delay discounting between these strains with the use of a more rapid version of the adjusting-amount procedure (i.e., in which delay is manipulated daily). Thus, following completion of the steady-state assessment in the present study, all surviving Lewis and Fischer 344 rats completed an approximation of this rapid-determination procedure in which no strain difference in delay discounting was observed.
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Delay Discounting and Social Policy Issues
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Weatherly, Jeffrey N.; Plumm, Karyn M.; Derenne, Adam
2011-01-01
The present study used a delay discounting framework to study decisions about six social policy issues and one monetary outcome. For outcomes that nearly all participants discounted, social policies were discounted significantly more than money. A similar result was observed when analyzing all outcomes using data only from participants who…
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Behavioral Economic Predictors of Overweight Children’s Weight Loss
Best, John R.; Theim, Kelly R.; Gredysa, Dana M.; Stein, Richard I.; Welch, R. Robinson; Saelens, Brian E.; Perri, Michael G.; Schechtman, Kenneth B.; Epstein, Leonard H.; Wilfley, Denise E.
2012-01-01
Objective Our goal was to determine whether behavioral economic constructs—including impulsivity (i.e., steep discounting of delayed food and monetary rewards), the relative reinforcing value of food (RRVfood), and environmental enrichment (i.e., the presence of alternatives to unhealthy foods in the home and neighborhood environments)—are significant pretreatment predictors of overweight children’s weight loss within family-based treatment. Method Overweight children (N = 241; ages 7–12 years; 63% female; 65% non-Hispanic White) enrolled in a 16-week family-based obesity treatment with at least one parent. At baseline, children completed a task to assess RRVfood and delay discounting measures of snack foods and money to assess impulsivity. Parents completed questionnaires to assess environmental enrichment. Results Children who found food highly reinforcing and steeply discounted future food rewards at baseline showed a blunted response to treatment compared with children without this combination of risk factors. High environmental enrichment was associated with treatment success only among children who did not find food highly reinforcing. Monetary discounting rate predicted weight loss, regardless of children’s level of RRVfood. Conclusions Investigation is warranted into novel approaches to obesity treatment that target underlying impulsivity and RRVfood. Enriching the environment with alternatives to unhealthy eating may facilitate weight loss, especially for children with low RRVfood. PMID:22924332
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Partial sleep deprivation impacts impulsive action but not impulsive decision-making.
Demos, K E; Hart, C N; Sweet, L H; Mailloux, K A; Trautvetter, J; Williams, S E; Wing, R R; McCaffery, J M
2016-10-01
Sleep deprivation may lead to increased impulsivity, however, previous literature has focused on examining effects of total sleep deprivation (TSD) rather than the more common condition, partial sleep deprivation (PSD) or 'short sleep'. Moreover, it has been unclear whether PSD impacts impulse-related cognitive processes, and specifically if it differentially affects impulsive action versus impulsive decision-making. We sought to determine if short compared to long sleep (6 vs. 9h/night) impacts impulsive action via behavioral inhibition (Go/No-Go), and/or impulsive decision-making processes of risk taking (Balloon Analogue Risk Task [BART]) and preferences for immediate over delayed rewards (Delay Discounting). In a within-subject design, 34 participants (71% female, mean age=37.0years, SD=10.54) were assigned to four consecutive nights of 6h/night (short sleep) and 9h/night (long sleep) in their own home in random counterbalanced order. Sleep was measured via wrist-worn actigraphs to confirm adherence to the sleep schedules (mean short sleep=5.9h, SD=0.3; mean long sleep=8.6h, SD=0.3, p<0.001). The Go/No-Go, BART, and Delay Discounting tasks were completed following both sleep conditions. Participants had more inhibition errors on the Go/No-Go task after short (mean false alarms=19.79%, SD=14.51) versus long sleep (mean=15.97%, SD=9.51, p=0.039). This effect was strongest in participants reporting longer habitual time in bed (p=0.04). There were no differences in performance following long- versus short-sleep for either delay discounting or the BART (p's>0.4). Overall, these results indicate that four days of PSD diminishes behavioral inhibition abilities, but may not alter impulsive decision-making. These findings contribute to the emerging understanding of how partial sleep deprivation, currently an epidemic, impacts cognitive ability. Future research should continue to explore the connection between PSD and cognitive functions, and ways to minimize the occurrence and negative consequences of short sleep. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Partial sleep deprivation impacts impulsive action but not impulsive decision-making
Demos, K.E.; Hart, C.N.; Sweet, LH.; Mailloux, K.A.; Trautvetter, J.; Williams, S.E.; Wing, R.R.; McCaffery, J.M.
2017-01-01
Sleep deprivation may lead to increased impulsivity, however, previous literature has focused on examining effects of total sleep deprivation (TSD) rather than the more common condition, partial sleep deprivation (PSD) or ‘short sleep’. Moreover, it has been unclear whether PSD impacts impulse-related cognitive processes, and specifically if it differentially affects impulsive action versus impulsive decision-making. We sought to determine if short compared to long sleep (6 vs. 9 h/night) impacts impulsive action via behavioral inhibition (Go/No-Go), and/or impulsive decision-making processes of risk taking (Balloon Analogue Risk Task [BART]) and preferences for immediate over delayed rewards (Delay Discounting). In a within-subject design, 34 participants (71% female, mean age = 37.0 years, SD = 10.54) were assigned to four consecutive nights of 6 h/night (short sleep) and 9 h/night (long sleep) in their own home in random counterbalanced order. Sleep was measured via wrist-worn actigraphs to confirm adherence to the sleep schedules (mean short sleep = 5.9 h, SD = 0.3; mean long sleep = 8.6 h, SD = 0.3, p < 0.001). The Go/No-Go, BART, and Delay Discounting tasks were completed following both sleep conditions. Participants had more inhibition errors on the Go/No-Go task after short (mean false alarms = 19.79%, SD = 14.51) versus long sleep (mean = 15.97%, SD = 9.51, p = 0.039). This effect was strongest in participants reporting longer habitual time in bed (p = 0.04). There were no differences in performance following long- versus short-sleep for either delay discounting or the BART (p’s > 0.4). Overall, these results indicate that four days of PSD diminishes behavioral inhibition abilities, but may not alter impulsive decision-making. These findings contribute to the emerging understanding of how partial sleep deprivation, currently an epidemic, impacts cognitive ability. Future research should continue to explore the connection between PSD and cognitive functions, and ways to minimize the occurrence and negative consequences of short sleep. PMID:27267950
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Delay Discounting of Qualitatively Different Reinforcers in Rats
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Calvert, Amanda L.; Green, Leonard; Myerson, Joel
2010-01-01
Humans discount larger delayed rewards less steeply than smaller rewards, whereas no such magnitude effect has been observed in rats (and pigeons). It remains possible that rats' discounting is sensitive to differences in the quality of the delayed reinforcer even though it is not sensitive to amount. To evaluate this possibility, Experiment 1…
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Carim-Todd, Laura; Mitchell, Suzanne H; Oken, Barry S
2016-05-01
Tobacco chippers are light smokers with stable patterns of smoking that exhibit lower nicotine dependence severity than heavy smokers. Chippers may provide valuable information about the factors influencing drug dependence. Impulsivity and stress are two factors known to influence smoking. By comparing nondependent smokers (tobacco chippers, n = 25) to dependent smokers (heavy smokers, n = 23) and nonsmokers (n = 25), this study examines the relationship between nicotine dependence, impulsivity, chronic stress, and stress reactivity. A total of 73 adult participants completed a study visit that included questionnaires to measure nicotine dependence, chronic stress, personality, affect, withdrawal, and craving. Impulsivity was measured with the delay discounting task and the flanker task. Stress reactivity was assessed by monitoring respiration, heart rate, and salivary cortisol during performance of a titrated Stroop task. Effects of acute stress on affect and craving were examined. Tobacco chippers were as impulsive as heavy smokers on the delay discounting task but no different from nonsmokers on the flanker task. Heavy smokers reported higher perceived stress than chippers and nonsmokers. Perceived stress was a significant predictor of discounting only in heavy smokers. Acute stress induced changes in respiration, heart rate, and heart rate variability. Craving and negative affect increased after stress in both smoking groups, but craving was associated with affect only in chippers. Tobacco chippers do not differ from heavy smokers in impulsivity, but do differ in perceived stress. One's perception and experience of stress might be associated to nicotine dependence resistance and could inform smoking cessation treatments. By examining impulsivity, chronic stress, and stress reactivity in nondependent smokers (tobacco chippers) compared to dependent smokers and nonsmokers, this study contributes to the understanding of nicotine addiction and informs smoking cessation programs. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
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Previous Cocaine Exposure Makes Rats Hypersensitive to Both Delay and Reward Magnitude
Roesch, Matthew R.; Takahashi, Yuji; Gugsa, Nishan; Bissonette, Gregory B.; Schoenbaum, Geoffrey
2008-01-01
Animals prefer an immediate over a delayed reward, just as they prefer a large over a small reward. Exposure to psychostimulants causes long-lasting changes in structures critical for this behavior and might disrupt normal time-discounting performance. To test this hypothesis, we exposed rats to cocaine daily for 2 weeks (30 mg/kg, i.p.). Approximately 6 weeks later, we tested them on a variant of a time-discounting task, in which the rats responded to one of two locations to obtain reward while we independently manipulated the delay to reward and reward magnitude. Performance did not differ between cocaine-treated and saline-treated (control) rats when delay lengths and reward magnitudes were equal at the two locations. However, cocaine-treated rats were significantly more likely to shift their responding when we increased the delay or reward size asymmetrically. Furthermore, they were slower to respond and made more errors when forced to the side associated with the lower value. We conclude that previous exposure to cocaine makes choice behavior hypersensitive to differences in the time to and size of available rewards, consistent with a general effect of cocaine exposure on reward valuation mechanisms. PMID:17202492
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Previous cocaine exposure makes rats hypersensitive to both delay and reward magnitude.
Roesch, Matthew R; Takahashi, Yuji; Gugsa, Nishan; Bissonette, Gregory B; Schoenbaum, Geoffrey
2007-01-03
Animals prefer an immediate over a delayed reward, just as they prefer a large over a small reward. Exposure to psychostimulants causes long-lasting changes in structures critical for this behavior and might disrupt normal time-discounting performance. To test this hypothesis, we exposed rats to cocaine daily for 2 weeks (30 mg/kg, i.p.). Approximately 6 weeks later, we tested them on a variant of a time-discounting task, in which the rats responded to one of two locations to obtain reward while we independently manipulated the delay to reward and reward magnitude. Performance did not differ between cocaine-treated and saline-treated (control) rats when delay lengths and reward magnitudes were equal at the two locations. However, cocaine-treated rats were significantly more likely to shift their responding when we increased the delay or reward size asymmetrically. Furthermore, they were slower to respond and made more errors when forced to the side associated with the lower value. We conclude that previous exposure to cocaine makes choice behavior hypersensitive to differences in the time to and size of available rewards, consistent with a general effect of cocaine exposure on reward valuation mechanisms.
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Group Influences on Young Adult Warfighters Risk-Taking
2015-10-01
than the IGT (a video driving game and a delay discounting task, respectively) and involved two peer observers (rather than three, as is the case in this...based on behavior during the Stoplight Game . Risk index is the proportion of crashes and runs through a red traffic light. 11 Figure 2. Preference...The Stoplight Game The Stoplight Game is a simple driving task in which subjects control the progress of their vehicle along a straight track by
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Yates, J R; Darna, M; Beckmann, J S; Dwoskin, L P; Bardo, M T
2016-01-28
Impulsivity, which can be subdivided into impulsive action and impulsive choice, is implicated as a factor underlying drug abuse vulnerability. Although previous research has shown that dopamine (DA) systems in prefrontal cortex are involved in impulsivity and substance abuse, it is not known if inherent variation in DA transporter (DAT) function contributes to impulsivity. The current study determined if individual differences in either impulsive action or impulsive choice are related to DAT function in orbitofrontal (OFC) and/or medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Rats were first tested both for impulsive action in a cued go/no-go task and for impulsive choice in a delay-discounting task. Following behavioral evaluation, in vitro [(3)H]DA uptake assays were performed in OFC and mPFC isolated from individual rats. Vmax in OFC, but not mPFC, was correlated with performance in the cued go/no-go task, with decreased OFC DAT function being associated with high impulsive action. In contrast, Vmax in OFC and mPFC was not correlated with performance in the delay-discounting task. The current results demonstrate that impulsive behavior in cued go/no-go performance is associated with decreased DAT function in OFC, suggesting that hyperdopaminergic tone in this prefrontal subregion mediates, at least in part, increased impulsive action. Copyright © 2015 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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A Mechanism for Reducing Delay Discounting by Altering Temporal Attention
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Radu, Peter T.; Yi, Richard; Bickel, Warren K.; Gross, James J.; McClure, Samuel M.
2011-01-01
Rewards that are not immediately available are discounted compared to rewards that are immediately available. The more a person discounts a delayed reward, the more likely that person is to have a range of behavioral problems, including clinical disorders. This latter observation has motivated the search for ions that reduce discounting. One…
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Contexts and Individual Differences as Influences on Consumers' Delay Discounting
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Foxall, Gordon R.; Doyle, John R.; Yani-de-Soriano, Mirella; Wells, Victoria K.
2011-01-01
Delay discounting is often considered a universal feature of human choice behavior, but there is controversy over whether it is an individual difference that reflects an underlying psychological trait or a domain-specific behavior. Trait influence on discounting would manifest in (a) highly correlated discount rates for all decisions, regardless…
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The neural basis of cultural differences in delay discounting
Kim, Bokyung; Sung, Young Shin; McClure, Samuel M.
2012-01-01
People generally prefer to receive rewarding outcomes sooner rather than later. Such preferences result from delay discounting, or the process by which outcomes are devalued for the expected delay until their receipt. We investigated cultural differences in delay discounting by contrasting behaviour and brain activity in separate cohorts of Western (American) and Eastern (Korean) subjects. Consistent with previous reports, we find a dramatic difference in discounting behaviour, with Americans displaying much greater present bias and elevated discount rates. Recent neuroimaging findings suggest that differences in discounting may arise from differential involvement of either brain reward areas or regions in the prefrontal and parietal cortices associated with cognitive control. We find that the ventral striatum is more greatly recruited in Americans relative to Koreans when discounting future rewards, but there is no difference in prefrontal or parietal activity. This suggests that a cultural difference in emotional responsivity underlies the observed behavioural effect. We discuss the implications of this research for strategic interrelations between Easterners and Westerners. PMID:22271781
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Self-Regulation, Daily Drinking, and Partner Violence in Alcohol Treatment-Seeking Men
Schumacher, Julie A.; Coffey, Scott F.; Leonard, Kenneth E.; O’Jile, Judith R.; Landy, Noah C.
2014-01-01
This study builds on research identifying deficits in behavioral self-regulation as risk factors for intimate partner violence (IPV). It also builds on alcohol administration research identifying these deficits as moderators of the association between acute alcohol consumption and aggression in laboratory paradigms. Participants analyzed were 97 men seeking residential treatment for alcohol dependence who were involved in a current or recent heterosexual relationship of at least one year. Participants completed a self-report measure of impulsivity, neuropsychological tests of executive function, and computerized delay discounting and behavioral inhibition tasks. With the exception of the self-report measure of impulsivity, performance on measures of behavioral self-regulation was not associated with the occurrence or frequency of past year IPV in this sample. Similarly, self-reported impulsivity moderated the association between daily drinking and IPV in multivariate models controlling for daily drug use, but deficits in performance on other measures did not. Performance on a tower task moderated the association between daily drinking and the occurrence of IPV, but contrary to hypotheses, better task performance was associated with greater likelihood of IPV on drinking days. These results suggest that self-perceived impulsivity is a better predictor of IPV in alcohol treatment seeking men than deficits in performance on behavioral measures of delay discounting, behavioral inhibition, and executive function. PMID:23379612
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Koffarnus, Mikhail N.; Jarmolowicz, David P.; Mueller, E. Terry; Bickel, Warren K.
2013-01-01
Excessively devaluing delayed reinforcers co-occurs with a wide variety of clinical conditions such as drug dependence, obesity, and excessive gambling. If excessive delay discounting is a trans-disease process that underlies the choice behavior leading to these and other negative health conditions, efforts to change an individual's discount rate…
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Huskinson, Sally L; Myerson, Joel; Green, Leonard; Rowlett, James K; Woolverton, William L; Freeman, Kevin B
2016-12-01
Huskinson et al. (2015) recently examined delay discounting in monkeys choosing between an immediate drug (cocaine) reinforcer and a delayed nondrug (food) reinforcer. The present experiment examined the reverse situation: choice between immediate nondrug (food) and delayed drug (cocaine) reinforcers. Whereas the former choice situation exemplifies drug abuse from a delay-discounting perspective, our interest in the latter choice situation is derived from the observation that drug abusers, who characteristically are associated with impulsive choice, typically must devote considerable time to procuring drugs, often at the expense of immediate nondrug alternatives. Accordingly, we analyzed 3 male rhesus monkeys' choices between immediate food and delayed cocaine (0.1 and 0.2 mg/kg/injection) using a hyperbolic model that allowed us to compare discounting rates between qualitatively different reinforcers. Choice of immediate food increased with food amount, and choice functions generally shifted leftward as delay to cocaine increased, indicating a decrease in the subjective value of cocaine. Compared with our previous delay-discounting experiment with immediate cocaine versus delayed food, both doses of delayed cocaine were discounted at a shallow rate. The present results demonstrate that rhesus monkeys will tolerate relatively long delays in an immediate-food versus delayed-drug situation, suggesting that in intertemporal choices between cocaine and food, the subjective value of cocaine is less affected by the delay until reinforcement than is the subjective value of delayed food. More generally, the present findings suggest that although drug abusers may choose impulsively when immediate drug reinforcement is available, they exercise self-control in the acquisition of a highly preferred, delayed drug reinforcer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).
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A Developmental Perspective on Neuroeconomic Mechanisms of Contingency Management
Stanger, Catherine; Budney, Alan J.; Bickel, Warren K.
2012-01-01
This paper provides a developmental overview of relevant theory and research on delay discounting and neuroeconomics, and their implications for CM approaches to treatment. Recent advances in neuroscience, and in particular the neuroscience of decision making, have the potential to inform treatment development for adolescent substance use in general, and contingency management (CM) treatments in particular. CM utilizes abstinence-based reinforcement to enhance motivation to engage in treatment and engender abstinence. CM interventions may be informed by research on delay discounting, a type of decision making that reflects how individuals value immediate vs. delayed rewards. Delay discounting reliably distinguishes substance abusers from non abusers and is a significant predictor of individual differences in response to substance use treatments. Delay discounting is also of high potential importance in the development of substance use problems in adolescence. Discounting may also be important in predicting response to CM, as CM attempts to directly influence this decision making process, shifting the preference from the immediate rewards of use to delayed rewards for choosing not to use. Multiple neural processes underlie decision making, and those processes have implications for adolescent substance abuse. There are significant neurodevelopmental processes that differentiate adolescents from adults. These processes are implicated in delay discounting, suggesting that adolescence may reflect a period of plasticity in temporal decision making. Understanding the neural mechanisms of delay discounting has led to promising working memory interventions directly targeting the executive functions that underlie individual choices. These interventions may be particularly helpful in combination with CM interventions that offer immediate rewards for brief periods of abstinence, and may show particular benefit in adolescence due to the heightened neural plasticity of systems that underlie temporal discounting in adolescence. PMID:22663343
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Klement, Johanna; Kubera, Britta; Eggeling, Jonas; Rädel, Christin; Wagner, Christin; Park, Soyoung Q; Peters, Achim
2018-03-01
Delay discounting as a measure of impulsivity has been shown to be higher in obesity with an association of increased food intake. Moreover, obese humans showed a higher wanting for high-calorie food than lean men when blood glucose concentrations were low. First studies linking blood glucose levels to delay discounting yielded mixed results. We hypothesized that obese people - in comparison to lean men - have a relative lack of energy, especially when blood glucose levels are low, that results in higher levels of delay discounting, food intake and hormonal counterregulation. We investigated 20 lean and 20 obese healthy young men in a single-blind balanced cross-over design. With a standardized glucose clamp technique, subjects underwent a hypoglycemic state in one condition and a euglycemic state in the control condition. Regularly, blood was sampled for assessment of hormonal status, and questionnaires were filled out to assess delay discounting and symptom awareness. After normalizing blood glucose concentrations, subjects were free to eat from a standardized test buffet, followed by a snack test. Delay discounting was higher in obese than in lean men throughout experiments (p < 0.03). However, we did not observe significant discounting differences between glucose conditions (p > 0.1). Furthermore, the discounting performance did not correlate with food intake from the test buffet or snack test (p > 0.3). As a response to hypoglycemia, hormonal counterregulation was pronounced in both weight groups (p < 0.03), but responses of ACTH, norepinephrine and glucagon were stronger in obese compared to lean men (p < 0.03). Also, intake from the high-calorie buffet after hypoglycemia compared to euglycemia was higher in obese subjects (p < 0.02) but comparable in lean men (p > 0.5). Our data suggest that augmented delay discounting is a robust feature in obesity that is not linked to glucose levels or actual food intake. With our systematically controlled approach, combining performance in delay discounting with regard to distinct blood glucose levels, different weight groups, counterregulatory behavior and food intake, our results imply that delay discounting is not susceptible to fluctuations of blood glucose and do not support the assumption that a low body's energy content leads to increased impulsivity. Further replications including women and larger sample sizes are needed to corroborate our data. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Leveraging delay discounting for health: Can time delays influence food choice?
Appelhans, Bradley M; French, Simone A; Olinger, Tamara; Bogucki, Michael; Janssen, Imke; Avery-Mamer, Elizabeth F; Powell, Lisa M
2018-07-01
Delay discounting, the tendency to choose smaller immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards, is theorized to promote consumption of immediately rewarding but unhealthy foods at the expense of long-term weight maintenance and nutritional health. An untested implication of delay discounting models of decision-making is that selectively delaying access to less healthy foods may promote selection of healthier (immediately available) alternatives, even if they may be less desirable. The current study tested this hypothesis by measuring healthy versus regular vending machine snack purchasing before and during the implementation of a 25-s time delay on the delivery of regular snacks. Purchasing was also examined under a $0.25 discount on healthy snacks, a $0.25 tax on regular snacks, and the combination of both pricing interventions with the 25-s time delay. Across 32,019 vending sales from three separate vending locations, the 25-s time delay increased healthy snack purchasing from 40.1% to 42.5%, which was comparable to the impact of a $0.25 discount (43.0%). Combining the delay and the discount had a roughly additive effect (46.0%). However, the strongest effects were seen under the $0.25 tax on regular snacks (53.7%) and the combination of the delay and the tax (50.2%). Intervention effects varied substantially between vending locations. Importantly, time delays did not harm overall vending sales or revenue, which is relevant to the real-world feasibility of this intervention. More investigation is needed to better understand how the impact of time delays on food choice varies across populations, evaluate the effects of time delays on beverage vending choices, and extend this approach to food choices in contexts other than vending machines. ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02359916. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Wojtecki, Lars; Storzer, Lena; Schnitzler, Alfons
2016-01-01
Abstract Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is a widely used treatment for the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD). DBS or pharmacological treatment is believed to modulate the tendency to, or reverse, impulse control disorders. Several brain areas involved in impulsivity and reward valuation, such as the prefrontal cortex and striatum, are linked to the STN, and activity in these areas might be affected by STN-DBS. To investigate the effect of STN-DBS on one type of impulsive decision-making—delay discounting (i.e., the devaluation of reward with increasing delay until its receipt)—we tested 40 human PD patients receiving STN-DBS treatment and medication for at least 3 months. Patients were pseudo-randomly assigned to one of four groups to test the effects of DBS on/off states as well as medication on/off states on delay discounting. The delay-discounting task consisted of a series of choices among a smaller. sooner or a larger, later monetary reward. Despite considerable effects of DBS on motor performance, patients receiving STN-DBS did not choose more or less impulsively compared with those in the off-DBS group, as well as when controlling for risk attitude. Although null results have to be interpreted with caution, our findings are of significance to other researchers studying the effects of PD treatment on impulsive decision-making, and they are of clinical relevance for determining the therapeutic benefits of using STN-DBS. PMID:27257622
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Biphasic Effects of Alcohol on Delay and Probability Discounting
Bidwell, L. Cinnamon; MacKillop, James; Murphy, James G.; Grenga, Andrea; Swift, Robert M.; McGeary, John E.
2014-01-01
Delay discounting and probability discounting are behavioral economic indices of impulsive and risky decision making that have been associated with addictive behavior, but the acute biphasic effects of alcohol on these decision-making processes are not well understood. This study sought to investigate the biphasic effects of alcohol on delay and probability discounting across the ascending and descending limbs of the breath alcohol concentration (BAC) curve, which are respectively characterized by the stimulant and sedative effects of alcohol. Delay and probability discounting were measured at four time points (Baseline, Ascending, Descending, and Endpoint) across the BAC curve at two target alcohol doses (40 mg/dl and 80 mg/dl) in healthy adults (N = 23 and 27, for both doses, respectively). There was no significant effect of alcohol on delay discounting at either dose. Alcohol significantly affected probability discounting, such that reduced discounting for uncertain rewards was evident during the descending limb of the BAC curve at the lower dose (p<.05) and during both the ascending and descending limb of the BAC curve at the higher dose (p<.05). Thus, alcohol resulted in increased risky decision making, particularly during the descending limb which is primarily characterized by the sedative effects of alcohol. These findings suggest that the biphasic effects of alcohol across the ascending and descending limbs of the BAC have differential effects on behavior related to decision-making for probabilistic, but not delayed, rewards. Parallels to and distinctions from previous findings are discussed. PMID:23750692
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Delay Discounting: I'm a "K", You're a "K"
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Odum, Amy L.
2011-01-01
Delay discounting is the decline in the present value of a reward with delay to its receipt. Across a variety of species, populations, and reward types, value declines hyperbolically with delay. Value declines steeply with shorter delays, but more shallowly with longer delays. Quantitative modeling provides precise measures to characterize the…
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MacKillop, James
2013-01-01
Delayed reward discounting is a behavioral economic index of impulsivity, referring to how much an individual devalues a reward based on its delay in time. As a behavioral process that varies considerably across individuals, delay discounting has been studied extensively as a model for self-control, both in the general population and in clinical samples. There is growing interest in genetic influences on discounting and, in particular, the prospect of discounting as an endophenotype for addictive disorders (i.e., a heritable mechanism partially responsible for conferring genetic risk). This review assembles and critiques the evidence supporting this hypothesis. Via numerous cross-sectional studies and a small number of longitudinal studies, there is considerable evidence that impulsive discounting is associated with addictive behavior and appears to play an etiological role. Moreover, there is increasing evidence from diverse methodologies that impulsive delay discounting is temporally stable, heritable, and that elevated levels are present in nonaffected family members. These findings suggest that impulsive discounting meets the criteria for being considered an endophenotype. In addition, recent findings suggest that genetic variation related to dopamine neurotransmission is significantly associated with variability in discounting preferences. A significant caveat, however, is that the literature is modest in some domains and, in others, not all the findings have been supportive or consistent. In addition, important methodological considerations are necessary in future studies. Taken together, although not definitive, there is accumulating support for the hypothesis of impulsive discounting as an endophenotype for addictive behavior and a need for further systematic investigation. PMID:23344986
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Delay discounting in opioid use disorder: Differences between heroin and prescription opioid users.
Karakula, Sterling L; Weiss, Roger D; Griffin, Margaret L; Borges, Allison M; Bailey, Allen J; McHugh, R Kathryn
2016-12-01
Among those with opioid use disorder, heroin use is associated with poorer prognosis relative to use of prescription opioids alone. However, relatively little is known about distinguishing features between those who use heroin relative to those who use prescription opioids. In the present study we evaluated differences in delay discounting in those with opioid use disorder based on primary opioid of use. Delay discounting is associated with a range of negative outcomes and is an important therapeutic target in this population. Treatment-seeking adults with opioid dependence completed self-report measures including past-month opioid use and the Monetary Choice Questionnaire (Kirby and Marakovic, 1996; Kirby et al., 1999), a measure of delay discounting. Participants were divided into two groups based on whether they used any heroin in the past 30days or only prescription opioids, and delay discounting scores were compared between the groups. Group differences in sociodemographic or clinical variables were included in the analysis as covariates. Results from a forward stepwise linear regression indicated that heroin use was associated with significantly higher delay discounting (B=-0.99, SE B =0.34, t=-2.88, p=0.005), even when considering covariates. Adults with opioid dependence who exclusively used prescription opioids had lower delay discounting relative to those who used heroin. This finding contributes further to the literature suggesting that heroin use is associated with greater clinical severity among those with opioid use disorder. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Dickens, Leah; DeSteno, David
2016-06-01
Past research has regularly linked the experience of affect to increased impatience and, thereby, decreased self-control. Given emerging work identifying the emotion gratitude as a fairly unique affective state capable of enhancing, rather than inhibiting, patience, the present study examined the association between chronically elevated gratitude and individual differences in temporal discounting. Participants' levels of gratitude were assessed in response to a standardized lab induction and then over a 3-week period prior to measurement of their financial patience in the form of an incentivized delay discounting task. Analyses revealed a strong relation between lab-based and naturally occurring gratitude levels, thereby confirming the validity of the daily online measures. Of import, mean levels of daily gratitude were significantly associated with increased patience in the form of decreased temporal discounting. As expected, no similar relation emerged for daily levels of happiness, thereby confirming the relative specificity of the positive state of gratitude. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).
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Yates, Justin R; Gunkel, Benjamin T; Rogers, Katherine K; Hughes, Mallory N; Prior, Nicholas A
2016-01-01
Rationale The N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor has been recently identified as an important mediator of impulsive choice, as assessed in delay discounting. Although discounting is independently influenced by sensitivity to reinforcer magnitude and delayed reinforcement, few studies have examined how NMDA receptor ligands differentially affect these parameters. Objectives The current study examined the effects of various NMDA receptor ligands on sensitivity to reinforcer magnitude and delayed reinforcement in a delay-discounting procedure. Methods Following behavioral training, rats received treatments of the following NMDA receptor ligands: the uncompetitive antagonists ketamine (0, 1.0, 5.0, or 10.0 mg/kg; i.p.), MK-801 (0, 0.003, 0.01, or 0.03 mg/kg; s.c.), and memantine (0, 2.5, 5.0, or 10.0 mg/kg; i.p.), the competitive antagonist CGS 19755 (0, 5.0, 10.0, or 20.0 mg/kg; s.c.), the non-competitive NR2B subunit-selective antagonist ifenprodil (0, 1.0, 3.0, or 10.0 mg/kg; i.p), and the partial agonist D-cycloserine (0, 3.25, 15.0, or 30.0 mg/kg; s.c.). Results When an exponential model was used to describe discounting, CGS 19755 (5.0 mg/kg) increased impulsive choice without altering sensitivity to reinforcer magnitude. Conversely, ketamine (10.0 mg/kg), memantine (5.0 mg/kg), and ifenprodil (10.0 mg/kg) decreased sensitivity to reinforcer magnitude without altering impulsive choice. MK-801 and D-cycloserine did not alter delay-discounting performance, although two-way ANOVA analyses indicated D-cycloserine (15.0 mg/kg) decreased impulsive choice. Conclusions The behavioral changes observed in delay discounting following administration of NMDA receptor antagonists do not always reflect an alteration in impulsive choice. These results emphasize the utility in employing quantitative methods to assess drug effects in delay discounting. PMID:27837332
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Letting go of the present: mind-wandering is associated with reduced delay discounting.
Smallwood, Jonathan; Ruby, Florence J M; Singer, Tania
2013-03-01
The capacity to self-generate mental content that is unrelated to the current environment is a fundamental characteristic of the mind, and the current experiment explored how this experience is related to the decisions that people make in daily life. We examined how task-unrelated thought (TUT) varies with the length of time participants are willing to wait for an economic reward, as measured using an inter-temporal discounting task. When participants performed a task requiring minimal attention, the greater the amount of time spent engaged in TUT the longer the individual was prepared to wait for an economic reward. These data indicate that self-generated thought engages processes associated with the successful management of long-term goals. Although immersion in the here and now is undeniably advantageous, under appropriate conditions the capacity to let go of the present and consider more pertinent personal goals may have its own rewards. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Affective and cognitive mechanisms of risky decision making.
Shimp, Kristy G; Mitchell, Marci R; Beas, B Sofia; Bizon, Jennifer L; Setlow, Barry
2015-01-01
The ability to make advantageous decisions under circumstances in which there is a risk of adverse consequences is an important component of adaptive behavior; however, extremes in risk taking (either high or low) can be maladaptive and are characteristic of a number of neuropsychiatric disorders. To better understand the contributions of various affective and cognitive factors to risky decision making, cohorts of male Long-Evans rats were trained in a "Risky Decision making Task" (RDT), in which they made discrete trial choices between a small, "safe" food reward and a large, "risky" food reward accompanied by varying probabilities of footshock. Experiment 1 evaluated the relative contributions of the affective stimuli (i.e., punishment vs. reward) to RDT performance by parametrically varying the magnitudes of the footshock and large reward. Varying the shock magnitude had a significant impact on choice of the large, "risky" reward, such that greater magnitudes were associated with reduced choice of the large reward. In contrast, varying the large, "risky" reward magnitude had minimal influence on reward choice. Experiment 2 compared individual variability in RDT performance with performance in an attentional set shifting task (assessing cognitive flexibility), a delayed response task (assessing working memory), and a delay discounting task (assessing impulsive choice). Rats characterized as risk averse in the RDT made more perseverative errors on the set shifting task than did their risk taking counterparts, whereas RDT performance was not related to working memory abilities or impulsive choice. In addition, rats that showed greater delay discounting (greater impulsive choice) showed corresponding poorer performance in the working memory task. Together, these results suggest that reward-related decision making under risk of punishment is more strongly influenced by the punishment than by the reward, and that risky and impulsive decision making are associated with distinct components of executive function. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Demurie, Ellen; Roeyers, Herbert; Wiersema, Jan R; Sonuga-Barke, Edmund
2016-04-01
Cognitive and motivational factors differentially affect individuals with mental health problems such as ADHD. Here we introduce a new task to disentangle the relative contribution of inhibitory control and reward anticipation on task performance in children with ADHD and/or autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Typically developing children, children with ADHD, ASD, or both disorders worked during separate sessions for monetary or social rewards in go/no-go tasks with varying inhibitory load levels. Participants also completed a monetary temporal discounting (TD) task. As predicted, task performance was sensitive to both the effects of anticipated reward amount and inhibitory load. Reward amount had different effects depending on inhibitory load level. TD correlated with inhibitory control in the ADHD group. The integration of the monetary incentive delay and go/no-go paradigms was successful. Surprisingly, there was no evidence of inhibitory control deficits or altered reward anticipation in the clinical groups. © The Author(s) 2013.
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Palombo, Daniela J.; Keane, Margaret M.; Verfaellie, Mieke
2014-01-01
In the present study, we investigated the effect of medial temporal lobe (MTL) damage on human decision making in the context of reward-based intertemporal choice. During intertemporal choice, humans typically devalue (or discount) a future reward to account for its delayed arrival (e.g., preferring $30 now over $42 in 2 months), but this effect is attenuated when participants engage in episodic future thinking, i.e., project themselves into the future to imagine a specific event. We hypothesized that this attenuation would be selectively impaired in amnesic patients, who have deficits in episodic future thinking. Replicating previous work, in a standard intertemporal choice task, amnesic patients showed temporal discounting indices similar to healthy controls. Consistent with our hypothesis, while healthy controls demonstrated attenuated temporal discounting in a condition that required participants first to engage in episodic future thinking (e.g., to imagine spending $42 at a theatre in 2 months), amnesic patients failed to demonstrate this effect. Moreover, as expected, amnesic patients’ narratives were less episodically rich than those of controls. These findings extend the range of tasks that are shown to be MTL dependent to include not only memory-based decision-making tasks but also future-oriented ones. PMID:25284804
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Kirby, Kris N; Petry, Nancy M
2004-04-01
To test a prediction of the discounting model of impulsiveness that discount rates would be positively associated with addiction. The delay-discount rate refers to the rate of reduction in the present value of a future reward as the delay to that reward increases. We estimated participants' discount rates on the basis of their pattern of choices between smaller immediate rewards ($11-80) and larger, delayed rewards ($25-85; at delays from 1 week to 6 months) in a questionnaire format. Participants had a one-in-six chance of winning a reward that they chose on one randomly selected trial. Heroin (n = 27), cocaine (n = 41) and alcohol (n = 33) abusers and non-drug-using controls (n = 44) were recruited from advertisements. They were tested in a drug abuse research clinic at a medical school. On average, the cocaine and heroin groups had higher rates than controls (both P < 0.001), but alcoholics did not (P = 0.44). Abstinence was associated with lower rates for heroin abusers (P = 0.03), but not for cocaine or alcohol abusers (both P > 0.50). These data suggest that discount rates vary with the preferred drug of abuse, and that high discount rates should be considered in the development of substance abuse prevention and treatment efforts.
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Franco-Watkins, Ana M.; Pashler, Harold; Rickard, Timothy C.
2006-01-01
Previous research by J. M. Hinson, T. L. Jameson, and P. Whitney (2003) demonstrated that a secondary task in a delayed discounting paradigm increased subjects' preference for the immediate reward. J. M. Hinson et al. interpreted their findings as evidence that working memory load results in greater impulsivity. The present authors conducted a…
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Delay discounting as emotional processing: an electrophysiological study.
Blackburn, Marianna; Mason, Liam; Hoeksma, Marco; Zandstra, Elizabeth H; El-Deredy, Wael
2012-01-01
Both theoretical models and functional imaging studies implicate the involvement of emotions within the delay discounting process. However, defining this role has been difficult to establish with neuroimaging techniques given the automaticity of emotional responses. To address this, the current study examined electrophysiological correlates involved in the detection and evaluation of immediate and delayed monetary outcomes. Our results showed that modulation of both early and later ERP components previously associated with affective stimuli processing are sensitive to the signalling of delayed rewards. Together with behavioural reaction times that favoured immediacy, we demonstrated, for the first time, that time delays modify the incentive value of monetary rewards via mechanisms of emotional bias and selective visual attention. Furthermore, our data are consistent with the hypothesis that delayed and thus intangible rewards are perceived less saliently, and rely on emotion as a common currency within decision making. This study provides a new approach to delay discounting and highlights a potential novel route through which delay discounting may be investigated.
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Martin, Laura E; Pollack, Lauren; McCune, Ashley; Schulte, Erica; Savage, Cary R; Lundgren, Jennifer D
2015-10-30
This study aimed to determine if obese adults with poor versus good sleep quality demonstrate reduced self-regulatory capacity and different patterns of neural activation when making impulsive monetary choices. Six obese, good quality sleepers (M age=44.7 years, M BMI=38.1 kg/m(2)) were compared to 13 obese, poor quality sleepers (M age=42.6, M BMI=39.2 kg/m(2)) on sleep and eating behavior and brain activation in prefrontal and insular regions while engaging in a delay discounting task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Poor quality sleepers demonstrated significantly lower brain activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus, right middle frontal gyrus, and bilateral insula when making immediate and smaller (impulsive) monetary choices compared to the baseline condition. Behaviorally, poor compared to good quality sleepers reported higher scores in the night eating questionnaire. Obese adults with poor sleep quality demonstrate decreased brain activation in multiple regions that regulate cognitive control and interceptive awareness, possibly reducing self-regulatory capacity when making immediately gratifying decisions. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Delay discounting rates: a strong prognostic indicator of smoking relapse.
Sheffer, Christine E; Christensen, Darren R; Landes, Reid; Carter, Larry P; Jackson, Lisa; Bickel, Warren K
2014-11-01
Recent evidence suggests that several dimensions of impulsivity and locus of control are likely to be significant prognostic indicators of relapse. One-hundred and thirty-one treatment seeking smokers were enrolled in six weeks of multi-component cognitive-behavioral therapy with eight weeks of nicotine replacement therapy. Cox proportional hazard regressions were used to model days to relapse with each of the following: delay discounting of $100, delay discounting of $1000, six subscales of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS), Rotter's Locus of Control (RLOC), Fagerstrom's Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND), and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Hazard ratios for a one standard deviation increase were estimated with 95% confidence intervals for each explanatory variable. Likelihood ratios were used to examine the level of association with days to relapse for different combinations of the explanatory variables while accounting for nicotine dependence and stress level. These analyses found that the $100 delay discounting rate had the strongest association with days to relapse. Further, when discounting rates were combined with the FTND and PSS, the associations remained significant. When the other measures were combined with the FTND and PSS, their associations with relapse non-significant. These findings indicate that delay discounting is independently associated with relapse and adds to what is already accounted for by nicotine dependence and stress level. They also signify that delay discounting is a productive new target for enhancing treatment for tobacco dependence. Consequently, adding an intervention designed to decrease discounting rates to a comprehensive treatment for tobacco dependence has the potential to decrease relapse rates. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Lithium, but not Valproate, Reduces Impulsive Choice in the Delay-Discounting Task in Mice
Halcomb, Meredith E; Gould, Todd D; Grahame, Nicholas J
2013-01-01
Both lithium and valproate are well-established treatments for bipolar disorder. Studies have also found that lithium is effective at reducing suicidal behaviors in patients with mood disorders. Impulsivity is a validated endophenotype of both bipolar disorder and suicidal behavior. We assessed effects of treatment with lithium or valproate on cognitive impulsivity in selectively bred mice previously shown to manifest relatively high levels of cognitive impulsivity. Mice were trained in the delay-discounting paradigm, a measure of cognitive impulsivity reflecting a behavioral bias towards immediacy, and then treated with lithium, valproate, or control chow. After 3 weeks of drug treatment, mice were tested at various delays to a large, delayed reward. Drug treatment continued during this time. Lithium reduced impulsivity, whereas valproate had no effect on choice behavior. Both drugs increased the number of choice trials and reinforcer intake, but effects on choice behavior did not depend on these motivational changes. To our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating lithium's effects to reduce cognitive impulsivity. Future studies may focus on the ability of putative pharmacotherapies for patients at risk for bipolar disorder or suicide to modify the impulsive choice dimension of this diseases. PMID:23584261
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Nishitomi, Kouhei; Yano, Koji; Kobayashi, Mika; Jino, Kohei; Kano, Takuya; Horiguchi, Naotaka; Shinohara, Shunji; Hasegawa, Minoru
2018-06-01
Impulsive choice behavior, which can be assessed using the delay discounting task, is a characteristic of various psychiatric disorders, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Guanfacine is a selective α 2A -adrenergic receptor agonist that is clinically effective in treating ADHD. However, there is no clear evidence that systemic guanfacine administration reduces impulsive choice behavior in the delay discounting task in rats. In the present study, we examined the effect of systemic guanfacine administration on food-motivated impulsive choice behavior in rats and the neuronal mechanism underlying this effect. Repeated administration of either guanfacine, methylphenidate, or atomoxetine significantly enhanced impulse control, increasing the number of times the rats chose a large but delayed reward in a dose-dependent manner. The effect of guanfacine was significantly blocked by pretreatment with an α 2A -adrenergic receptor antagonist. Furthermore, the effect of guanfacine remained unaffected in rats pretreated with a selective noradrenergic neurotoxin, consistent with a post-synaptic action. In contrast, the effect of atomoxetine on impulsive choice behavior was attenuated by pretreatment with the noradrenergic neurotoxin. These results provide the first evidence that systemically administered guanfacine reduces impulsive choice behavior in rats and that direct stimulation of postsynaptic, rather than presynaptic, α 2A -adrenergic receptors is involved in this effect. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Rivera, W. Gary; Robinson, David Gerald; Wyss, Gregory Dane
The charter for adversarial delay is to hinder access to critical resources through the use of physical systems increasing an adversarys task time. The traditional method for characterizing access delay has been a simple model focused on accumulating times required to complete each task with little regard to uncertainty, complexity, or decreased efficiency associated with multiple sequential tasks or stress. The delay associated with any given barrier or path is further discounted to worst-case, and often unrealistic, times based on a high-level adversary, resulting in a highly conservative calculation of total delay. This leads to delay systems that require significantmore » funding and personnel resources in order to defend against the assumed threat, which for many sites and applications becomes cost prohibitive. A new methodology has been developed that considers the uncertainties inherent in the problem to develop a realistic timeline distribution for a given adversary path. This new methodology incorporates advanced Bayesian statistical theory and methodologies, taking into account small sample size, expert judgment, human factors and threat uncertainty. The result is an algorithm that can calculate a probability distribution function of delay times directly related to system risk. Through further analysis, the access delay analyst or end user can use the results in making informed decisions while weighing benefits against risks, ultimately resulting in greater system effectiveness with lower cost.« less
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Maguire, David R; Gerak, Lisa R; France, Charles P
2015-01-01
Opioid abusers discount delayed reinforcers more rapidly than non-users; however, it is unclear whether chronic drug administration or its discontinuation impact discounting. This study examined daily morphine administration and its discontinuation on delay discounting of food in rhesus monkeys. Responding on one lever delivered 1 food pellet immediately; responding on another lever delivered 2 food pellets either immediately or after a delay (30–120 sec) that increased within the session. Monkeys (n=3) responded for the large reinforcer when both reinforcers were delivered immediately and more for the smaller, immediately available reinforcer as delay to delivery of the large reinforcer increased. When administered acutely, morphine (0.032–5.6 mg/kg) increased trial omissions and had variable effects on choice, with small doses decreasing and large doses increasing choice of the large delayed reinforcer. Chronic morphine administration (0.1 mg/kg/day to 3.2 mg/kg twice daily) reduced choice of the large delayed reinforcer in two monkeys while increasing choice in a third monkey. Despite the development of tolerance to some effects (i.e., rightward shifts in dose-effect curves for the number of trials omitted) and evidence of mild opioid dependence (e.g., decrease in the number of trials completed as well as body weight), discontinuation of treatment did not appear to systematically impact discounting. Overall, these results suggest that repeated opioid administration causes persistent effects on choice under a delay discounting procedure; however, differences in the direction of effect among individuals suggest factors other than, or in addition to, changes in discounting might play a role. PMID:26397762
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Positive mood effects on delay discounting.
Hirsh, Jacob B; Guindon, Alex; Morisano, Dominique; Peterson, Jordan B
2010-10-01
Delay discounting is the process by which the value of an expected reward decreases as the delay to obtaining that reward increases. Individuals with higher discounting rates tend to prefer smaller immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards. Previous research has indicated that personality can influence an individual's discounting rates, with higher levels of Extraversion predicting a preference for immediate gratification. The current study examined how this relationship would be influenced by situational mood inductions. While main effects were observed for both Extraversion and cognitive ability in the prediction of discounting rates, a significant interaction was also observed between Extraversion and positive affect. Extraverted individuals were more likely to prefer an immediate reward when first put in a positive mood. Extraverts thus appear particularly sensitive to impulsive, incentive-reward-driven behavior by temperament and by situational factors heightening positive affect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Reynolds, Brady; Schiffbauer, Ryan
2005-01-01
Delay of Gratification (DG) and Delay Discounting (DD) represent two indices of impulsive behavior often treated as though they represent equivalent or the same underlying processes. However, there are key differences between DG and DD procedures, and between certain research findings with each procedure, that suggest they are not equivalent. In…
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Kim-Spoon, Jungmeen; McCullough, Michael E; Bickel, W K; Farley, Julee P; Longo, Gregory S
2015-03-01
Prior research indicates that religiousness is related negatively to adolescent health risk behaviors, yet how such protective effects operate is not well understood. This study examined the longitudinal associations among organizational and personal religiousness, delay discounting, and substance use initiation (alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use). The sample comprised 106 early adolescents (10-13 years of age, 52% female) who were not using substances at Time 1. Path analyses suggested that high levels of personal religiousness at Time 1 were related to low levels of substance use at Time 2 (2.4 years later), mediated by low levels of delay discounting. Delay discounting appears to be an important contributor to the protective effect of religiousness on the development of substance use among adolescents.
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Cooper, Nicole; Kable, Joseph W; Kim, B Kyu; Zauberman, Gal
2013-08-07
People vary widely in how much they discount delayed rewards, yet little is known about the sources of these differences. Here we demonstrate that neural activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) and ventral striatum (VS) when human subjects are asked to merely think about the future--specifically, to judge the subjective length of future time intervals--predicts delay discounting. High discounters showed lower activity for longer time delays, while low discounters showed the opposite pattern. Our results demonstrate that the correlation between VMPFC and VS activity and discounting occurs even in the absence of choices about future rewards, and does not depend on a person explicitly evaluating future outcomes or judging their self-relevance. This suggests a link between discounting and basic processes involved in thinking about the future, such as temporal perception. Our results also suggest that reducing impatience requires not suppression of VMPFC and VS activity altogether, but rather modulation of how these regions respond to the present versus the future.
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Cooper, Nicole; Kim, B. Kyu; Zauberman, Gal
2013-01-01
People vary widely in how much they discount delayed rewards, yet little is known about the sources of these differences. Here we demonstrate that neural activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) and ventral striatum (VS) when human subjects are asked to merely think about the future—specifically, to judge the subjective length of future time intervals—predicts delay discounting. High discounters showed lower activity for longer time delays, while low discounters showed the opposite pattern. Our results demonstrate that the correlation between VMPFC and VS activity and discounting occurs even in the absence of choices about future rewards, and does not depend on a person explicitly evaluating future outcomes or judging their self-relevance. This suggests a link between discounting and basic processes involved in thinking about the future, such as temporal perception. Our results also suggest that reducing impatience requires not suppression of VMPFC and VS activity altogether, but rather modulation of how these regions respond to the present versus the future. PMID:23926268
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Cigarette smokers show steeper discounting of both food and cigarettes than money.
Odum, Amy L; Baumann, Ana A L
2007-12-01
People with drug addiction show steeper discounting of drugs of abuse than money. One suggestion is that this effect is related to withdrawal processes in drug dependence. We investigated whether it could be related to the fact that drugs are directly consumable, whereas money is not. We determined whether regular cigarette smokers discount food (another consumable outcome) less steeply than cigarettes, both of which were predicted to be discounted more steeply than money. Cigarette smokers (N=20) indicated preferences for immediate and delayed outcomes in a titration procedure that determined indifference points at various delays. In three separate conditions, the choices involved food, cigarettes, or money. The value of the delayed option was always US$ 10 or US$ 10 worth of the outcome. Cigarette smokers discounted both cigarettes and food more steeply than money. Most importantly, cigarettes and food were discounted to a similar degree. Cigarettes may be steeply discounted in part due to their consumable nature, rather than solely due to withdrawal-related processes.
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Affective and cognitive mechanisms of risky decision making
Shimp, Kristy G.; Mitchell, Marci R.; Beas, B. Sofia; Bizon, Jennifer L.; Setlow, Barry
2014-01-01
The ability to make advantageous decisions under circumstances in which there is a risk of adverse consequences is an important component of adaptive behavior; however, extremes in risk taking (either high or low) can be maladaptive and are characteristic of a number of neuropsychiatric disorders. To better understand the contributions of various affective and cognitive factors to risky decision making, cohorts of male Long-Evans rats were trained in a “Risky Decision making Task” (RDT), in which they made discrete trial choices between a small, “safe” food reward and a large, “risky” food reward accompanied by varying probabilities of footshock. Experiment 1 evaluated the relative contributions of the affective stimuli (i.e., punishment vs. reward) to RDT performance by parametrically varying the magnitudes of the footshock and large reward. Varying the shock magnitude had a significant impact on choice of the large, “risky” reward, such that greater magnitudes were associated with reduced choice of the large reward. In contrast, varying the large, “risky” reward magnitude had minimal influence on reward choice. Experiment 2 compared individual variability in RDT performance with performance in an attentional set shifting task (assessing cognitive flexibility), a delayed response task (assessing working memory), and a delay discounting task (assessing impulsive choice). Rats characterized as risk averse in the RDT made more perseverative errors on the set shifting task than did their risk taking counterparts, whereas RDT performance was not related to working memory abilities or impulsive choice. In addition, rats that showed greater delay discounting (greater impulsive choice) showed corresponding poorer performance in the working memory task. Together, these results suggest that reward-related decision making under risk of punishment is more strongly influenced by the punishment than by the reward, and that risky and impulsive decision making are associated with distinct components of executive function. PMID:24642448
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Temporal Discounting When the Choice Is Between Two Delayed Rewards
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Green, Leonard; Myerson, Joel; Macaux, Eric W.
2005-01-01
The present experiments extend the temporal discounting paradigm from choice between an immediate and a delayed reward to choice between 2 delayed rewards: a smaller amount of money available sooner and a larger amount available later. Across different amounts and delays, the data were consistently well described by a hyperbola-like discounting…
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Chantiluke, Kaylita; Christakou, Anastasia; Murphy, Clodagh M; Giampietro, Vincent; Daly, Eileen M; Ecker, Christina; Brammer, Michael; Murphy, Declan G; Rubia, Katya
2014-08-30
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are often comorbid and share cognitive abnormalities in temporal foresight. A key question is whether shared cognitive phenotypes are based on common or different underlying pathophysiologies and whether comorbid patients have additive neurofunctional deficits, resemble one of the disorders or have a different pathophysiology. We compared age- and IQ-matched boys with non-comorbid ADHD (18), non-comorbid ASD (15), comorbid ADHD and ASD (13) and healthy controls (18) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a temporal discounting task. Only the ASD and the comorbid groups discounted delayed rewards more steeply. The fMRI data showed both shared and disorder-specific abnormalities in the three groups relative to controls in their brain-behaviour associations. The comorbid group showed both unique and more severe brain-discounting associations than controls and the non-comorbid patient groups in temporal discounting areas of ventromedial and lateral prefrontal cortex, ventral striatum and anterior cingulate, suggesting that comorbidity is neither an endophenocopy of the two pure disorders nor an additive pathology. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.. All rights reserved.
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Simon, Nicholas W.; LaSarge, Candi L.; Montgomery, Karienn S.; Williams, Matthew T.; Mendez, Ian A.; Setlow, Barry; Bizon, Jennifer
2010-01-01
The ability to make advantageous choices among outcomes that differ in magnitude, probability, and delay until their arrival is critical for optimal survival and well-being across the lifespan. Aged individuals are often characterized as less impulsive in their choices than their young adult counterparts, demonstrating an increased ability to forgo immediate in favor of delayed (and often more beneficial) rewards. Such “wisdom” is usually characterized as a consequence of learning and life experience. However, aging is also associated with prefrontal cortical dysfunction and concomitant impairments in advantageous choice behavior. Animal models afford the opportunity to isolate the effects of biological aging on decision making from experiential factors. To model one critical component of decision making, young adult and aged Fischer 344 rats were trained on a two-choice delay discounting task in which one choice provided immediate delivery of a small reward and the other provided a large reward delivered after a variable delay period. Whereas young adult rats showed a characteristic pattern of choice behavior (choosing the large reward at short delays and shifting preference to the small reward as delays increased), aged rats maintained a preference for the large reward at all delays (i.e. – attenuated “discounting” of delayed rewards). This increased preference for the large reward in aged rats was not due to perceptual, motor, or motivational factors. The data strongly suggest that, independent of life experience, there are underlying neurobiological factors that contribute to age-related changes in decision making, and particularly the ability to delay gratification. PMID:18657883
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Examining weight concern and delay discounting in adolescent females.
Thamotharan, Sneha; Lange, Krista; Ramos, Ashley; Fields, Sherecce
2016-04-01
Pediatric obesity is a growing public health concern that contributes to high rates of negative long-term physical and mental health outcomes. Research focused on identifying risk for pediatric obesity has linked delay discounting, or an inclination for immediate rewards, as well as weight concern to individuals with greater Body Mass Index (BMI). The current study seeks to fill a void in the literature by examining how these two variables interact to promote higher BMI in female adolescents. Adolescent (n=60) females between the ages of 13-19years (mage=17.45, SD=1.74) of age completed the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) and the Delay Discounting Questionnaire. A mediation model examined whether delay discounting accounted for the relationship between weight concern and BMI. Results indicate that in the current study weight concern was negatively related to delay discounting and delay discounting was negatively related to BMI. The overall model revealed that a partial mediation occurred [b=1.28, t(60)=4.92, p<0.01]. These results suggest that while impulsivity is an important factor to consider, other constructs may also be influential in how weight concerns contribute to greater BMI. Nevertheless, the results indicate that prevention and interventions should identify females with high levels of both weight concern and impulsivity as an increased risk for experiencing pediatric obesity and long-term negative health outcomes. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Kim-Spoon, Jungmeen; McCullough, Michael E.; Bickel, W. K.; Farley, Julee P.; Longo, Gregory S.
2014-01-01
Prior research indicates that religiousness is related negatively to adolescent health risk behaviors, yet how such protective effects operate is not well understood. This study examined the longitudinal associations among organizational and personal religiousness, delay discounting, and substance use initiation (alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use). The sample comprised 106 early adolescents (10-13 years of age, 52% female) who were not using substances at Time 1. Path analyses suggested that high levels of personal religiousness at Time 1 were related to low levels of substance use at Time 2 (2.4 years later), mediated by low levels of delay discounting. Delay discounting appears to be an important contributor to the protective effect of religiousness on the development of substance use among adolescents. PMID:25750491
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Stott, Jeffrey J; Redish, A David
2014-11-05
Both orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and ventral striatum (vStr) have been identified as key structures that represent information about value in decision-making tasks. However, the dynamics of how this information is processed are not yet understood. We recorded ensembles of cells from OFC and vStr in rats engaged in the spatial adjusting delay-discounting task, a decision-making task that involves a trade-off between delay to and magnitude of reward. Ventral striatal neural activity signalled information about reward before the rat's decision, whereas such reward-related signals were absent in OFC until after the animal had committed to its decision. These data support models in which vStr is directly involved in action selection, but OFC processes decision-related information afterwards that can be used to compare the predicted and actual consequences of behaviour. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.
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Delay and Probability Discounting in Humans: An Overview
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
McKerchar, Todd L.; Renda, C. Renee
2012-01-01
The purpose of this review is to introduce the reader to the concepts of delay and probability discounting as well as the major empirical findings to emerge from research with humans on these concepts. First, we review a seminal discounting study by Rachlin, Raineri, and Cross (1991) as well as an influential extension of this study by Madden,…
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rachlin, Howard
2006-01-01
In general, if a variable can be expressed as a function of its own maximum value, that function may be called a discount function. Delay discounting and probability discounting are commonly studied in psychology, but memory, matching, and economic utility also may be viewed as discounting processes. When they are so viewed, the discount function…
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The discounting model selector: Statistical software for delay discounting applications.
Gilroy, Shawn P; Franck, Christopher T; Hantula, Donald A
2017-05-01
Original, open-source computer software was developed and validated against established delay discounting methods in the literature. The software executed approximate Bayesian model selection methods from user-supplied temporal discounting data and computed the effective delay 50 (ED50) from the best performing model. Software was custom-designed to enable behavior analysts to conveniently apply recent statistical methods to temporal discounting data with the aid of a graphical user interface (GUI). The results of independent validation of the approximate Bayesian model selection methods indicated that the program provided results identical to that of the original source paper and its methods. Monte Carlo simulation (n = 50,000) confirmed that true model was selected most often in each setting. Simulation code and data for this study were posted to an online repository for use by other researchers. The model selection approach was applied to three existing delay discounting data sets from the literature in addition to the data from the source paper. Comparisons of model selected ED50 were consistent with traditional indices of discounting. Conceptual issues related to the development and use of computer software by behavior analysts and the opportunities afforded by free and open-sourced software are discussed and a review of possible expansions of this software are provided. © 2017 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.
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Discounting of Delayed Rewards Is Not Hyperbolic
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Luhmann, Christian C.
2013-01-01
Delay discounting refers to decision-makers' tendency to value immediately available goods more than identical goods available only after some delay. In violation of standard economic theory, decision-makers frequently exhibit dynamic inconsistency; their preferences change simply due to the passage of time. The standard explanation for this…
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Discounting future green: money versus the environment.
Hardisty, David J; Weber, Elke U
2009-08-01
In 3 studies, participants made choices between hypothetical financial, environmental, and health gains and losses that took effect either immediately or with a delay of 1 or 10 years. In all 3 domains, choices indicated that gains were discounted more than losses. There were no significant differences in the discounting of monetary and environmental outcomes, but health gains were discounted more and health losses were discounted less than gains or losses in the other 2 domains. Correlations between implicit discount rates for these different choices suggest that discount rates are influenced more by the valence of outcomes (gains vs. losses) than by domain (money, environment, or health). Overall, results indicate that when controlling as many factors as possible, at short to medium delays, environmental outcomes are discounted in a similar way to financial outcomes, which is good news for researchers and policy makers alike.
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Impulsivity and Alcohol Demand in relation to Combined Alcohol and Caffeine Use
Amlung, Michael; Few, Lauren R.; Howland, Jonathan; Rohsenow, Damaris J.; Metrik, Jane; MacKillop, James
2014-01-01
Problematic alcohol use among college students continues to be a prominent concern in the United States, including the growing trend of consuming caffeine with alcoholic beverages (CABs). Epidemiologically, CAB use is associated with incremental risks from drinking, although these relationships could be due to common predisposing factors rather than specifically due to CABs. This study investigated the relationship between CAB use, alcohol misuse, and person-level characteristics including impulsive personality traits, delayed reward discounting, and behavioral economic demand for alcohol use. Participants were 273 regularly drinking undergraduate students. Frequency of CAB use was assessed over the past month. A multidimensional assessment of impulsivity included the UPPS-P questionnaire and a validated, questionnaire-based measure of delayed reward discounting. Demand was assessed via a hypothetical alcohol purchase task. Frequency of CAB consumption was significantly higher in males compared to females and was also associated with higher impulsivity on the majority of the UPPS-P subscales, steeper delayed reward discounting, and greater demand for alcohol. Significant correlations between CAB use and both alcohol demand and lack of premeditation remained present after including level of alcohol misuse in partial correlations. In a hierarchical linear regression incorporating demographic, demand, and impulsivity variables, CAB frequency continued to be a significant predictor of hazardous alcohol use. These results suggest that although there are significant associations between CAB consumption and gender, impulsivity, and alcohol demand, CAB use continues to be associated with alcohol misuse after controlling for these variables. PMID:24364537
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Hulka, L M; Vonmoos, M; Preller, K H; Baumgartner, M R; Seifritz, E; Gamma, A; Quednow, B B
2015-10-01
In cross-sectional studies, cocaine users generally display elevated levels of self-reported and cognitive impulsivity. To what extent these impairments are stable v. variable markers of cocaine use disorder, and, thus, are pre-existing or drug-induced, has not yet been systematically investigated. We conducted a longitudinal study with cocaine users who changed or maintained their consumption intensity, measuring self-reported impulsivity with the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), and cognitive impulsivity with the Rapid Visual Processing task (RVP), Iowa Gambling task (IGT), and Delay Discounting task (DD) at baseline and at 1-year follow-up. We assessed 48 psychostimulant-naive controls and 19 cocaine users with decreased, 19 users with increased, and 19 users with unchanged cocaine intake after 1 year as confirmed by hair analysis. Results of linear multilevel modelling showed significant group × time interactions for the BIS-11 total score and the IGT total card ratio. Increasers showed a trend for elevated scores, whereas decreasers exhibited reduced self-reported impulsivity scores within 1 year. Surprisingly, increasers' IGT performance was improved after 1 year, whereas decreasers' performance deteriorated. By contrast, neither RVP response bias B" nor DD total score showed substantial group × time interactions. Importantly, BIS-11 and DD revealed strong test-retest reliabilities. Self-reported impulsivity (BIS-11) and decision-making impulsivity (IGT) covary with changing cocaine use, whereas response bias and delay discounting remain largely unaffected. Thus, self-reported impulsivity and gambling decision-making were strongly state-dependent in a stimulant-using population and may be suitable to monitor treatment success, whereas delay of gratification was confirmed as a potential endophenotype of stimulant addiction.
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Effects of emotion on prospection during decision-making.
Worthy, Darrell A; Byrne, Kaileigh A; Fields, Sherecce
2014-01-01
In two experiments we examined the role of emotion, specifically worry, anxiety, and mood, on prospection during decision-making. Worry is a particularly relevant emotion to study in the context of prospection because high levels of worry may make individuals more aversive toward the uncertainty associated with the prospect of obtaining future improvements in rewards or states. Thus, high levels of worry might lead to reduced prospection during decision-making and enhance preference for immediate over delayed rewards. In Experiment 1 participants performed a two-choice dynamic decision-making task where they were required to choose between one option (the decreasing option) which provided larger immediate rewards but declines in future states, and another option (the increasing option) which provided smaller immediate rewards but improvements in future states, making it the optimal choice. High levels of worry were associated with poorer performance in the task. Additionally, fits of a sophisticated reinforcement-learning model that incorporated both reward-based and state-based information suggested that individuals reporting high levels of worry gave greater weight to the immediate rewards they would receive on each trial than to the degree to which each action would lead to improvements in their future state. In Experiment 2 we found that high levels of worry were associated with greater delay discounting using a standard delay discounting task. Combined, the results suggest that high levels of worry are associated with reduced prospection during decision-making. We attribute these results to high worriers' aversion toward the greater uncertainty associated with attempting to improve future rewards than to maximize immediate reward. These results have implications for researchers interested in the effects of emotion on cognition, and suggest that emotion strongly affects the focus on temporal outcomes during decision-making.
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Wait for It: Delay-Discounting and Academic Performance among an Irish Adolescent Sample
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Freeney, Yseult; O'Connell, Michael
2010-01-01
Beyond cognitive ability and family background, are there other significant determinants of educational attainment? From research in psychology, economics, education and criminology, one powerful influence is the ability to delay gratification, operationalised in this paper as "delay-discounting". It is intuitively plausible that the…
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Delay Discounting of Reward in ADHD: Application in Young Children
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wilson, Vanessa B.; Mitchell, Suzanne H.; Musser, Erica D.; Schmitt, Colleen F.; Nigg, Joel T.
2011-01-01
Background: A key underlying process that may contribute to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) involves alterations in reward evaluation, including assessing the relative value of immediate over delayed rewards. This study examines whether children with ADHD discount the value of delayed rewards to a greater degree than typically…
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Food reinforcement and delay discounting in zBMI-discordant siblings
USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database
The interaction of food reinforcement and the inability to delay gratification are related to adult energy intake and obesity. This study was designed to test the association of sibling pair differences in relative reinforcing efficacy of food and delay discounting on sibling pair differences in zBM...
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Miedl, Stephan F; Peters, Jan; Büchel, Christian
2012-02-01
The neural basis of excessive delay discounting and reduced risk sensitivity of pathological gamblers with a particular focus on subjective neural reward representations has not been previously examined. To examine how pathological gamblers represent subjective reward value at a neural level and how this is affected by gambling severity. Model-based functional magnetic resonance imaging study with patients and control subjects. Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. Participants were recruited from the local community by advertisement and through self-help groups. A sample of 16 pathological gamblers (according to the DSM-IV definition) was matched by age, sex, smoking status, income, educational level, and handedness to 16 healthy controls. Pathological gamblers showed increased discounting of delayed rewards and a trend toward decreased discounting of probabilistic rewards compared with matched controls. At the neural level, a significant group × condition interaction indicated that reward representations in the gamblers were modulated in a condition-specific manner, such that they exhibited increased (delay discounting) and decreased (probability discounting) neural value correlations in the reward system. In addition, throughout the reward system, neuronal value signals for delayed rewards were negatively correlated with gambling severity. The results extend previous reports of a generally hypoactive reward system in pathological gamblers by showing that, even when subjective reward valuation is accounted for, gamblers still show altered reward representations. Furthermore, results point toward a gradual degradation of mesolimbic reward representations for delayed rewards during the course of pathological gambling.
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Cho, Sang Soo; Pellecchia, Giovanna; Ko, Ji Hyun; Ray, Nicola; Obeso, Ignacio; Houle, Sylvain; Strafella, Antonio P
2012-04-01
Decision making is a cognitive function relaying on a complex neural network. In particular, the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) plays a key role within this network. We used positron emission tomography (PET) combined with continuous theta burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (cTBS) to investigate neuronal and behavioral changes in normal volunteers while performing a delay discounting (DD) task. We aimed to test whether stimulation of right DLPFC would modify the activation pattern of the neural circuit underlying decision making during the DD task and influence discounting behavior. We found that cTBS of the right DLPFC influenced decision making by reducing impulsivity and inducing participants to favor large but delayed rewards instead of immediate but small rewards. Stimulation also affected activation in several prefrontal areas associated with DD. In particular, we observed a reduced regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in the ipsilateral DLPFC (BA 46) extending into the rostral part of the prefrontal cortex (BA 10) as well as a disrupted relationship between impulsivity (k-value) and rCBF in these and other prefrontal areas. These findings suggest that transcranial magnetic stimulation of the DLPFC influences the neural network underlying impulsive decision making behavior. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Hindocha, C; Freeman, T P; Grabski, M; Crudgington, H; Davies, A C; Stroud, J B; Das, R K; Lawn, W; Morgan, C J A; Curran, H V
2018-05-15
Acute nicotine abstinence in cigarette smokers results in deficits in performance on specific cognitive processes, including working memory and impulsivity which are important in relapse. Cannabidiol (CBD), the non-intoxicating cannabinoid found in cannabis, has shown pro-cognitive effects and preliminary evidence has indicated it can reduce the number of cigarettes smoked in dependent smokers. However, the effects of CBD on cognition have never been tested during acute nicotine withdrawal. The present study therefore aimed to investigate if CBD can improve memory and reduce impulsivity during acute tobacco abstinence. Thirty, non-treatment seeking, dependent, cigarette smokers attended two laboratory-based sessions after overnight abstinence, in which they received either 800 mg oral CBD or placebo (PBO), in a randomised order. Abstinence was biologically verified. Participants were assessed on go/no-go, delay discounting, prose recall and N-back (0-back, 1-back, 2-back) tasks. The effects of CBD on delay discounting, prose recall and the N-back (correct responses, maintenance or manipulation) were null, confirmed by a Bayesian analysis, which found evidence for the null hypothesis. Contrary to our predictions, CBD increased commission errors on the go/no-go task. In conclusion, a single 800 mg dose of CBD does not improve verbal or spatial working memory, or impulsivity during tobacco abstinence.
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2014-09-29
Framing Reinforcement Learning from Human Reward: Reward Positivity, Temporal Discounting, Episodicity , and Performance W. Bradley Knox...positive a trainer’s reward values are; temporal discounting, the extent to which future reward is discounted in value; episodicity , whether task...learning occurs in discrete learning episodes instead of one continuing session; and task performance, the agent’s performance on the task the trainer
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Delay discounting of oral morphine and sweetened juice rewards in dependent and non-dependent rats.
Harvey-Lewis, Colin; Perdrizet, Johnna; Franklin, Keith B J
2014-07-01
Opioid-dependent humans are reported to show accelerated delay discounting of opioid rewards when compared to monetary rewards. It has been suggested that this may reflect a difference in discounting of consumable and non-consumable goods not specific to dependent individuals. Here, we evaluate the discounting of similar morphine and non-morphine oral rewards in dependent and non-dependent rats We first tested the analgesic and rewarding effects of our morphine solution. In a second experiment, we assigned rats randomly to either dependent or non-dependent groups that, 30 min after daily testing, received 30 mg/kg subcutaneous dose of morphine, or saline, respectively. Delay discounting of drug-free reward was examined prior to initiation of the dosing regimen. We tested discounting of the morphine reward in half the rats and retested the discounting of the drug-free reward in the other half. All tests were run 22.5 h after the daily maintenance dose. Rats preferred the morphine cocktail to the drug-free solution and consumed enough to induce significant analgesia. The control quinine solution did not produce these effects. Dependent rats discounted morphine rewards more rapidly than before dependence and when compared to discounting drug-free rewards. In non-dependent rats both reward types were discounted similarly. These results show that morphine dependence increases impulsiveness specifically towards a drug reward while morphine experience without dependence does not.
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Kaplan, Brent A; Reed, Derek D; Jarmolowicz, David P
2016-03-01
Many everyday choices are associated with both delayed and probabilistic outcomes. The temporal attention hypothesis suggests that individuals' decision making can be improved by focusing attention on temporally distal events and implies that environmental manipulations that bring temporally distal outcomes into focus may alter an individual's degree of discounting. One such manipulation, episodic future thinking, has shown to lower discount rates; however, several questions remain about the applicability of episodic future thinking to domains other than delay discounting. The present experiments examine the effects of a modified episodic-future-thinking procedure in which participants viewed age-progressed computer-generated images of themselves and answered questions related to their future, on probability discounting in the context of both a delayed health gain and loss. Results indicate that modified episodic future thinking effectively altered individuals' degree of discounting in the predicted directions and demonstrate the applicability of episodic future thinking to decision making of socially significant outcomes. © 2015 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.
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Koffarnus, Mikhail N.; Woods, James H.
2011-01-01
Substance abusers, including cocaine abusers, discount delayed rewards to a greater extent than do matched controls. In the current experiment, individual differences in discounting of delayed rewards in rats (choice of one immediate over three delayed sucrose pellets) were assessed for associations with demand for either sucrose pellets or an i.v. dose of 0.1 mg/kg/infusion cocaine. Twenty-four male Sprague Dawley rats were split into three groups based on sensitivity to delay to reinforcement. Then, demand for sucrose pellets and cocaine was determined across a range of fixed-ratio (FR) values. Delay discounting was then reassessed to determine the stability of this measure over the course of the experiment. Individual differences in impulsive choice were positively associated with elasticity of demand for cocaine, a measure of reinforcer value, indicating that rats having higher discount rates also valued cocaine more. Impulsive choice was not associated with level of cocaine consumption as price approached 0, or any parameter associated with demand for sucrose. Individual sensitivity to delay was correlated with the initial assessment when reassessed at the end of the experiment, although impulsive choice increased for this cohort of rats as a whole. These findings suggest that impulsive choice in rats is positively associated with valuation of cocaine, but not sucrose. PMID:21812874
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Modeling the effect of reward amount on probability discounting.
Myerson, Joel; Green, Leonard; Morris, Joshua
2011-03-01
The present study with college students examined the effect of amount on the discounting of probabilistic monetary rewards. A hyperboloid function accurately described the discounting of hypothetical rewards ranging in amount from $20 to $10,000,000. The degree of discounting increased continuously with amount of probabilistic reward. This effect of amount was not due to changes in the rate parameter of the discounting function, but rather was due to increases in the exponent. These results stand in contrast to those observed with the discounting of delayed monetary rewards, in which the degree of discounting decreases with reward amount due to amount-dependent decreases in the rate parameter. Taken together, this pattern of results suggests that delay and probability discounting reflect different underlying mechanisms. That is, the fact that the exponent in the delay discounting function is independent of amount is consistent with a psychophysical scaling interpretation, whereas the finding that the exponent of the probability-discounting function is amount-dependent is inconsistent with such an interpretation. Instead, the present results are consistent with the idea that the probability-discounting function is itself the product of a value function and a weighting function. This idea was first suggested by Kahneman and Tversky (1979), although their prospect theory does not predict amount effects like those observed. The effect of amount on probability discounting was parsimoniously incorporated into our hyperboloid discounting function by assuming that the exponent was proportional to the amount raised to a power. The amount-dependent exponent of the probability-discounting function may be viewed as reflecting the effect of amount on the weighting of the probability with which the reward will be received.
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Fortgang, Rebecca G; Hoff, Rani A; Potenza, Marc N
2018-02-16
High rates of both problem and pathological gambling (PPG) and substance-use disorders (SUDs) have been reported in schizophrenia, and yet PPG frequently goes undetected in clinical practice and unexamined in research. Here, we aimed to examine the relationship between PPG and SUDs in a large sample of patients across several factors related to both gambling and substance use, including poly-substance use. Additionally, delay discounting is a form of impulsivity known to positively associate with both PPG and SUDs and thought to underlie mechanisms of addiction in both contexts. We aimed to investigate the relationship between PPG and delay discounting in schizophrenia. 337 individuals with schizophrenia completed structured face-to-face interviews regarding gambling behaviors, substance use, and delay discounting. PPG in schizophrenia was associated with substance use, in particular with poly-substance use, and with delay discounting among males. Factors related to substance use were strongly linked with gambling in this sample, but not always with PPG more than recreational gambling. Our findings overall support the notions that multiple forms of gambling in schizophrenia are clinically relevant, that gambling may share common substrates with substance use, and that delay discounting represents a potential mechanism of this association in males.
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MacKillop, James; Weafer, Jessica; Gray, Joshua; Oshri, Assaf; Palmer, Abraham; de Wit, Harriet
2016-01-01
Rationale Impulsivity has been strongly linked to addictive behaviors, but can be operationalized in a number of ways that vary considerably in overlap, suggesting multidimensionality. Objective This study tested the hypothesis that the latent structure among multiple measures of impulsivity would reflect three broad categories: impulsive choice, reflecting discounting of delayed rewards; impulsive action, reflecting ability to inhibit a prepotent motor response; and impulsive personality traits, reflecting self-reported attributions of self-regulatory capacity. Methods The study used a cross-sectional confirmatory factor analysis of multiple impulsivity assessments. Participants were 1252 young adults (62% female) with low levels of addictive behavior who were assessed in individual laboratory rooms at the University of Chicago and the University of Georgia. The battery comprised a delay discounting task, Monetary Choice Questionnaire, Conners Continuous Performance Test, Go/NoGo Task, Stop Signal Task, Barratt Impulsivity Scale, and the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale. Results The hypothesized three-factor model provided the best fit to the data, although Sensation Seeking was excluded from the final model. The three latent factors were largely unrelated to each other and were variably associated with substance use. Conclusions These findings support the hypothesis that diverse measures of impulsivity can broadly be organized into three categories that are largely distinct from one another. These findings warrant investigation among individuals with clinical levels of addictive behavior and may be applied to understanding the underlying biological mechanisms of these categories. PMID:27449350
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Higgins, Guy A; Silenieks, Leo B; MacMillan, Cam; Sevo, Julia; Zeeb, Fiona D; Thevarkunnel, Sandy
2016-09-15
NMDA GluN2B (NR2B) subtype selective antagonists are currently in clinical development for a variety of indications, including major depression. We previously reported the selective NMDA GluN2B antagonists Ro 63-1908 and traxoprodil, increase premature responding in a 5-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT) suggesting an effect on impulsive action. The present studies extend these investigations to a Go-NoGo and delay discounting task, and the 5-CSRTT under test conditions of both regular (5s) and short (2-5s) multiple ITI (Intertrial interval). Dizocilpine was included for comparison. Both Ro 63-1908 (0.1-1mg/kg SC) and traxoprodil (0.3-3mg/kg SC) increased premature and perseverative responses in both 5-CSRT tasks and improved attention when tested under a short ITI test condition. Ro 63-1908 but not traxoprodil increased motor impulsivity (false alarms) in a Go-NoGo task. Dizocilpine (0.01-0.06mg/kg SC) affected both measures of motor impulsivity and marginally improved attention. In a delay discounting test of impulsive choice, both dizocilpine and Ro 63-1908 decreased impulsive choice (increased choice for the larger, delayed reward), while traxoprodil showed a similar trend. Motor stimulant effects were evident following Ro 63-1908, but not traxoprodil treatment - although no signs of motor stereotypy characteristic of dizocilpine (>0.1mg/kg) were noted. The findings of both NMDA GluN2B antagonists affecting measures of impulsive action and compulsive behavior may underpin emerging evidence to suggest glutamate signaling through the NMDA GluN2B receptor plays an important role in behavioural flexibility. The profiles between Ro 63-1908 and traxoprodil were not identical, perhaps suggesting differences between members of this drug class. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Impatience and Grades: Delay-Discount Rates Correlate Negatively with College Gpa
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kirby, K.N.; Winston, G.C.; Santiesteban, M.
2005-01-01
Because the rewards of academic performance in college are often delayed, the delay-discounting model of impulsiveness (Ainslie (1975) [Ainslie, G. Specious reward: A behavioral theory of impulsiveness and impulse control. Psychological Bulletin, 82 (4), 463-496] predicts that academic performance should tend to decrease as people place less…
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A Tutorial on the Use of Excel 2010 and Excel for Mac 2011 for Conducting Delay-Discounting Analyses
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Reed, Derek D.; Kaplan, Brent A.; Brewer, Adam T.
2012-01-01
In recent years, researchers and practitioners in the behavioral sciences have profited from a growing literature on delay discounting. The purpose of this article is to provide readers with a brief tutorial on how to use Microsoft Office Excel 2010 and Excel for Mac 2011 to analyze discounting data to yield parameters for both the hyperbolic…
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Predictive Validity of Delay Discounting Behavior in Adolescence: A Longitudinal Twin Study
Isen, Joshua D.; Sparks, Jordan C.; Iacono, William G.
2014-01-01
A standard assumption in the delay discounting literature is that individuals who exhibit steeper discounting of hypothetical rewards also experience greater difficulty deferring gratification to real-world rewards. There is ample cross-sectional evidence that delay discounting paradigms reflect a variety of maladaptive psychosocial outcomes, including substance use pathology. We sought to determine whether a computerized assessment of hypothetical delay discounting (HDD) taps into behavioral impulsivity in a community sample of adolescent twins (N = 675). Using a longitudinal design, we hypothesized that greater HDD at age 14–15 predicts real-world impulsive choices and risk for substance use disorders in late adolescence. We also examined the genetic and environmental structure of HDD performance. Individual differences in HDD behavior showed moderate heritability, and were prospectively associated with real-world temporal discounting at age 17–18. Contrary to expectations, HDD was not consistently related to substance use or trait impulsivity. Although a significant association between HDD behavior and past substance use emerged in males, this effect was mediated by cognitive ability. In both sexes, HDD failed to predict a comprehensive index of substance use problems and behavioral disinhibition in late adolescence. In sum, we present some of the first evidence that HDD performance is heritable and predictive of real-world temporal discounting of rewards. Nevertheless, HDD might not serve as a valid marker of substance use disorder risk in younger adolescents, particularly females. PMID:24999868
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Kahn, Rachel E.; Holmes, Christopher; Farley, Julee P.; Kim-Spoon, Jungmeen
2015-01-01
Parent-adolescent relationship quality and delay discounting may play important roles in adolescents’ sexual decision making processes, and levels of self-control during adolescence could act as a buffer within these factors. This longitudinal study included 219 adolescent (55% male; mean age = 12.66 years at Wave 1; mean age = 15.10 years at Wave 2) and primary caregiver dyads. Structural equation modeling was utilized to determine whether delay discounting mediated the association between parent-adolescent relationship quality and adolescents’ risky sexual behavior and how this mediated association may differ between those with high versus low self-control. The results revealed parent-adolescent relationship quality plays a role in the development of risky sexual behavior indirectly through levels of delay discounting, but only for adolescents with low self-control. These findings could inform sex education policies and health prevention programs that address adolescent risky sexual behavior. PMID:26202153
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Stoltman, Jonathan J K; Woodcock, Eric A; Lister, Jamey J; Lundahl, Leslie H; Greenwald, Mark K
2015-12-01
Delay discounting (DD) refers to how rapidly an individual devalues goods based on delays to receipt. DD usually is considered a trait variable but can be state dependent, yet few studies have assessed commodity valuation at short, naturalistically relevant time intervals that might enable state-dependent analysis. This study aimed to determine whether drug-use impulsivity and intelligence influence heroin DD at short (ecologically relevant) delays during two pharmacological states (heroin satiation and withdrawal). Out-of-treatment, intensive heroin users (n = 170; 53.5% African American; 66.7% male) provided complete DD data during imagined heroin satiation and withdrawal. Delays were 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 72, and 96 hours; maximum delayed heroin amount was thirty $10 bags. Indifference points were used to calculate area under the curve (AUC). We also assessed drug-use impulsivity (subscales from the Impulsive Relapse Questionnaire [IRQ]) and estimated intelligence (Shipley IQ) as predictors of DD. Heroin discounting was greater (smaller AUC) during withdrawal than satiation. In regression analyses, lower intelligence and IRQ Capacity for Delay as well as higher IRQ Speed (to return to drug use) predicted greater heroin discounting in the satiation condition. Lower intelligence and higher IRQ Speed predicted greater discounting in the withdrawal condition. Sex, race, substance use variables, and other IRQ subscales were not significantly related to the withdrawal or satiation DD behavior. In summary, heroin discounting was temporally rapid, pharmacologically state dependent, and predicted by drug-use impulsivity and estimated intelligence. These findings highlight a novel and sensitive measure of acute DD that is easy to administer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).
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Klein-Flügge, Miriam C; Kennerley, Steven W; Saraiva, Ana C; Penny, Will D; Bestmann, Sven
2015-03-01
There has been considerable interest from the fields of biology, economics, psychology, and ecology about how decision costs decrease the value of rewarding outcomes. For example, formal descriptions of how reward value changes with increasing temporal delays allow for quantifying individual decision preferences, as in animal species populating different habitats, or normal and clinical human populations. Strikingly, it remains largely unclear how humans evaluate rewards when these are tied to energetic costs, despite the surge of interest in the neural basis of effort-guided decision-making and the prevalence of disorders showing a diminished willingness to exert effort (e.g., depression). One common assumption is that effort discounts reward in a similar way to delay. Here we challenge this assumption by formally comparing competing hypotheses about effort and delay discounting. We used a design specifically optimized to compare discounting behavior for both effort and delay over a wide range of decision costs (Experiment 1). We then additionally characterized the profile of effort discounting free of model assumptions (Experiment 2). Contrary to previous reports, in both experiments effort costs devalued reward in a manner opposite to delay, with small devaluations for lower efforts, and progressively larger devaluations for higher effort-levels (concave shape). Bayesian model comparison confirmed that delay-choices were best predicted by a hyperbolic model, with the largest reward devaluations occurring at shorter delays. In contrast, an altogether different relationship was observed for effort-choices, which were best described by a model of inverse sigmoidal shape that is initially concave. Our results provide a novel characterization of human effort discounting behavior and its first dissociation from delay discounting. This enables accurate modelling of cost-benefit decisions, a prerequisite for the investigation of the neural underpinnings of effort-guided choice and for understanding the deficits in clinical disorders characterized by behavioral inactivity.
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Klein-Flügge, Miriam C.; Kennerley, Steven W.; Saraiva, Ana C.; Penny, Will D.; Bestmann, Sven
2015-01-01
There has been considerable interest from the fields of biology, economics, psychology, and ecology about how decision costs decrease the value of rewarding outcomes. For example, formal descriptions of how reward value changes with increasing temporal delays allow for quantifying individual decision preferences, as in animal species populating different habitats, or normal and clinical human populations. Strikingly, it remains largely unclear how humans evaluate rewards when these are tied to energetic costs, despite the surge of interest in the neural basis of effort-guided decision-making and the prevalence of disorders showing a diminished willingness to exert effort (e.g., depression). One common assumption is that effort discounts reward in a similar way to delay. Here we challenge this assumption by formally comparing competing hypotheses about effort and delay discounting. We used a design specifically optimized to compare discounting behavior for both effort and delay over a wide range of decision costs (Experiment 1). We then additionally characterized the profile of effort discounting free of model assumptions (Experiment 2). Contrary to previous reports, in both experiments effort costs devalued reward in a manner opposite to delay, with small devaluations for lower efforts, and progressively larger devaluations for higher effort-levels (concave shape). Bayesian model comparison confirmed that delay-choices were best predicted by a hyperbolic model, with the largest reward devaluations occurring at shorter delays. In contrast, an altogether different relationship was observed for effort-choices, which were best described by a model of inverse sigmoidal shape that is initially concave. Our results provide a novel characterization of human effort discounting behavior and its first dissociation from delay discounting. This enables accurate modelling of cost-benefit decisions, a prerequisite for the investigation of the neural underpinnings of effort-guided choice and for understanding the deficits in clinical disorders characterized by behavioral inactivity. PMID:25816114
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Clarifying the Relationship between Impulsive Delay Discounting and Nicotine Dependence
Amlung, Michael; MacKillop, James
2014-01-01
Impulsive delayed reward discounting (DRD) has been linked to nicotine dependence, but with some inconsistency. This may be related to the considerable variability in the literature with regard to the DRD assessments used, particularly in the case of reward magnitudes assessed. In addition, previous studies have often not considered concurrent substance use when examining the relationship between DRD and nicotine dependence. The current study sought to further clarify the relationship between DRD and nicotine dependence by characterizing DRD across diverse reward magnitudes and incorporating other substance use. Daily smokers (N = 933) were assessed for DRD preferences across nine reward magnitudes (delayed reward range: $2.50–$850), comorbid substance use, and relevant demographic variables (age, education, income). A significant large effect size magnitude effect was found for DRD, reflecting steeper discounting for smaller delayed rewards, but significant correlations across magnitudes also suggested similar relative levels of discounting. Principal components analysis (PCA) was used to generate a single latent index of discounting across all magnitudes that accounted for 67% of the total variance. In both correlation and regression analyses, steeper composite DRD was significantly associated with nicotine dependence severity. This relationship remained statistically significant after incorporating demographic variables and alcohol and illicit drug use. These findings provide evidence of a specific link between impulsive DRD and nicotine dependence, and reveal that this association is robust across a broad range of monetary rewards. The study also demonstrates the utility of using PCA to generate latent indices of delay discounting across multiple magnitudes of delayed reward. PMID:24841186
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A Mechanism for Reducing Delay Discounting by Altering Temporal Attention
Radu, Peter T; Yi, Richard; Bickel, Warren K; Gross, James J; McClure, Samuel M
2011-01-01
Rewards that are not immediately available are discounted compared to rewards that are immediately available. The more a person discounts a delayed reward, the more likely that person is to have a range of behavioral problems, including clinical disorders. This latter observation has motivated the search for interventions that reduce discounting. One surprisingly simple method to reduce discounting is an “explicit-zero” reframing that states default or null outcomes. Reframing a classical discounting choice as “something now but nothing later” versus “nothing now but more later” decreases discount rates. However, it is not clear how this “explicit-zero” framing intervention works. The present studies delineate and test two possible mechanisms to explain the phenomenon. One mechanism proposes that the explicit-zero framing creates the impression of an improving sequence, thereby enhancing the present value of the delayed reward. A second possible mechanism posits an increase in attention allocation to temporally distant reward representations. In four experiments, we distinguish between these two hypothesized mechanisms and conclude that the temporal attention hypothesis is superior for explaining our results. We propose a model of temporal attention whereby framing affects intertemporal preferences by modifying present bias. PMID:22084496
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Koffarnus, Mikhail N; Woods, James H
2013-01-01
Substance abusers, including cocaine abusers, discount delayed rewards to a greater extent than do matched controls. In the current experiment, individual differences in discounting of delayed rewards in rats (choice of one immediate over three delayed sucrose pellets) were assessed for associations with demand for either sucrose pellets or an intravenous dose of 0.1 mg/kg/infusion cocaine. Twenty-four male Sprague Dawley rats were split into three groups based on sensitivity to delay to reinforcement. Then, demand for sucrose pellets and cocaine was determined across a range of fixed-ratio values. Delay discounting was then reassessed to determine the stability of this measure over the course of the experiment. Individual differences in impulsive choice were positively associated with elasticity of demand for cocaine, a measure of reinforcer value, indicating that rats having higher discount rates also valued cocaine more. Impulsive choice was not associated with the level of cocaine consumption as price approached 0 or with any parameter associated with demand for sucrose. Individual sensitivity to delay was correlated with the initial assessment when reassessed at the end of the experiment, although impulsive choice increased for this cohort of rats as a whole. These findings suggest that impulsive choice in rats is positively associated with valuation of cocaine, but not sucrose. © 2011 The Authors, Addiction Biology © 2011 Society for the Study of Addiction.
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Epstein, Leonard H; Jankowiak, Noelle; Lin, Henry; Paluch, Rocco; Koffarnus, Mikhail N; Bickel, Warren K
2014-09-01
Low income is related to food insecurity, and research has suggested that a scarcity of resources associated with low income can shift attention to the present, thereby discounting the future. We tested whether attending to the present and discounting the future may moderate the influence of income on food insecurity. Delay discounting and measures of future time perspective (Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory, Consideration of Future Consequences Scale, time period of financial planning, and subjective probability of living to age 75 y) were studied as moderators of the relation between income and food insecurity in a diverse sample of 975 adults, 31.8% of whom experienced some degree of food insecurity. Income, financial planning, subjective probability of living to age 75 y, and delay discounting predicted food insecurity as well as individuals who were high in food insecurity. Three-way interactions showed that delay discounting interacted with financial planning and income to predict food insecurity (P = 0.003). At lower levels of income, food insecurity was lowest for subjects who had good financial planning skills and did not discount the future, whereas having good financial skills and discounting the future had minimal influence on food insecurity. The same 3-way interaction was observed when high food insecurity was predicted (P = 0.008). Because of the role of scarce resources on narrowing attention and reducing prospective thinking, research should address whether modifying future orientation may reduce food insecurity even in the face of diminishing financial resources. © 2014 American Society for Nutrition.
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Being Active and Impulsive: The Role of Goals for Action and Inaction in Self-Control.
Hepler, Justin; Albarracin, Dolores; McCulloch, Kathleen C; Noguchi, Kenji
2012-12-01
Although self-control often requires behavioral inaction (i.e., not eating a piece of cake), the process of inhibiting impulsive behavior is commonly characterized as cognitively active (i.e., actively exerting self-control). Two experiments examined whether motivation for action or inaction facilitates self-control behavior in the presence of tempting stimuli. Experiment 1 used a delay discounting task to assess the ability to delay gratification with respect to money. Experiment 2 used a Go/No-Go task to assess the ability to inhibit a dominant but incorrect motor response to the words "condom" and "sex". The results demonstrate that goals for inaction promote self-control, whereas goals for action promote impulsive behavior. These findings are discussed in light of recent evidence suggesting that goals for action and inaction modulate physiological resources that promote behavioral execution.
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Turel, Ofir; He, Qinghua; Brevers, Damien; Bechara, Antoine
2018-04-25
Addiction-like symptoms in relation to excessive and compulsive social media use are common in the general population. Because they can lead to various adverse effects, there is a growing need to understand the brain systems and processes that are involved in potential social media addiction. We focus on the morphology of the posterior subdivision of the insular cortex (i.e., the insula), because it has been shown to be instrumental to supporting the maintenance of substance addictions and problematic behaviors. Assuming that social media addiction shares neural similarities with more established ones and consistent with evidence from the neuroeconomics domain, we further examine one possible reason for this association-namely that insular morphology influences one's delay discounting and that this delay discounting contributes to exaggerated preference for immediate social media rewards and consequent addiction-like symptoms. Based on voxel-based morphometry techniques applied to MRI scans of 32 social media users, we show that the gray matter volumes of the bilateral posterior insula are negatively associated with social media addiction symptoms. We further show that this association is mediated by delay discounting. This provides initial evidence that insular morphology can be associated with potential social media addiction, in part, through its contribution to poor foresight and impulsivity as captured by delay discounting.
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Temporal horizon: modulation by smoking status and gender
Jones, Bryan A.; Landes, Reid D.; Yi, Richard; Bickel, Warren K.
2009-01-01
Recently, delay discounting has been argued to be conceptually consistent with the notion of temporal horizon (Bickel et al., 2008). Temporal horizon refers to the temporal distance over which behavioral events or objects can influence behavior. Here we examine the results on two putative measures of temporal horizon, future time perspective (FTP) and delay discounting, collected over three separate studies (n = 227), to determine the influence of smoking and gender on temporal horizon. By comparing the results on these temporal horizon measures we address our population of interest: women who smoke. One of the measures of FTP indicates that smoking women have a shorter temporal horizon than their nonsmoking counterparts. Additionally, the story completion measures of FTP are positively correlated with delay discounting. In contrast, results of delay discounting measures showed no difference between smoking women and nonsmoking women, while results of delay discounting measures indicated smoking men have a shorter temporal horizon than non-smoking men. Additionally, the results of the FTP story completion measure indicated that lower third income earners had a shortened temporal horizon compared to upper third income earners. A possible explanation for these results is explored, and the implications of the modulation of temporal horizon by gender and smoking are discussed. PMID:19446407
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Impulsivity and alcohol demand in relation to combined alcohol and caffeine use.
Amlung, Michael; Few, Lauren R; Howland, Jonathan; Rohsenow, Damaris J; Metrik, Jane; MacKillop, James
2013-12-01
Problematic alcohol use among college students continues to be a prominent concern in the United States, including the growing trend of consuming caffeinated alcoholic beverages (CABs). Epidemiologically, CAB use is associated with incremental risks from drinking, although these relationships could be due to common predisposing factors rather than specifically due to CABs. This study investigated the relationship between CAB use, alcohol misuse, and person-level characteristics, including impulsive personality traits, delayed reward discounting, and behavioral economic demand for alcohol use. Participants were 273 regularly drinking undergraduate students. Frequency of CAB use was assessed over the past month. A multidimensional assessment of impulsivity included the UPPS-P questionnaire, which measures positive and negative urgency, premeditation (lack thereof), perseverance (lack thereof), and sensation seeking (Lynam, Smith, Whiteside, & Cyders, 2007), and a validated questionnaire-based measure of delayed reward discounting. Demand was assessed via a hypothetical alcohol purchase task. Frequency of CAB consumption was significantly higher in men than in women and was also associated with higher impulsivity on the majority of the UPPS-P subscales, steeper delayed reward discounting, and greater demand for alcohol. Significant correlations between CAB use and both alcohol demand and lack of premeditation remained present after including level of alcohol misuse in partial correlations. In a hierarchical linear regression incorporating demographic, demand, and impulsivity variables, CAB frequency continued to be a significant predictor of hazardous alcohol use. These results suggest that although there are significant associations between CAB consumption and gender, impulsivity, and alcohol demand, CAB use continues to be associated with alcohol misuse after controlling for these variables.
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Effects Of Methylphenidate And Morphine On Delay-Discount Functions Obtained Within Sessions
Pitts, Raymond C; McKinney, A. Patrick
2005-01-01
Four rats responded under a “self-control” procedure designed to obtain delay-discount functions within sessions. Each session consisted of seven blocks, with seven trials within each block. Each block consisted of two initial forced-choice trials followed by five free-choice trials. On choice trials, the rats could press either of two retractable levers. A press on one lever was followed by presentation of a smaller reinforcer (a single dipper presentation of a sucrose solution); a press on the other lever was followed by presentation of a larger reinforcer (four consecutive dipper presentations). The delay associated with the smaller reinforcer always was 0 s, whereas the signaled delay associated with the larger reinforcer increased across blocks (from 0 to 50 s). Under these conditions, the percentage of choices of the larger reinforcer decreased across blocks, and relatively reliable delay-discount functions were obtained within sessions. Doses of methylphenidate (1.0 to 17.0 mg/kg) and morphine (0.3 to 17.0 mg/kg) were then administered prior to selected sessions. Typically, intermediate doses of methylphenidate shifted the discount functions to the right (increased choices of the larger reinforcer). For 2 of the rats, this effect was pronounced; for the other 2 rats, this effect occurred after the range of delays for the larger reinforcer was decreased (0 to 20 s). On the other hand, in most cases morphine produced a slight leftward shift in the discount function (decreased choices of the larger reinforcer). The present procedure appears to be a useful and efficient method to characterize drug effects on an entire delay-discount function. As with many procedures used to study self-control choices, however, sources of control other than reinforcement delay and amount may have been operating in the present study, and these sources must be considered when interpreting drug effects. PMID:16047609
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Cheng, Ying-Yao; Shein, Paichi Pat; Chiou, Wen-Bin
2012-02-01
People's willingness to postpone receiving an immediate reward in order to gain additional benefits in the future, that is, a tendency to shallow delay discounting, is closely related to one's health, wealth, and happiness. We conducted two experiments investigating how the prospect concept can induce a future-oriented mindset and induce people to behave accordingly. We found that engaging in prospective imagery led the participants to focus on delayed utility over immediate utility in financial decisions (Experiment 1). Participants who received the prospect prime via a scrambled-sentence task decreased their desire to pursue hedonic activities for instant gratification (Experiment 2). Moreover, a state of future orientation mediated the effect of the prospect prime on measures of delayed gratification (Experiments 1 and 2). Thus, reminders of prospect may activate a mindset for future orientation by which delayed gratification is strengthened. ©2011 The British Psychological Society.
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Reed, Derek D; Kaplan, Brent A; Brewer, Adam T
2012-01-01
In recent years, researchers and practitioners in the behavioral sciences have profited from a growing literature on delay discounting. The purpose of this article is to provide readers with a brief tutorial on how to use Microsoft Office Excel 2010 and Excel for Mac 2011 to analyze discounting data to yield parameters for both the hyperbolic discounting model and area under the curve. This tutorial is intended to encourage the quantitative analysis of behavior in both research and applied settings by readers with relatively little formal training in nonlinear regression.
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A TUTORIAL ON THE USE OF EXCEL 2010 AND EXCEL FOR MAC 2011 FOR CONDUCTING DELAY-DISCOUNTING ANALYSES
Reed, Derek D; Kaplan, Brent A; Brewer, Adam T
2012-01-01
In recent years, researchers and practitioners in the behavioral sciences have profited from a growing literature on delay discounting. The purpose of this article is to provide readers with a brief tutorial on how to use Microsoft Office Excel 2010 and Excel for Mac 2011 to analyze discounting data to yield parameters for both the hyperbolic discounting model and area under the curve. This tutorial is intended to encourage the quantitative analysis of behavior in both research and applied settings by readers with relatively little formal training in nonlinear regression. PMID:22844143
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Botanas, Chrislean Jun; Lee, Hyelim; de la Peña, June Bryan; Dela Peña, Irene Joy; Woo, Taeseon; Kim, Hee Jin; Han, Doug Hyun; Kim, Bung-Nyun; Cheong, Jae Hoon
2016-03-01
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder, characterized by symptoms of hyperactivity, inattention, and impulsivity. It is commonly treated with psychostimulants that typically begins during childhood and lasts for an extended period of time. However, there are concerns regarding the consequences of chronic psychostimulant treatment; thus, there is a growing search for an alternative management for ADHD. One non-pharmacological management that is gaining much interest is environmental enrichment. Here, we investigated the effects of rearing in an enriched environment (EE) on the expression of ADHD-like symptoms in the Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats (SHRs), an animal model of ADHD. SHRs were reared in EE or standard environment (SE) from post-natal day (PND) 21 until PND 49. Thereafter, behavioral tests that measure hyperactivity (open field test [OFT]), inattention (Y-maze task), and impulsivity (delay discounting task) were conducted. Additionally, electroencephalography (EEG) was employed to assess the effects of EE on rat's brain activity. Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats, the normotensive counterpart of the SHRs, were used to determine whether the effects of EE were specific to a particular genetic background. EE improved the performance of the SHRs and WKY rats in the OFT and Y-maze task, but not the delay discounting task. Interestingly, EE induced significant EEG changes in WKY rats, but not in the SHRs. These findings show that rearing environment may play a role in the expression of ADHD-like symptoms in the SHRs and that EE may be considered as a putative complementary approach in managing ADHD symptoms. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Dong, Debo; Wang, Yulin; Jackson, Todd; Chen, Shuaiyu; Wang, Yu; Zhou, Feng; Chen, Hong
2016-10-01
Theory and associated research indicate that people with elevated restrained eating (RE) scores have higher risk for binge eating, future bulimic symptom onset and weight gain. Previous imaging studies have suggested hyper-responsive reward brain area activation in response to food cues contributes to this risk but little is known about associated neural impulse control mechanisms, especially when considering links between depleted cognitive resources related to unsuccessful RE. Towards illuminating this issue, we used a chocolate-specific delayed discounting (DD) task to investigate relations between RE scores, behavior impulsivity, and corresponding neural impulse control correlates in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of 27 young women. Specifically, participants were required to choose between more immediate, smaller versus delayed, larger hypothetical chocolate rewards following initial consumption of a chocolate. As predicted, RE scores were correlated positively with behavior impulse control levels. More critically, higher RE scores were associated with stronger activation in impulse control region, the dorsal-lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during the completion of difficult decision trials reflecting higher cognitive demands and resource depletion relative to easy decision trials. Exploratory analyses revealed a positive correlation between RE scores and activity in a reward system hub, the right striatum. Moreover, a positive correlation between left DLPFC and striatum activation was posited to reflect, in part, impulse control region compensation in response to stronger reward signal among women with RE elevations. Findings suggested impulse control lapses may contribute to difficulties in maintaining RE, particularly when cognitive demands are high. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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Sweeney, Mary M.; Johnson, Patrick S.; Johnson, Matthew W.; Griffiths, Roland R.
2016-01-01
Background: Energy drink use is associated with increased risk behavior among adolescents and college students. This study examined this relationship in a nationwide sample of young adults and also examined relations between energy drink use and delay discounting. Methods: Participants were 874 U.S. adults 18–28 years of age with past 30-day consumption of caffeine and alcohol. Participants completed an online survey of energy drink use, drug use, sexual activity, alcohol misuse (alcohol use disorders identification test [AUDIT]), sensation seeking (four-item Brief Sensation Seeking Scale [BSSS-4]), and delay discounting of monetary rewards and condom use. Results: Over one-third of participants (n = 303) reported consuming energy drinks at least once per week. Weekly energy drink users were more likely than less-than-weekly energy drink users to report a recent history of risk behaviors, including cigarette smoking (56% vs. 28%, p < 0.0001), illicit stimulant use (22% vs. 6%, p < 0.0001), and unprotected sex (63% vs. 45%, p < 0.0001). Covariate-adjusted analyses found that weekly energy drink users did not have significantly higher BSSS-4 scores (3.5 vs. 3.1, p = 0.098), but they had higher mean AUDIT scores (8.0 vs. 4.8, p < 0.0001), and they more steeply discounted delayed monetary rewards. Although weekly energy drink users did not show steeper discounting of delayed condom use, they showed a lower likelihood of using a condom when one was immediately available. Conclusions: This study extends findings that energy drink use is associated with risk behavior, and it is the first study to show that energy drink use is associated with monetary delay discounting. PMID:26989563
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Meredith, Steven E; Sweeney, Mary M; Johnson, Patrick S; Johnson, Matthew W; Griffiths, Roland R
2016-03-01
Background: Energy drink use is associated with increased risk behavior among adolescents and college students. This study examined this relationship in a nationwide sample of young adults and also examined relations between energy drink use and delay discounting. Methods: Participants were 874 U.S. adults 18-28 years of age with past 30-day consumption of caffeine and alcohol. Participants completed an online survey of energy drink use, drug use, sexual activity, alcohol misuse (alcohol use disorders identification test [AUDIT]), sensation seeking (four-item Brief Sensation Seeking Scale [BSSS-4]), and delay discounting of monetary rewards and condom use. Results: Over one-third of participants ( n = 303) reported consuming energy drinks at least once per week. Weekly energy drink users were more likely than less-than-weekly energy drink users to report a recent history of risk behaviors, including cigarette smoking (56% vs. 28%, p < 0.0001), illicit stimulant use (22% vs. 6%, p < 0.0001), and unprotected sex (63% vs. 45%, p < 0.0001). Covariate-adjusted analyses found that weekly energy drink users did not have significantly higher BSSS-4 scores (3.5 vs. 3.1, p = 0.098), but they had higher mean AUDIT scores (8.0 vs. 4.8, p < 0.0001), and they more steeply discounted delayed monetary rewards. Although weekly energy drink users did not show steeper discounting of delayed condom use, they showed a lower likelihood of using a condom when one was immediately available. Conclusions: This study extends findings that energy drink use is associated with risk behavior, and it is the first study to show that energy drink use is associated with monetary delay discounting.
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Delay Discounting of Video Game Players: Comparison of Time Duration Among Gamers
Sprong, Matthew E.; Lloyd, Daniel P.; Cutter, Christopher J.; Printz, Destiny M.B.; Sullivan, Ryan M.; Moore, Brent A.
2017-01-01
Abstract Video game addiction or Internet game disorder, as proposed by the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition), has similar criterion characteristics to other impulse control disorders. There is limited research examining video game addiction within a behavioral economic framework using delay discounting. The current study evaluated delay-discounting patterns of money and video game play by usual weekly hours of video game play. A total of 104 participants were split into 1 of 3 groups of video game players (low, medium, and high) and were asked to complete a monetary and video game discounting procedure through an online survey. Results showed significant differences between groups within both the monetary (p = 0.003) and video game discounting procedures (p = 0.004). Additionally, a positive linear relationship was noted between the groups across both procedures. The results of the current article reinforce previous findings that more hours of video game use are associated with greater impulsivity and provide implications for future research. PMID:28118044
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Delay Discounting of Video Game Players: Comparison of Time Duration Among Gamers.
Buono, Frank D; Sprong, Matthew E; Lloyd, Daniel P; Cutter, Christopher J; Printz, Destiny M B; Sullivan, Ryan M; Moore, Brent A
2017-02-01
Video game addiction or Internet game disorder, as proposed by the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition), has similar criterion characteristics to other impulse control disorders. There is limited research examining video game addiction within a behavioral economic framework using delay discounting. The current study evaluated delay-discounting patterns of money and video game play by usual weekly hours of video game play. A total of 104 participants were split into 1 of 3 groups of video game players (low, medium, and high) and were asked to complete a monetary and video game discounting procedure through an online survey. Results showed significant differences between groups within both the monetary (p = 0.003) and video game discounting procedures (p = 0.004). Additionally, a positive linear relationship was noted between the groups across both procedures. The results of the current article reinforce previous findings that more hours of video game use are associated with greater impulsivity and provide implications for future research.
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Matusiewicz, Alexis K; Carter, Anne E; Landes, Reid D; Yi, Richard
2013-11-01
Delay discounting (DD) and probability discounting (PD) refer to the reduction in the subjective value of outcomes as a function of delay and uncertainty, respectively. Elevated measures of discounting are associated with a variety of maladaptive behaviors, and confidence in the validity of these measures is imperative. The present research examined (1) the statistical equivalence of discounting measures when rewards were hypothetical or real, and (2) their 1-week reliability. While previous research has partially explored these issues using the low threshold of nonsignificant difference, the present study fully addressed this issue using the more-compelling threshold of statistical equivalence. DD and PD measures were collected from 28 healthy adults using real and hypothetical $50 rewards during each of two experimental sessions, one week apart. Analyses using area-under-the-curve measures revealed a general pattern of statistical equivalence, indicating equivalence of real/hypothetical conditions as well as 1-week reliability. Exceptions are identified and discussed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Concave utility, transaction costs, and risk in measuring discounting of delayed rewards.
Kirby, Kris N; Santiesteban, Mariana
2003-01-01
Research has consistently found that the decline in the present values of delayed rewards as delay increases is better fit by hyperbolic than by exponential delay-discounting functions. However, concave utility, transaction costs, and risk each could produce hyperbolic-looking data, even when the underlying discounting function is exponential. In Experiments 1 (N = 45) and 2 (N = 103), participants placed bids indicating their present values of real future monetary rewards in computer-based 2nd-price auctions. Both experiments suggest that utility is not sufficiently concave to account for the superior fit of hyperbolic functions. Experiment 2 provided no evidence that the effects of transaction costs and risk are large enough to account for the superior fit of hyperbolic functions.
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Kahn, Rachel E; Holmes, Christopher; Farley, Julee P; Kim-Spoon, Jungmeen
2015-09-01
Parent-adolescent relationship quality and delay discounting may play important roles in adolescents' sexual decision making processes, and levels of self-control during adolescence could act as a buffer within these factors. This longitudinal study included 219 adolescent (55 % male; mean age = 12.66 years at Wave 1; mean age = 15.10 years at Wave 2) and primary caregiver dyads. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to determine whether delay discounting mediated the association between parent-adolescent relationship quality and adolescents' risky sexual behavior and how this mediated association may differ between those with high versus low self-control. The results revealed parent-adolescent relationship quality plays a role in the development of risky sexual behavior indirectly through levels of delay discounting, but only for adolescents with low self-control. These findings could inform sex education policies and health prevention programs that address adolescent risky sexual behavior.
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Epstein, Leonard H; Jankowiak, Noelle; Lin, Henry; Paluch, Rocco; Koffarnus, Mikhail N; Bickel, Warren K
2014-01-01
Background: Low income is related to food insecurity, and research has suggested that a scarcity of resources associated with low income can shift attention to the present, thereby discounting the future. Objective: We tested whether attending to the present and discounting the future may moderate the influence of income on food insecurity. Design: Delay discounting and measures of future time perspective (Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory, Consideration of Future Consequences Scale, time period of financial planning, and subjective probability of living to age 75 y) were studied as moderators of the relation between income and food insecurity in a diverse sample of 975 adults, 31.8% of whom experienced some degree of food insecurity. Results: Income, financial planning, subjective probability of living to age 75 y, and delay discounting predicted food insecurity as well as individuals who were high in food insecurity. Three-way interactions showed that delay discounting interacted with financial planning and income to predict food insecurity (P = 0.003). At lower levels of income, food insecurity was lowest for subjects who had good financial planning skills and did not discount the future, whereas having good financial skills and discounting the future had minimal influence on food insecurity. The same 3-way interaction was observed when high food insecurity was predicted (P = 0.008). Conclusion: Because of the role of scarce resources on narrowing attention and reducing prospective thinking, research should address whether modifying future orientation may reduce food insecurity even in the face of diminishing financial resources. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02099812. PMID:25008855
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Peisker, Canan B; Schüller, Thomas; Peters, Jan; Wagner, Ben J; Schilbach, Leonhard; Müller, Ulf J; Visser-Vandewalle, Veerle; Kuhn, Jens
2018-01-27
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the nucleus accumbens (NAc) shows first promising results in patients with severe substance use disorder (SUD), a patient group known to have deficits in self-control. One facet of self-control is the ability to forego smaller sooner rewards in favor of larger later rewards (delay discounting, DD). The NAc has been suggested to integrate motivational information to guide behavior while the consequences of NAc-DBS on DD are unknown. To this end, nine patients with SUD performed a DD task with DBS on and after a 24 h DBS off period. Furthermore, 18 healthy controls were measured to assess possible alterations in DD in patients with SUD. Our findings implicate that DD was not significantly modulated by NAc-DBS and also that patients with SUD did not differ from healthy controls. While null results must be interpreted with caution, the commonly observed association of impaired DD in SUD might suggest a long-term effect of NAc-DBS that was not sufficiently modulated by a 24 h DBS off period.
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Domain independence and stability in young and older adults' discounting of delayed rewards
Jimura, Koji; Myerson, Joel; Hilgard, Joseph; Keighley, Julia; Braver, Todd S.; Green, Leonard
2011-01-01
Individual discounting rates for different types of delayed reward are typically assumed to reflect a single, underlying trait of impulsivity. Recently, we showed that discounting rates are orders of magnitude steeper for directly consumable liquid rewards than for monetary rewards (Jimura et al. 2009), raising the question of whether discounting rates for different types of reward covary at the individual level. Accordingly, the present study examined the relation between discounting of hypothetical money and real liquid rewards in young adults (Experiment 1) and older adults (Experiment 2). At the group level, young adults discounted monetary rewards more steeply than the older adults, but the reverse pattern was observed with liquid rewards. At the individual level, the rates at which young and older participants discounted each reward type were stable over a two- to fifteen-week interval (rs >.70), but there was no significant correlation between the rates at which they discounted the two reward types. These results suggest that although similar decision-making processes may underlie the discounting of different types of rewards, the rates at which individuals discount money and directly consumable rewards may reflect separate, stable traits, rather than a single trait of impulsivity. PMID:21550384
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Cherniawsky, Avital S; Holroyd, Clay B
2013-03-01
Impulsivity is characterized in part by heightened sensitivity to immediate relative to future rewards. Although previous research has suggested that "high discounters" in intertemporal choice tasks tend to prefer immediate over future rewards because they devalue the latter, it remains possible that they instead overvalue immediate rewards. To investigate this question, we recorded the reward positivity, a component of the event-related brain potential (ERP) associated with reward processing, with participants engaged in a task in which they received both immediate and future rewards and nonrewards. The participants also completed a temporal discounting task without ERP recording. We found that immediate but not future rewards elicited the reward positivity. High discounters also produced larger reward positivities to immediate rewards than did low discounters, indicating that high discounters relatively overvalued immediate rewards. These findings suggest that high discounters may be more motivated than low discounters to work for monetary rewards, irrespective of the time of arrival of the incentives.
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A Delay Discounting Model of Psychotherapy Termination
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Swift, Joshua K.; Callahan, Jennifer L.
2009-01-01
Delay discounting (DD) procedures are emerging as an important new method for psychotherapy researchers. In this paper a framework for conceptualizing existing, seemingly discrepant, research findings on termination is introduced and new directions for research are described. To illustrate the value of a DD framework, the common psychotherapy…
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Peper, Jiska S.; Mandl, René C.W.; Braams, Barbara R.; de Water, Erik; Heijboer, Annemieke C.; Koolschijn, P. Cédric M.P.; Crone, Eveline A.
2013-01-01
Delay discounting, a measure of impulsive choice, has been associated with decreased control of the prefrontal cortex over striatum responses. The anatomical connectivity between both brain regions in delaying gratification remains unknown. Here, we investigate whether the quality of frontostriatal (FS) white matter tracts can predict individual differences in delay-discounting behavior. We use tract-based diffusion tensor imaging and magnetization transfer imaging to measure the microstructural properties of FS fiber tracts in 40 healthy young adults (from 18 to 25 years). We additionally explored whether internal sex hormone levels affect the integrity of FS tracts, based on the hypothesis that sex hormones modulate axonal density within prefrontal dopaminergic circuits. We calculated fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), longitudinal diffusivity, radial diffusivity (RD), and magnetization transfer ratio (MTR), a putative measure of myelination, for the FS tract. Results showed that lower integrity within the FS tract (higher MD and RD and lower FA), predicts faster discounting in both sexes. MTR was unrelated to delay-discounting performance. In addition, testosterone levels in males were associated with a lower integrity (higher RD) within the FS tract. Our study provides support for the hypothesis that enhanced structural integrity of white matter fiber bundles between prefrontal and striatal brain areas is associated with better impulse control. PMID:22693341
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Subjective costs drive overly patient foraging strategies in rats on an intertemporal foraging task.
Wikenheiser, Andrew M; Stephens, David W; Redish, A David
2013-05-14
Laboratory studies of decision making often take the form of two-alternative, forced-choice paradigms. In natural settings, however, many decision problems arise as stay/go choices. We designed a foraging task to test intertemporal decision making in rats via stay/go decisions. Subjects did not follow the rate-maximizing strategy of choosing only food items associated with short delays. Instead, rats were often willing to wait for surprisingly long periods, and consequently earned a lower rate of food intake than they might have by ignoring long-delay options. We tested whether foraging theory or delay discounting models predicted the behavior we observed but found that these models could not account for the strategies subjects selected. Subjects' behavior was well accounted for by a model that incorporated a cost for rejecting potential food items. Interestingly, subjects' cost sensitivity was proportional to environmental richness. These findings are at odds with traditional normative accounts of decision making but are consistent with retrospective considerations having a deleterious influence on decisions (as in the "sunk-cost" effect). More broadly, these findings highlight the utility of complementing existing assays of decision making with tasks that mimic more natural decision topologies.
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Subjective costs drive overly patient foraging strategies in rats on an intertemporal foraging task
Wikenheiser, Andrew M.; Stephens, David W.; Redish, A. David
2013-01-01
Laboratory studies of decision making often take the form of two-alternative, forced-choice paradigms. In natural settings, however, many decision problems arise as stay/go choices. We designed a foraging task to test intertemporal decision making in rats via stay/go decisions. Subjects did not follow the rate-maximizing strategy of choosing only food items associated with short delays. Instead, rats were often willing to wait for surprisingly long periods, and consequently earned a lower rate of food intake than they might have by ignoring long-delay options. We tested whether foraging theory or delay discounting models predicted the behavior we observed but found that these models could not account for the strategies subjects selected. Subjects’ behavior was well accounted for by a model that incorporated a cost for rejecting potential food items. Interestingly, subjects’ cost sensitivity was proportional to environmental richness. These findings are at odds with traditional normative accounts of decision making but are consistent with retrospective considerations having a deleterious influence on decisions (as in the “sunk-cost” effect). More broadly, these findings highlight the utility of complementing existing assays of decision making with tasks that mimic more natural decision topologies. PMID:23630289
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The impact of Parkinson's disease and subthalamic deep brain stimulation on reward processing.
Evens, Ricarda; Stankevich, Yuliya; Dshemuchadse, Maja; Storch, Alexander; Wolz, Martin; Reichmann, Heinz; Schlaepfer, Thomas E; Goschke, Thomas; Lueken, Ulrike
2015-08-01
Due to its position in cortico-subthalamic and cortico-striatal pathways, the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is considered to play a crucial role not only in motor, but also in cognitive and motivational functions. In the present study we aimed to characterize how different aspects of reward processing are affected by disease and deep brain stimulation of the STN (DBS-STN) in patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD). We compared 33 PD patients treated with DBS-STN under best medical treatment (DBS-on, medication-on) to 33 PD patients without DBS, but optimized pharmacological treatment and 34 age-matched healthy controls. We then investigated DBS-STN effects using a postoperative stimulation-on/ -off design. The task set included a delay discounting task, a task to assess changes in incentive salience attribution, and the Iowa Gambling Task. The presence of PD was associated with increased incentive salience attribution and devaluation of delayed rewards. Acute DBS-STN increased risky choices in the Iowa Gambling Task under DBS-on condition, but did not further affect incentive salience attribution or the evaluation of delayed rewards. Findings indicate that acute DBS-STN affects specific aspects of reward processing, including the weighting of gains and losses, while larger-scale effects of disease or medication are predominant in others reward-related functions. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Delay Discounting and Intelligence: A Meta-Analysis
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Shamosh, Noah A.; Gray, Jeremy R.
2008-01-01
Delay discounting (DD), the tendency to prefer smaller, sooner rewards to larger, later ones, is an important indicator of self-control. Assessments of DD superficially require individuals to make choices based on motivational processes. However, several lines of evidence suggest that DD may be systematically related to cognitive ability. We…
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Beckwith, Steven Wesley; Czachowski, Cristine Lynn
2016-01-01
Background Increased levels of impulsivity are associated with increased illicit drug use and alcoholism. Previous research in our lab has shown that increased levels of delay discounting (a decision-making form of impulsivity) are related to appetitive processes governing alcohol self-administration as opposed to purely consummatory processes. Specifically, the high seeking/high drinking alcohol preferring P rats showed increased delay discounting compared to nonselected Long Evans rats (LE) whereas the high drinking/moderate seeking HAD2 rats did not (Beckwith & Czachowski, 2014). The P rats also displayed a perseverative pattern of behavior such that during operant alcohol self-administration they exhibited greater resistance to extinction. Methods One explanation for the previous findings is that P rats have a deficit in response inhibition. The current study followed up on this possibility by utilizing a countermanding paradigm [stop signal reaction time (SSRT) task] followed by operant self-administration of alcohol across increasing fixed ratio requirements (FR; 1, 2, 5, 10 & 15 responses). In separate animals, 24hr access 2-bottle choice (10% EtOH vs. water) drinking was assessed. Results In the SSRT task, P rats exhibited an increased SSRT compared to both LE and HAD2 rats indicating a decrease in behavioral inhibition in the P rats. Also, P rats showed increased operant self-administration across all FRs and the greatest increase in responding with increasing FR requirements. Conversely, the HAD2 and LE had shorter SSRT, and lower levels of operant alcohol self-administration. However, for 2 bottle choice drinking HAD2s and P rats consumed more EtOH as well as had a greater preference for EtOH compared to LE. Conclusions These data extend previous findings showing the P rats to have increased delay discounting (decision-making impulsivity) and suggest that P rats also have a lack of behavioral inhibition (motor impulsivity). This supports the notion that P rats are a highly impulsive as well as “high seeking” model of alcoholism, and that the HAD2s elevated levels of alcohol consumption are not mediated via appetitive processes or impulsivity. PMID:27028842
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MacKillop, James; Miranda, Robert; Monti, Peter M.; Ray, Lara A.; Murphy, James G.; Rohsenow, Damaris J.; McGeary, John E.; Swift, Robert M.; Tidey, Jennifer W.; Gwaltney, Chad J.
2010-01-01
A behavioral economic approach to alcohol use disorders (AUDs) emphasizes both individual and environmental determinants of alcohol use. The current study examined individual differences in alcohol demand (i.e., motivation for alcohol under escalating conditions of price) and delayed reward discounting (i.e., preference for immediate small rewards compared to delayed larger rewards) in 61 heavy drinkers (62% with an AUD). In addition, based on theoretical accounts that emphasize the role of craving in reward valuation and preferences for immediate rewards, craving for alcohol was also examined in relation to these behavioral economic variables and the alcohol-related variables. Intensity of alcohol demand and delayed reward discounting were significantly associated with AUD symptoms, but not with quantitative measures of alcohol use, and were also moderately correlated with each other. Likewise, craving was significantly associated with AUD symptoms, but not with alcohol use, and was also significantly correlated with both intensity of demand and delayed reward discounting. These findings further emphasize the relevance of behavioral economic indices of motivation to alcohol use disorders and the potential importance of craving for alcohol in this relationship. PMID:20141247
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Incidental rewarding cues influence economic decisions in people with obesity.
Simmank, Jakob; Murawski, Carsten; Bode, Stefan; Horstmann, Annette
2015-01-01
Recent research suggests that obesity is linked to prominent alterations in learning and decision-making. This general difference may also underlie the preference for immediately consumable, highly palatable but unhealthy and high-calorie foods. Such poor food-related inter-temporal decision-making can explain weight gain; however, it is not yet clear whether this deficit can be generalized to other domains of inter-temporal decision-making, for example financial decisions. Further, little is known about the stability of decision-making behavior in obesity, especially in the presence of rewarding cues. To answer these questions, obese and lean participants (n = 52) completed two sessions of a novel priming paradigm including a computerized monetary delay discounting task. In the first session, general differences between groups in financial delay discounting were measured. In the second session, we tested the general stability of discount rates. Additionally, participants were primed by affective visual cues of different contextual categories before making financial decisions. We found that the obese group showed stronger discounting of future monetary rewards than the lean group, but groups did not differ in their general stability between sessions nor in their sensitivity toward changes in reward magnitude. In the obese group, a fast decrease of subjective value over time was directly related to a higher tendency for opportunistic eating. Obese in contrast to lean people were primed by the affective cues, showing a sex-specific pattern of priming direction. Our findings demonstrate that environments rich of cues, aiming at inducing unhealthy consumer decisions, can be highly detrimental for obese people. It also underscores that obesity is not merely a medical condition but has a strong cognitive component, meaning that current dietary and medical treatment strategies may fall too short.
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Incidental rewarding cues influence economic decisions in people with obesity
Simmank, Jakob; Murawski, Carsten; Bode, Stefan; Horstmann, Annette
2015-01-01
Recent research suggests that obesity is linked to prominent alterations in learning and decision-making. This general difference may also underlie the preference for immediately consumable, highly palatable but unhealthy and high-calorie foods. Such poor food-related inter-temporal decision-making can explain weight gain; however, it is not yet clear whether this deficit can be generalized to other domains of inter-temporal decision-making, for example financial decisions. Further, little is known about the stability of decision-making behavior in obesity, especially in the presence of rewarding cues. To answer these questions, obese and lean participants (n = 52) completed two sessions of a novel priming paradigm including a computerized monetary delay discounting task. In the first session, general differences between groups in financial delay discounting were measured. In the second session, we tested the general stability of discount rates. Additionally, participants were primed by affective visual cues of different contextual categories before making financial decisions. We found that the obese group showed stronger discounting of future monetary rewards than the lean group, but groups did not differ in their general stability between sessions nor in their sensitivity toward changes in reward magnitude. In the obese group, a fast decrease of subjective value over time was directly related to a higher tendency for opportunistic eating. Obese in contrast to lean people were primed by the affective cues, showing a sex-specific pattern of priming direction. Our findings demonstrate that environments rich of cues, aiming at inducing unhealthy consumer decisions, can be highly detrimental for obese people. It also underscores that obesity is not merely a medical condition but has a strong cognitive component, meaning that current dietary and medical treatment strategies may fall too short. PMID:26528158
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Wilmer, Henry H; Chein, Jason M
2016-10-01
Mobile electronic devices are playing an increasingly pervasive role in our daily activities. Yet, there has been very little empirical research investigating how mobile technology habits might relate to individual differences in cognition and affect. The research presented in this paper provides evidence that heavier investment in mobile devices is correlated with a relatively weaker tendency to delay gratification (as measured by a delay discounting task) and a greater inclination toward impulsive behavior (i.e., weaker impulse control, assessed behaviorally and through self-report) but is not related to individual differences in sensitivity to reward. Analyses further demonstrated that individual variation in impulse control mediates the relationship between mobile technology usage and delay of gratification. Although based on correlational results, these findings lend some backing to concerns that increased use of portable electronic devices could have negative impacts on impulse control and the ability to appropriately valuate delayed rewards.
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Role of delay-based reward in the spatial cooperation
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Wang, Xu-Wen; Nie, Sen; Jiang, Luo-Luo; Wang, Bing-Hong; Chen, Shi-Ming
2017-01-01
Strategy selection in games, a typical decision making, usually brings noticeable reward for players which have discounted value if the delay appears. The discounted value is measure: earning sooner with a small reward or later with a delayed larger reward. Here, we investigate effects of delayed rewards on the cooperation in structured population. It is found that delayed reward supports the spreading of cooperation in square lattice, small-world and random networks. In particular, intermediate reward differences between delays impel the highest cooperation level. Interestingly, cooperative individuals with the same delay time steps form clusters to resist the invasion of defects, and cooperative individuals with lowest delay reward survive because they form the largest clusters in the lattice.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
O'Hora, Denis; Carey, Rachel; Kervick, Aoife; Crowley, David; Dabrowski, Maciej
2016-02-01
People tend to discount rewards or losses that occur in the future. Such delay discounting has been linked to many behavioral and health problems, since people choose smaller short-term gains over greater long-term gains. We investigated whether the effect of delays on the subjective value of rewards is expressed in how people move when they make choices. Over 600 patrons of the RISK LAB exhibition hosted by the Science Gallery DublinTM played a short computer game in which they used a computer mouse to choose between amounts of money at various delays. Typical discounting effects were observed and decision dynamics indicated that choosing smaller short-term rewards became easier (i.e., shorter response times, tighter trajectories, less vacillation) as the delays until later rewards increased. Based on a sequence of choices, subjective values of delayed outcomes were estimated and decision dynamics during initial choices predicted these values. Decision dynamics are affected by subjective values of available options and thus provide a means to estimate such values.
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Contreras-Rodríguez, Oren; Albein-Urios, Natalia; Perales, José C; Martínez-Gonzalez, José M; Vilar-López, Raquel; Fernández-Serrano, María J; Lozano-Rojas, Oscar; Verdejo-García, Antonio
2015-12-01
To contrast functional connectivity on ventral and dorsal striatum networks in cocaine dependence relative to pathological gambling, via a resting-state functional connectivity approach; and to determine the association between cocaine dependence-related neuroadaptations indexed by functional connectivity and impulsivity, compulsivity and drug relapse. Cross-sectional study of 20 individuals with cocaine dependence (CD), 19 individuals with pathological gambling (PG) and 21 healthy controls (HC), and a prospective cohort study of 20 CD followed-up for 12 weeks to measure drug relapse. CD and PG were recruited through consecutive admissions to a public clinic specialized in substance addiction treatment (Centro Provincial de Drogodependencias) and a public clinic specialized in gambling treatment (AGRAJER), respectively; HC were recruited through community advertisement in the same area in Granada (Spain). Seed-based functional connectivity in the ventral striatum (ventral caudate and ventral putamen) and dorsal striatum (dorsal caudate and dorsal putamen), the Kirby delay-discounting questionnaire, the reversal-learning task and a dichotomous measure of cocaine relapse indicated with self-report and urine tests. CD relative to PG exhibit enhanced connectivity between the ventral caudate seed and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex, the ventral putamen seed and dorsomedial pre-frontal cortex and the dorsal putamen seed and insula (P≤0.001, kE=108). Connectivity between the ventral caudate seed and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex is associated with steeper delay discounting (P≤0.001, kE=108) and cocaine relapse (P≤0.005, kE=34). Cocaine dependence-related neuroadaptations in the ventral striatum of the brain network are associated with increased impulsivity and higher rate of cocaine relapse. © 2015 Society for the Study of Addiction.
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Zack, Martin; Cho, Sang Soo; Parlee, Jennifer; Jacobs, Mark; Li, Crystal; Boileau, Isabelle; Strafella, Antonio
Repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can reduce cravings and improve cognitive function in substance dependent individuals. Whether these benefits extend to individuals with pathological gambling (PG) is unclear. High-frequency rTMS of the medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) and continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) of the right dorsolateral PFC can reduce impulsive choice in healthy volunteers. This study aimed to assess the effects of these two protocols on gambling reinforcement and related responses in otherwise healthy men with PG. Participants (n = 9) underwent active or sham treatments at weekly intervals in a repeated-measures, Latin square design. Subjective and physiological responses were assessed before and after a 15-min slot machine game on each session. Delay discounting and Stroop tasks measured post-game impulsive choice and attentional control. Multivariate analysis of covariance, controlling for winnings on the slot machine under each treatment, found that rTMS reduced the post-game increase in Desire to Gamble; cTBS reduced amphetamine-like effects, and decreased diastolic blood pressure. Treatment had no significant univariate effects on bet size or speed of play in the game; however, a multivariate effect for the two indices suggested that treatment decreased behavioral activation. Neither treatment reduced impulsive choice, while both treatments increased Stroop interference. rTMS and cTBS can reduce gambling reinforcement in non-comorbid men with PG. Separate processes appear to mediate gambling reinforcement and betting behavior as against delay discounting and Stroop interference. Interventions that modify risky as opposed to temporal aspects of decision making may better predict therapeutic response in PG. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Domain independence and stability in young and older adults' discounting of delayed rewards.
Jimura, Koji; Myerson, Joel; Hilgard, Joseph; Keighley, Julia; Braver, Todd S; Green, Leonard
2011-07-01
Individual discounting rates for different types of delayed reward are typically assumed to reflect a single, underlying trait of impulsivity. Recently, we showed that discounting rates are orders of magnitude steeper for directly consumable liquid rewards than for monetary rewards (Jimura et al., 2009), raising the question of whether discounting rates for different types of reward covary at the individual level. Accordingly, the present study examined the relation between discounting of hypothetical money and real liquid rewards in young adults (Experiment 1) and older adults (Experiment 2). At the group level, young adults discounted monetary rewards more steeply than the older adults, but there was no significant age difference with respect to liquid rewards. At the individual level, the rates at which young and older participants discounted each reward type were stable over a two- to fifteen-week interval (rs>70), but there was no significant correlation between the rates at which they discounted the two reward types. These results suggest that although similar decision-making processes may underlie the discounting of different types of rewards, the rates at which individuals discount money and directly consumable rewards may reflect separate, stable traits, rather than a single trait of impulsivity. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Relation between Time Perspective and Delay Discounting: A Literature Review
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Teuscher, Ursina; Mitchell, Suzanne H.
2011-01-01
In this article, we examine the relation between delay discounting and future time perspective by reviewing how these concepts have been measured and quantified in order to assess their conceptual similarities. The extent to which the different measures are empirically related is reviewed by describing studies that have assessed both constructs…
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Time and Outcome Framing in Intertemporal Tradeoffs
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Scholten, Marc; Read, Daniel
2013-01-01
A robust anomaly in intertemporal choice is the delay-speedup asymmetry: Receipts are discounted more, and payments are discounted less, when delayed than when expedited over the same interval. We developed 2 versions of the tradeoff model (Scholten & Read, 2010) to address such situations, in which an outcome is expected at a given time but…
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Weatherly, Jeffrey N.
2012-01-01
Immediacy theory of schizophrenia posits that the behavior of individuals with schizophrenia is controlled to a greater degree by stimuli in the current environment relative to individuals without schizophrenia. Prior research supports this idea by finding that individuals with schizophrenia display steeper rates of delay discounting than those…
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Green, Leonard; Myerson, Joel; Shah, Anuj K.; Estle, Sara J.; Holt, Daniel D.
2007-01-01
The current experiment examined whether adjusting-amount and adjusting-delay procedures provide equivalent measures of discounting. Pigeons' discounting on the two procedures was compared using a within-subject yoking technique in which the indifference point (number of pellets or time until reinforcement) obtained with one procedure determined…
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Białek, Michał; Markiewicz, Łukasz; Sawicki, Przemysław
2015-01-01
The delayed lotteries are much more common in everyday life than are pure lotteries. Usually, we need to wait to find out the outcome of the risky decision (e.g., investing in a stock market, engaging in a relationship). However, most research has studied the time discounting and probability discounting in isolation using the methodologies designed specifically to track changes in one parameter. Most commonly used method is adjusting, but its reported validity and time stability in research on discounting are suboptimal. The goal of this study was to introduce the novel method for analyzing delayed lotteries-conjoint analysis-which hypothetically is more suitable for analyzing individual preferences in this area. A set of two studies compared the conjoint analysis with adjusting. The results suggest that individual parameters of discounting strength estimated with conjoint have higher predictive value (Study 1 and 2), and they are more stable over time (Study 2) compared to adjusting. We discuss these findings, despite the exploratory character of reported studies, by suggesting that future research on delayed lotteries should be cross-validated using both methods.
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Social time preferences for health and money elicited with a choice experiment.
Meerding, Willem Jan; Bonsel, Gouke J; Brouwer, Werner B F; Stuifbergen, Marja C; Essink-Bot, Marie-Louise
2010-01-01
In economic evaluations future health and monetary outcomes are commonly discounted at equal and constant rates. The theoretical foundation of this practice is being debated and appropriate discount rates for costs and health effects are sought. Here, we have derived social discount rates for health, money, and environmental benefits by means of a choice experiment. All choices were framed from a social perspective. We investigated differences in time preference by domain (health, monetary benefits, environmental benefits), time delay (5, 10, and 40 years), and respondent characteristics. Respondents were 173 health-care professionals and 34 health policymakers. Choice titration was used to determine when the respondent was indifferent between future and present benefits. At least two-thirds of respondents preferred an intervention with immediate benefits to delayed benefits in the different domains. The median (mean) yearly discount rates for health benefits were 2.7% (10.7%), 1.3% (3.5%), and 1.1% (2.3%) assuming a 5, 10, and 40 years delay, respectively. Social time preference for monetary benefits was significantly stronger, with median (mean) yearly discount rates of 6.6% (18.7%) and 4.8% (11.2%) assuming a 5 and 10 years delay, respectively. The social time preference with regard to environmental benefits was similar to the monetary benefits. Social time preference for the different domains was significantly correlated at the individual level. The empirically derived social time preference is in line with current theoretical arguments for a lower discount rate for health benefits than for monetary benefits. Moreover, the implied median discount rates for health were lower than those commonly used or advocated in guidelines.
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Sze, Yan Yan; Stein, Jeffrey S; Bickel, Warren K; Paluch, Rocco A; Epstein, Leonard H
2017-07-01
Obesity is associated with steep discounting of the future and increased food reinforcement. Episodic future thinking (EFT), a type of prospective thinking, has been observed to reduce delay discounting (DD) and improve dietary decision making. In contrast, negative income shock (i.e., abrupt transitions to poverty) has been shown to increase discounting and may worsen dietary decision-making. Scalability of EFT training and protective effects of EFT against simulated negative income shock on DD and demand for food were assessed. In two experiments we showed online-administered EFT reliably reduced DD. Furthermore, EFT reduced DD and demand for fast foods even when challenged by negative income shock. Our findings suggest EFT is a scalable intervention that has implications for improving public health by reducing discounting of the future and demand for high energy dense food.
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Gray, Joshua C; Amlung, Michael T; Palmer, Abraham A; MacKillop, James
2016-09-01
The 27-item Monetary Choice Questionnaire (MCQ; Kirby, Petry, & Bickel, 1999) and 30-item Probability Discounting Questionnaire (PDQ; Madden, Petry, & Johnson, 2009) are widely used, validated measures of preferences for immediate versus delayed rewards and guaranteed versus risky rewards, respectively. The MCQ measures delayed discounting by asking individuals to choose between rewards available immediately and larger rewards available after a delay. The PDQ measures probability discounting by asking individuals to choose between guaranteed rewards and a chance at winning larger rewards. Numerous studies have implicated these measures in addiction and other health behaviors. Unlike typical self-report measures, the MCQ and PDQ generate inferred hyperbolic temporal and probability discounting functions by comparing choice preferences to arrays of functions to which the individual items are preconfigured. This article provides R and SPSS syntax for processing the MCQ and PDQ. Specifically, for the MCQ, the syntax generates k values, consistency of the inferred k, and immediate choice ratios; for the PDQ, the syntax generates h indices, consistency of the inferred h, and risky choice ratios. The syntax is intended to increase the accessibility of these measures, expedite the data processing, and reduce risk for error. © 2016 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.
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Orbitofrontal reward sensitivity and impulsivity in adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Wilbertz, Gregor; van Elst, Ludger Tebartz; Delgado, Mauricio R; Maier, Simon; Feige, Bernd; Philipsen, Alexandra; Blechert, Jens
2012-03-01
Impulsivity symptoms of adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) such as increased risk taking have been linked with impaired reward processing. Previous studies have focused on reward anticipation or on rewarded executive functioning tasks and have described a striatal hyporesponsiveness and orbitofrontal alterations in adult and adolescent ADHD. Passive reward delivery and its link to behavioral impulsivity are less well understood. To study this crucial aspect of reward processing we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) combined with electrodermal assessment in male and female adult ADHD patients (N=28) and matched healthy control participants (N=28) during delivery of monetary and non-monetary rewards. Further, two behavioral tasks assessed risky decision making (game of dice task) and delay discounting. Results indicated that both groups activated ventral and dorsal striatum and the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) in response to high-incentive (i.e. monetary) rewards. A similar, albeit less strong activation pattern was found for low-incentive (i.e. non-monetary) rewards. Group differences emerged when comparing high and low incentive rewards directly: activation in the mOFC coded for the motivational change in reward delivery in healthy controls, but not ADHD patients. Additionally, this dysfunctional mOFC activity in patients correlated with risky decision making and delay discounting and was paralleled by physiological arousal. Together, these results suggest that the mOFC codes reward value and type in healthy individuals whereas this function is deficient in ADHD. The brain-behavior correlations suggest that this deficit might be related to behavioral impulsivity. Reward value processing difficulties in ADHD should be considered when assessing reward anticipation and emotional learning in research and applied settings. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Sex differences in time perception during smoking abstinence.
Ashare, Rebecca L; Kable, Joseph W
2015-04-01
Nicotine withdrawal leads to impulsive decision-making, which reflects a preference for smaller, immediate rewards and often prompts a relapse to smoking. The mechanism by which nicotine withdrawal leads to impulsive decision-making is not well known. An essential dimension of decision-making is time perception. Impulsive decisions reflect intolerance of temporal delays and the perception that time is passing more slowly. Sex may be an important factor in impulsive decision-making and time perception, but no studies have investigated whether sex moderates the effects of nicotine withdrawal on impulsive decision-making and time perception. Thirty-three (12 female) adult smokers completed 2 laboratory sessions: following 24-hr abstinence and once smoking-as-usual (order counterbalanced, abstinence biochemically verified). Participants completed 2 time perception tasks, a decision-making task, and self-report measures of craving, withdrawal, and mood. During time reproduction, males overestimated time during abstinence compared to smoking, whereas there was no session effect for females. On the time discrimination task, smokers were less accurate during abstinence, and this effect tended to be stronger among females. In general, males had higher discounting rates compared with females, but there was no effect of abstinence. The current data suggest that the effect of abstinence on time perception may be stronger in males and that males generally exhibit steeper delay discounting rates. Time perception may be an important mechanism in smoking abstinence. Our future work will investigate the role of time perception in smoking relapse and whether this is moderated by sex. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
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Krmpotich, Theodore; Mikulich-Gilbertson, Susan; Sakai, Joseph; Thompson, Laetitia; Banich, Marie T; Tanabe, Jody
2015-01-01
Substance use disorder is characterized by impaired decision making, impulsivity, and risk taking. Pathological gambling shares many of these characteristics, and having both diagnoses may be associated with greater problems than either diagnosis alone. We investigated whether among substance-dependent individuals, comorbid pathological gambling would be associated with worse decision making, greater impulsivity, risk taking, and drug severity. Ninety-six substance-dependent individuals were recruited from a residential treatment program and divided into 1 of the 2 groups depending on whether they met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, criteria for pathological gambling (SDPG, n = 26) or not (SD, n = 70). Ninety-two controls were recruited from the community. Participants completed a decision-making task (modified Iowa Gambling Task), measures of impulsivity (Barratt Impulsivity Scale and Delay Discounting), and risk taking (Balloon Analog Risk Task). Decision making was analyzed using a computational model. We tested for group differences using analysis of covariance or Kruskal-Wallis and appropriate post-hoc tests. The groups differed in decision-making parameters (P < 0.001) and self-reported impulsivity (P < 0.001). All post-hoc comparisons were significant on these measures, and indicated stepwise changes in controls, followed by SD, followed by SDPG, with SDPG performing worse on decision making and being more impulsive. Compared with SD, SDPG had greater drug severity (P < 0.001). No group differences were observed in delay discounting or risk taking. Compared with individuals with substance dependence without pathological gambling, those with both disorders demonstrated worse decision making and significantly more drug-related symptoms. When evaluating patients with substance dependence, clinicians should consider diagnostic assessments for gambling, as the co-occurrence of both disorders may impact clinical characteristics.
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Marchetti, Antonella; Castelli, Ilaria; Sanvito, Laura; Massaro, Davide
2014-01-01
Intertemporal choice is a decision-making dilemma related to outcomes of different entity located at different time points. Economic and psychological literature on this topic showed the phenomen of temporal discounting, i.e., the proclivity to devalue the outcome distant in time on the basis of the time delay necessary to obtain it. The goals of this research are to investigate two different components of intertemporal choice separately, namely time and outcome, in school-age children, and the possible link among such components and the security of attachment style and theory of mind. Ninety one children aged between 6 and 10 years performed two intertemporal choice tasks, first and second order false belief tasks and the Separation Anxiety Task in the Family and School versions. Results showed that the two components of intertemporal choice (waiting tolerance and sensitivity to delayed outcome) are stately interrelated; the quality of the attachment to the family caregiver affects the tolerance to waiting time and first order false belief understanding affects both the components of intertemporal choice.
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Marchetti, Antonella; Castelli, Ilaria; Sanvito, Laura; Massaro, Davide
2014-01-01
Intertemporal choice is a decision-making dilemma related to outcomes of different entity located at different time points. Economic and psychological literature on this topic showed the phenomen of temporal discounting, i.e., the proclivity to devalue the outcome distant in time on the basis of the time delay necessary to obtain it. The goals of this research are to investigate two different components of intertemporal choice separately, namely time and outcome, in school-age children, and the possible link among such components and the security of attachment style and theory of mind. Ninety one children aged between 6 and 10 years performed two intertemporal choice tasks, first and second order false belief tasks and the Separation Anxiety Task in the Family and School versions. Results showed that the two components of intertemporal choice (waiting tolerance and sensitivity to delayed outcome) are stately interrelated; the quality of the attachment to the family caregiver affects the tolerance to waiting time and first order false belief understanding affects both the components of intertemporal choice. PMID:24904496
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O’Hora, Denis; Carey, Rachel; Kervick, Aoife; Crowley, David; Dabrowski, Maciej
2016-01-01
People tend to discount rewards or losses that occur in the future. Such delay discounting has been linked to many behavioral and health problems, since people choose smaller short-term gains over greater long-term gains. We investigated whether the effect of delays on the subjective value of rewards is expressed in how people move when they make choices. Over 600 patrons of the RISK LAB exhibition hosted by the Science Gallery DublinTM played a short computer game in which they used a computer mouse to choose between amounts of money at various delays. Typical discounting effects were observed and decision dynamics indicated that choosing smaller short-term rewards became easier (i.e., shorter response times, tighter trajectories, less vacillation) as the delays until later rewards increased. Based on a sequence of choices, subjective values of delayed outcomes were estimated and decision dynamics during initial choices predicted these values. Decision dynamics are affected by subjective values of available options and thus provide a means to estimate such values. PMID:26867497
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Can we use human judgments to determine the discount rate?
Baron, J
2000-12-01
It has been suggested that the long-term discount rate for environmental goods should decrease at longer delays. One justification for this suggestion is that human judgments support it. This article presents an experiment showing that judgments concerning discount rates are internally inconsistent. These results point to potential problems with the use of judgments referenda for determining discount rates in cost-benefit analyses.
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Curtis, Brian J; Williams, Paula G; Anderson, Jeffrey S
2018-05-30
1) Examine performance on an objective measure of reward-related cognitive impulsivity (delay discounting) among self-reported habitual short sleepers and medium (i.e., recommended 7-9 hours) length sleepers either reporting or not reporting daytime dysfunction; 2) Inform the debate regarding what type and duration of short sleep (e.g., 21 to 24 hours of total sleep deprivation, self-reported habitual short sleep duration) meaningfully influences cognitive impulsivity; 3) Compare the predictive utility of sleep duration and perceived dysfunction to other factors previously shown to influence cognitive impulsivity via delay discounting performance (age, income, education, and fluid intelligence). We analyzed data from 1,190 adults from the Human Connectome Project database. Participants were grouped on whether they reported habitual short (≤ 6 hours) vs. medium length (7-9 hours) sleep duration and whether they perceived daytime dysfunction using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. All short sleepers exhibited increased delay discounting compared to all medium length sleepers, regardless of perceived dysfunction. Of the variables examined, self-reported sleep duration was the strongest predictor of delay discounting behavior between groups and across all 1,190 participants. Individuals who report habitual short sleep are likely to exhibit increased reward-related cognitive impulsivity regardless of perceived sleep-related daytime impairment. Therefore, there is reason to suspect that these individuals exhibit more daytime dysfunction, in the form of reward-related cognitive impulsivity, than they may assume. Current findings suggest that assessment of sleep duration over the prior month has meaningful predictive utility for human reward-related impulsivity.
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Buspirone Reduces Sexual Risk-Taking Intent but not Cocaine Self-Administration
Bolin, B. Levi; Lile, Joshua A.; Marks, Katherine R.; Beckmann, Joshua S.; Rush, Craig R.; Stoops, William W.
2016-01-01
Impulsive sexual decision-making may underlie sexual risk-taking behavior that contributes to the disproportionately high prevalence of HIV infection among cocaine users. Delay-discounting procedures measure impulsive decision-making and may provide insight into the underlying mechanisms of sexual risk-taking behavior. The anxiolytic drug buspirone reduces delay discounting in rats and blunts the reinforcing effects of cocaine in some preclinical studies suggesting that it might have utility in the treatment of cocaine-use disorders. This study determined whether buspirone mitigates impulsive risky sexual decision-making in cocaine users on a sexual delay-discounting procedure. The effects of buspirone maintenance on the abuse-related and physiological effects of cocaine were also tested. Nine (N = 9) current cocaine users completed a repeated-measures, inpatient protocol in which sexual delay discounting was assessed following three days of maintenance on placebo and buspirone (30 mg/day) in counterbalanced order. The reinforcing, subject-rated, and physiological effects of placebo and intranasal cocaine (15 and 45 mg) were also assessed during buspirone and placebo maintenance. Buspirone increased the likelihood of condom use for hypothetical sexual partners that were categorized as most likely to have a sexually transmitted infection and least sexually desirable. Cocaine functioned as a reinforcer and increased positive subjective effects ratings, but buspirone maintenance did not impact these effects of cocaine. Buspirone was also safe and tolerable when combined with cocaine and may have blunted some its cardiovascular effects. The results from the sexual delay-discounting procedure indicate that buspirone may reduce preference for riskier sex in cocaine users. PMID:27254258
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Sweet taste liking is associated with impulsive behaviors in humans
Weafer, Jessica; Burkhardt, Anne; de Wit, Harriet
2014-01-01
Evidence from both human and animal studies suggests that sensitivity to rewarding stimuli is positively associated with impulsive behaviors, including both impulsive decision making and inhibitory control. The current study examined associations between the hedonic value of a sweet taste and two forms of impulsivity (impulsive choice and impulsive action) in healthy young adults (N = 100). Participants completed a sweet taste test in which they rated their liking of various sweetness concentrations. Subjects also completed measures of impulsive choice (delay discounting), and impulsive action (go/no-go task). Subjects who discounted more steeply (i.e., greater impulsive choice) liked the high sweetness concentration solutions more. By contrast, sweet liking was not related to impulsive action. These findings indicate that impulsive choice may be associated with heightened sensitivity to the hedonic value of a rewarding stimulus, and that these constructs might share common underlying neurobiological mechanisms. PMID:24987343
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Effects of Acute and Chronic Flunitrazepam on Delay Discounting in Pigeons
Eppolito, Amy K; France, Charles P; Gerak, Lisa R
2011-01-01
Delay to delivery of a reinforcer can decrease responding for that reinforcer and increase responding for smaller reinforcers that are available concurrently and delivered without delay; acute administration of drugs can alter responding for large, delayed reinforcers, although the impact of chronic treatment on delay discounting is not well understood. In this experiment, the effects of repeated administration of the benzodiazepine flunitrazepam were studied in 6 pigeons responding on one key to receive food that was delivered immediately and on a second key to receive a larger amount of food that was delivered following delays which increased across a single session. Pigeons responded predominantly for the large reinforcer when there were no delays and when delays were short; however, as delays increased, responding for the large reinforcer decreased. Acutely, flunitrazepam (0.32, 1.0 and 3.2 mg/kg) dose-dependently increased responding for the large reinforcer, shifting the discounting curve rightward and upward. Repeated administration of flunitrazepam (0.32, 1.0 and 3.2 mg/kg, each for six sessions, separated by one session during which vehicle was administered) did not markedly alter its effects on responding for the large reinforcer, indicating that the development of tolerance to this effect of flunitrazepam is modest under these conditions. PMID:21541119
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Białek, Michał; Markiewicz, Łukasz; Sawicki, Przemysław
2015-01-01
The delayed lotteries are much more common in everyday life than are pure lotteries. Usually, we need to wait to find out the outcome of the risky decision (e.g., investing in a stock market, engaging in a relationship). However, most research has studied the time discounting and probability discounting in isolation using the methodologies designed specifically to track changes in one parameter. Most commonly used method is adjusting, but its reported validity and time stability in research on discounting are suboptimal. The goal of this study was to introduce the novel method for analyzing delayed lotteries—conjoint analysis—which hypothetically is more suitable for analyzing individual preferences in this area. A set of two studies compared the conjoint analysis with adjusting. The results suggest that individual parameters of discounting strength estimated with conjoint have higher predictive value (Study 1 and 2), and they are more stable over time (Study 2) compared to adjusting. We discuss these findings, despite the exploratory character of reported studies, by suggesting that future research on delayed lotteries should be cross-validated using both methods. PMID:25674069
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Effects of amphetamine on delay discounting in rats depend upon the manner in which delay is varied
Maguire, David R; Henson, Cedric; France, Charles P
2014-01-01
Whether stimulant drugs like amphetamine increase or decrease choice of larger delayed reinforcers over smaller immediately available reinforcers under delay discounting procedures can depend on several factors, including the order in which delay is presented. This study examined whether the order of delay presentation impacts drug effects on discounting in rats (n=8) trained and tested under an ascending order, a descending order, as well as under a fixed delay condition. Responses on one lever delivered 1 food pellet immediately and responses on the other lever delivered 3 food pellets immediately or after a delay (4–32 s). In Experiment 1, the delay to the larger reinforcer varied within session and the order of delay presentation (ascending or descending) varied across conditions. In Experiment 2, the same delay value was presented in all blocks of the session (i.e., delay was fixed), and delay varied across phases. Under the ascending order of delay, amphetamine (0.32–1.78 mg/kg) increased choice of the larger reinforcer in some rats and decreased choice in others. In the same rats responding under the descending and fixed delay conditions, amphetamine markedly decreased choice of the larger reinforcer even in the component associated with no delay. In some subjects, the effects of amphetamine differed depending on the manner in which delay was presented, indicating that drug-induced changes in performance were due, in part, to mechanisms other than altered sensitivity to reinforcer delay. These results also suggest that a history of responding under both orders of delay presentation can modulate drug effects. PMID:24780379
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Is there time discounting for risk premium?
Shavit, Tal; Rosenboim, Mosi
2015-03-01
Individuals with a higher subjective discount rate concentrate more on the present and delay is more significant for them. However, when a risky asset is delayed, not only is the outcome delayed but also the risk. In this paper, we suggest a new, two-stage experimental method with real monetary incentives that allows us to distinguish between the effect of the risk and the effect of the time when pricing a risky asset. We show that when individuals have greater preference for the present, their risk aversion for a risky asset realized in the future decreases. We argue that the effect of the risk for future asset is lower for individuals with higher time preference because they discount not only the outcome but also the risks. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.
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Leroi, Iracema; Barraclough, Michelle; McKie, Shane; Hinvest, Neal; Evans, Jonathan; Elliott, Rebecca; McDonald, Kathryn
2013-09-01
The development of impulse control disorders (ICDs) in Parkinson's disease (PD) may arise from an interaction among cognitive impairment, impulsive responding and dopaminergic state. Dopaminergic state may be influenced by pharmacologic or genotypic (catechol-O-methyltransferase; COMT) factors. We sought to investigate this interaction further by comparing those with (n = 35) and without (n = 55) ICDs on delay-discounting in different pharmacologic conditions (ON or OFF dopaminergic medication) and on response inhibition as well as aspects of executive functioning in the ON state. We then undertook an exploratory sub-group analysis of these same tasks when the overall PD group was divided into different allelic variants of COMT (val/val vs. met/met). A healthy control group (HC; n = 20) was also included. We found that in those with PD and ICDs, 'cognitive flexibility' (set shifting, verbal fluency, and attention) in the ON medication state was not impaired compared with those without ICDs. In contrast, our working memory, or 'cognitive focus', task was impaired in both PD groups compared with the HC group when ON. During the delay-discounting task, the PD with ICDs group expressed greater impulsive choice compared with the PD group without ICDs, when in the ON, but not the OFF, medication state. However, no group difference on the response inhibition task was seen when ON. Finally, the met homozygous group performed differently on tests of executive function compared with the val homozygous group. We concluded that the disparity in levels of impairment among different domains of executive function and impulsive decision-making distinguishes those with ICD in PD from those without ICD, and may in part be affected by dopaminergic status. Both pharmacologic and genotypic influences on dopaminergic state may be important in ICD. © 2013 The British Psychological Society.
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Social Discounting and the Prisoner’s Dilemma Game
Locey, Matthew L.; Safin, Vasiliy; Rachlin, Howard
2014-01-01
Altruistic behavior has been defined in economic terms as “…costly acts that confer economic benefits on other individuals” (Fehr & Fischbacher, 2003). In a prisoner’s dilemma game, cooperation benefits the group but is costly to the individual (relative to defection), yet a significant number of players choose to cooperate. We propose that people do value rewards to others, albeit at a discounted rate (social discounting), in a manner similar to discounting of delayed rewards (delay discounting). Two experiments opposed the personal benefit from defection to the socially discounted benefit to others from cooperation. The benefit to others was determined from a social discount function relating the individual’s subjective value of a reward to another person and the social distance between that individual and the other person. In Experiment 1, the cost of cooperating was held constant while its social benefit was varied in terms of the number of other players, each gaining a fixed, hypothetical amount of money. In Experiment 2, the cost of cooperating was again held constant while the social benefit of cooperating was varied by the hypothetical amount of money earned by a single other player. In both experiments, significantly more participants cooperated when the social benefit was higher. PMID:23344990
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Transactional problem content in cost discounting: parallel effects for probability and delay.
Jones, Stephen; Oaksford, Mike
2011-05-01
Four experiments investigated the effects of transactional content on temporal and probabilistic discounting of costs. Kusev, van Schaik, Ayton, Dent, and Chater (2009) have shown that content other than gambles can alter decision-making behavior even when associated value and probabilities are held constant. Transactions were hypothesized to lead to similar effects because the cost to a purchaser always has a linked gain, the purchased commodity. Gain amount has opposite effects on delay and probabilistic discounting (e.g., Benzion, Rapoport, & Yagil, 1989; Green, Myerson, & Ostaszewski, 1999), a finding that is not consistent with descriptive decision theory (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979; Loewenstein & Prelec, 1992). However, little or no effect on discounting has been observed for losses or costs. Experiment 1, using transactions, showed parallel effects for temporal and probabilistic discounting: Smaller amounts were discounted more than large amounts. As the cost rises, people value the commodity more, and they consequently discount less. Experiment 2 ruled out a possible methodological cause for this effect. Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 1. Experiment 4, using gambles, showed no effect for temporal discounting, because of the absence of the linked gain, but the same effect for probabilistic discounting, because prospects implicitly introduce a linked gain (Green et al., 1999; Prelec & Loewenstein, 1991). As found by Kusev et al. (2009), these findings are not consistent with decision theory and suggest closer attention should be paid to the effects of content on decision making.
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Time management problems and discounted utility.
König, Cornelius J; Kleinmann, Martin
2007-05-01
The lens of behavioral decision theory offers a new perspective for research on time management. The basic idea of this approach is that people discount future consequences of their time management decisions, meaning that they work on tasks with smaller but sooner outcomes rather than on tasks with larger but later outcomes. The authors performed 2 experimental studies to test whether people are sensitive to differences in the discounted utility of time management decisions. In Experiment 1, they used vignettes of typical time management situations; Experiment 2 was a laboratory simulation (an in-basket task that was part of a training assessment). Participants in both studies were German students. As expected, manipulating the discounted utility of options resulted in different time management decisions. In Experiment 1, reactions to time management situations were judged as less likely if the reactions had lower discounted utilities. In Experiment 2, people spent less time on an interruption.
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Story, Giles W.; Vlaev, Ivo; Seymour, Ben; Darzi, Ara; Dolan, Raymond J.
2014-01-01
The tendency to make unhealthy choices is hypothesized to be related to an individual's temporal discount rate, the theoretical rate at which they devalue delayed rewards. Furthermore, a particular form of temporal discounting, hyperbolic discounting, has been proposed to explain why unhealthy behavior can occur despite healthy intentions. We examine these two hypotheses in turn. We first systematically review studies which investigate whether discount rates can predict unhealthy behavior. These studies reveal that high discount rates for money (and in some instances food or drug rewards) are associated with several unhealthy behaviors and markers of health status, establishing discounting as a promising predictive measure. We secondly examine whether intention-incongruent unhealthy actions are consistent with hyperbolic discounting. We conclude that intention-incongruent actions are often triggered by environmental cues or changes in motivational state, whose effects are not parameterized by hyperbolic discounting. We propose a framework for understanding these state-based effects in terms of the interplay of two distinct reinforcement learning mechanisms: a “model-based” (or goal-directed) system and a “model-free” (or habitual) system. Under this framework, while discounting of delayed health may contribute to the initiation of unhealthy behavior, with repetition, many unhealthy behaviors become habitual; if health goals then change, habitual behavior can still arise in response to environmental cues. We propose that the burgeoning development of computational models of these processes will permit further identification of health decision-making phenotypes. PMID:24659960
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Story, Giles W; Vlaev, Ivo; Seymour, Ben; Darzi, Ara; Dolan, Raymond J
2014-01-01
The tendency to make unhealthy choices is hypothesized to be related to an individual's temporal discount rate, the theoretical rate at which they devalue delayed rewards. Furthermore, a particular form of temporal discounting, hyperbolic discounting, has been proposed to explain why unhealthy behavior can occur despite healthy intentions. We examine these two hypotheses in turn. We first systematically review studies which investigate whether discount rates can predict unhealthy behavior. These studies reveal that high discount rates for money (and in some instances food or drug rewards) are associated with several unhealthy behaviors and markers of health status, establishing discounting as a promising predictive measure. We secondly examine whether intention-incongruent unhealthy actions are consistent with hyperbolic discounting. We conclude that intention-incongruent actions are often triggered by environmental cues or changes in motivational state, whose effects are not parameterized by hyperbolic discounting. We propose a framework for understanding these state-based effects in terms of the interplay of two distinct reinforcement learning mechanisms: a "model-based" (or goal-directed) system and a "model-free" (or habitual) system. Under this framework, while discounting of delayed health may contribute to the initiation of unhealthy behavior, with repetition, many unhealthy behaviors become habitual; if health goals then change, habitual behavior can still arise in response to environmental cues. We propose that the burgeoning development of computational models of these processes will permit further identification of health decision-making phenotypes.
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Discounting Future Green: Money versus the Environment
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hardisty, David J.; Weber, Elke U.
2009-01-01
In 3 studies, participants made choices between hypothetical financial, environmental, and health gains and losses that took effect either immediately or with a delay of 1 or 10 years. In all 3 domains, choices indicated that gains were discounted more than losses. There were no significant differences in the discounting of monetary and…
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Temporal discounting rates and their relation to exercise behavior in older adults.
Tate, Linda M; Tsai, Pao-Feng; Landes, Reid D; Rettiganti, Mallikarjuna; Lefler, Leanne L
2015-12-01
As our nation's population ages, the rates of chronic illness and disability are expected to increase significantly. Despite the knowledge that exercise may prevent chronic disease and promote health among older adults, many still are inactive. Factors related to exercise behaviors have been explored in recent years. However, temporal discounting is a motivational concept that has not been explored in regard to exercise in older adults. Temporal discounting is a decision making process by which an individual chooses a smaller more immediate reward over a larger delayed reward. The aim of this study was to determine if temporal discounting rates vary between exercising and non-exercising older adults. This study used cross-sectional survey of 137 older adults living in the community. Older adults were recruited from 11 rural Arkansas churches. The Kirby delay-discounting Monetary Choice Questionnaire was used to collect discounting rates and then bivariate analysis was performed to compare temporal discounting rate between the exercisers and non-exercisers. Finally, multivariate analysis was used to compare discounting rate controlling for other covariates. The results indicated that exercising older adults display lower temporal discounting rates than non-exercising older adults. After controlling for education, exercisers still have lower temporal discounting rates than non-exercisers (p<0.001). These findings are important as several chronic health conditions relate to lack of exercise especially in older adults. This research suggests that if we can find appropriate incentives for discounting individuals, some type of immediate reward, then potentially we can design programs to engage and retain older adults in exercise. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Dom, G; D'haene, P; Hulstijn, W; Sabbe, B
2006-01-01
To test the hypothesis that early-onset alcoholics (EOAs) can be differentiated from late-onset alcoholics (LOAs) by more severe substance-related problems and higher levels of impulsivity and aggression. A cross-sectional patient survey with a community comparison group. The European Addiction Severity Index was used to assess substance-related problems and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, the Dutch version of the Zuckermann Sensation Seeking Scale and the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory were used to assess impulsive and aggressive traits. Impulsive decision making was assessed using a delay discounting task (DDT) with hypothetical monetary rewards. Participants were EOAs (n = 42) and LOAs (n = 46) recruited from an addiction treatment centre and an unmatched, non-substance-abusing comparison group (n = 54). Findings The EOAs had higher levels of impulsive decision making than both the LOAs and the comparison group. The EOAs had higher scores than the LOAs on measures of impulsiveness, aggressiveness and the severity of substance-related problems. This study provides evidence that EOAs are more impulsive and aggressive than LOAs. Further identification of alcoholism subtypes based on dimensions of impulsivity should be considered in the light of their relationship with pharmacological and behavioural treatment interventions.
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Emotional arousal and discount rate in intertemporal choice are reference dependent.
Lempert, Karolina M; Glimcher, Paul W; Phelps, Elizabeth A
2015-04-01
Many decisions involve weighing immediate gratification against future consequences. In such intertemporal choices, people often choose smaller, immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards. It has been proposed that emotional responses to immediate rewards lead us to choose them at our long-term expense. Here we utilize an objective measure of emotional arousal-pupil dilation-to examine the role of emotion in these decisions. We show that emotional arousal responses, as well as choices, in intertemporal choice tasks are reference-dependent and reflect the decision-maker's recent history of offers. Arousal increases when less predictable rewards are better than expected, whether those rewards are immediate or delayed. Furthermore, when immediate rewards are less predictable than delayed rewards, participants tend to be patient. When delayed rewards are less predictable, immediate rewards are preferred. Our findings suggest that we can encourage people to be more patient by changing the context in which intertemporal choices are made. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).
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Propranolol reduces reference-dependence in intertemporal choice
Lempert, Karolina M.; Lackovic, Sandra F.; Tobe, Russell H.; Glimcher, Paul W.
2017-01-01
Abstract In intertemporal choices between immediate and delayed rewards, people tend to prefer immediate rewards, often even when the delayed reward is larger. This is known as temporal discounting. It has been proposed that this tendency emerges because immediate rewards are more emotionally arousing than delayed rewards. However, in our previous research, we found no evidence for this but instead found that arousal responses (indexed with pupil dilation) in intertemporal choice are context-dependent. Specifically, arousal tracks the subjective value of the more variable reward option in the paradigm, whether it is immediate or delayed. Nevertheless, people tend to choose the less variable option in the choice task. In other words, their choices are reference-dependent and depend on variance in their recent history of offers. This suggests that there may be a causal relationship between reference-dependent choice and arousal, which we investigate here by reducing arousal pharmacologically using propranolol. Here, we show that propranolol reduces reference-dependence, leading to choices that are less influenced by recent history and more internally consistent. PMID:28992268
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Charlton, Shawn R.; Gossett, Bradley D.; Charlton, Veda A.
2011-01-01
Temporal discounting, the loss in perceived value associated with delayed outcomes, correlates with a number of personality measures, suggesting that an item-level analysis of trait measures might provide a more detailed understanding of discounting. The current report details two studies that investigate the utility of such an item-level…
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Discounting of Delayed Food Rewards in Pigeons and Rats: Is There a Magnitude Effect
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Green, Leonard; Myerson, Joel; Holt, Daniel D.; Slavin, John R.; Estle, Sara J.
2004-01-01
Temporal discounting refers to the decrease in the present, subjective value of a reward as the time to its receipt increases. Results from humans have shown that a hyperbola-like function describes the form of the discounting function when choices involve hypothetical monetary rewards. In addition, magnitude effects have been reported in which…
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Temporal framing and the hidden-zero effect: rate-dependent outcomes on delay discounting.
Naudé, Gideon P; Kaplan, Brent A; Reed, Derek D; Henley, Amy J; DiGennaro Reed, Florence D
2018-05-01
Recent research suggests that presenting time intervals as units (e.g., days) or as specific dates, can modulate the degree to which humans discount delayed outcomes. Another framing effect involves explicitly stating that choosing a smaller-sooner reward is mutually exclusive to receiving a larger-later reward, thus presenting choices as an extended sequence. In Experiment 1, participants (N = 201) recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk completed the Monetary Choice Questionnaire in a 2 (delay framing) by 2 (zero framing) design. Regression suggested a main effect of delay, but not zero, framing after accounting for other demographic variables and manipulations. We observed a rate-dependent effect for the date-framing group, such that those with initially steep discounting exhibited greater sensitivity to the manipulation than those with initially shallow discounting. Subsequent analyses suggest these effects cannot be explained by regression to the mean. Experiment 2 addressed the possibility that the null effect of zero framing was due to within-subject exposure to the hidden- and explicit-zero conditions. A new Amazon Mechanical Turk sample completed the Monetary Choice Questionnaire in either hidden- or explicit-zero formats. Analyses revealed a main effect of reward magnitude, but not zero framing, suggesting potential limitations to the generality of the hidden-zero effect. © 2018 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.
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Acuff, Samuel F; Soltis, Kathryn E; Dennhardt, Ashley A; Borsari, Brian; Martens, Matthew P; Murphy, James G
2017-10-01
College student drinking is a major public health concern and can result in a range of negative consequences, from acute health risks to decreased academic performance and drop out. Harm reduction interventions have been developed to reduce problems associated with drinking but there is a need to identify specific risk/protective factors related to academic performance among college drinkers. Behavioral economics suggests that chronic alcohol misuse reflects a dysregulated behavioral process or reinforcer pathology-alcohol is overvalued and the value of prosocial rewards are sharply discounted due, in part, to their delay. This study examined delay discounting, consideration of future consequences (CFC) and protective behavioral strategies (PBS) as predictors of academic success (grade point average; GPA) and engagement (time devoted to academic activities) among 393 college drinkers (61% female). In multivariate models, PBS were associated with greater academic engagement, but were not with academic success. Lower discounting of delayed rewards and greater CFC were associated with both academic success and engagement among drinkers. Previous research suggests that future time orientation is malleable, and the current results provide support for efforts to enhance future time orientation as part of alcohol harm-reduction approaches. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).
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Steep Delay Discounting and Addictive Behavior: A Meta-Analysis of Continuous Associations
Amlung, Michael; Vedelago, Lana; Acker, John; Balodis, Iris; MacKillop, James
2016-01-01
Aims To synthesize continuous associations between delayed reward discounting (DRD) and both addiction severity and quantity-frequency (QF); to examine moderators of these relationships; and to investigate publication bias. Methods Meta-analysis of published studies examining continuous associations between DRD and addictive behaviors. Published, peer-reviewed studies on addictive behaviors (alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, stimulants, opiates, and gambling) were identified via PubMed, MEDLINE, and PsycInfo. Studies were restricted to DRD measures of monetary gains. Random effects meta-analysis was conducted using Pearson’s r as the effect size. Publication bias was evaluated using fail-safe N, Begg-Mazumdar and Egger’s tests, meta-regression of publication year and effect size, and imputation of missing studies. Results The primary meta-analysis revealed a small magnitude effect size that was highly significant (r = 0.14, p < 10−14). Significantly larger effect sizes were observed for studies examining severity compared with QF (p = 0.01), but not between the type of addictive behavior (p = 0.30) or DRD assessment (p = 0.90). Indices of publication bias suggested a modest impact of unpublished findings. Conclusions Delayed reward discounting is robustly associated with continuous measures of addiction severity and quantity-frequency. This relation is generally robust across type of addictive behavior and delayed reward discounting assessment modality. PMID:27450931
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Sweeney, Allison M; Culcea, Ileana
2017-05-01
The present study aimed to quantify the magnitude of the association between future temporal perspective and Body Mass Index (BMI), diet, and exercise, respectively, and to clarify whether subjective future-focus scales or delay-discounting tasks are a more robust predictor of health behaviors. A systematic search was conducted for studies that included a dispositional measure of future temporal perspective and a measure of BMI, eating, and/or exercise behavior. Effect sizes for BMI, eating, and exercise were calculated using a random-effects model. The aggregate effect sizes for BMI (r = 0.14, k = 36, 95% CI = 0.10 - 0.18, p < 0.001), eating (r = 0.16, k = 18, 95% CI = 0.12-0.21, p < 0.001), and exercise (r = 0.12, k = 18, 95% CI = 0.09-0.14, p < 0.001) were significant and small in magnitude. Neither the type of future temporal perspective task (delay-discounting vs. subjective future-focus scale) nor the percentage of obese participants moderated the effect of temporal perspective on BMI, eating, or exercise. Although small in magnitude, the association between temporal perspective and health outcomes is comparable to other individual differences, such as personality and temperament. Future research is needed to examine how increasing the value placed on future outcomes can be integrated into long-term health behavior change interventions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Worbe, Yulia; Savulich, George; Voon, Valerie; Fernandez-Egea, Emilio; Robbins, Trevor W
2014-01-01
Convergent results from animal and human studies suggest that reducing serotonin neurotransmission promotes impulsive behavior. Here, serotonin depletion was induced by the dietary tryptophan depletion procedure (TD) in healthy volunteers to examine the role of serotonin in impulsive action and impulsive choice. We used a novel translational analog of a rodent 5-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT)— the human 4-CSRTT—and a reward delay-discounting questionnaire to measure effects on these different forms of ‘waiting impulsivity'. There was no effect of TD on impulsive choice as indexed by the reward delay-discounting questionnaire. However, TD significantly increased 4-CSRTT premature responses (or impulsive action), which is remarkably similar to the previous findings of effect of serotonin depletion on rodent 5-CSRTT performance. Moreover, the increased premature responding in TD correlated significantly with individual differences on the motor impulsivity subscale of the Barratt Impulsivity Scale. TD also improved the accuracy of performance and speeded responding, possibly indicating enhanced attention and reward processing. The results suggest: (i) the 4-CSRTT will be a valuable addition to the tests already available to measure impulsivity in humans in a direct translational analog of a test extensively used in rodents; (ii) TD in humans produces a qualitatively similar profile of effects to those in rodents (ie, enhancing premature responding), hence supporting the conclusion that TD in humans exerts at least some of its effects on central serotonin; and (iii) this manipulation of serotonin produces dissociable effects on different measures of impulsivity, suggesting considerable specificity in its modulatory role. PMID:24385133
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Suppression of Cocaine Self-Administration in Monkeys: Effects of Delayed Punishment
Woolverton, William L.; Freeman, Kevin B.; Myerson, Joel; Green, Leonard
2014-01-01
Rationale Delaying presentation of a drug can decrease its effectiveness as a reinforcer, but the effect of delaying punishment of drug self-administration is unknown. Objective This study examined whether a histamine injection could punish cocaine self-administration in a drug-drug choice, whether delaying histamine would decrease its effectiveness, and whether the effects of delay could be described within a delay discounting framework. Methods Monkeys were implanted with double-lumen catheters to allow separate injection of cocaine and histamine. In discrete trials, subjects first chose between cocaine (50 or 100 μg/kg/inj) alone and an injection of the same dose of cocaine followed immediately by an injection of histamine (0.37–50 μg/kg). Next, they chose between cocaine followed immediately by histamine and cocaine followed by an equal but delayed dose of histamine. Results When choosing between cocaine alone and cocaine followed immediately by histamine, preference increased with histamine dose from indifference to > 80% choice of cocaine alone. When choosing between cocaine followed by immediate histamine and cocaine followed by delayed histamine, monkeys showed strong position preferences. When delayed histamine was associated with the non-preferred position, preference for that option increased with delay from ≤ 30% to > 85%. The corresponding decrease in choice of the preferred position was well described by a hyperboloid discounting function. Conclusions Histamine can function as a punisher in the choice between injections of cocaine and delay can decrease its effectiveness as a punisher. The effects of delaying punishment of drug self-administration can be conceptualized within the delay discounting framework. PMID:21956240
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Suppression of cocaine self-administration in monkeys: effects of delayed punishment.
Woolverton, William L; Freeman, Kevin B; Myerson, Joel; Green, Leonard
2012-04-01
Delaying presentation of a drug can decrease its effectiveness as a reinforcer, but the effect of delaying punishment of drug self-administration is unknown. This study examined whether a histamine injection could punish cocaine self-administration in a drug-drug choice, whether delaying histamine would decrease its effectiveness, and whether the effects of delay could be described within a delay discounting framework. Monkeys were implanted with double-lumen catheters to allow separate injection of cocaine and histamine. In discrete trials, subjects first chose between cocaine (50 or 100 μg/kg/inj) alone and an injection of the same dose of cocaine followed immediately by an injection of histamine (0.37-50 μg/kg). Next, they chose between cocaine followed immediately by histamine and cocaine followed by an equal but delayed dose of histamine. When choosing between cocaine alone and cocaine followed immediately by histamine, preference increased with histamine dose from indifference to >80% choice of cocaine alone. When choosing between cocaine followed by immediate histamine and cocaine followed by delayed histamine, monkeys showed strong position preferences. When delayed histamine was associated with the nonpreferred position, preference for that option increased with delay from ≤30% to >85%. The corresponding decrease in choice of the preferred position was well described by a hyperboloid discounting function. Histamine can function as a punisher in the choice between injections of cocaine and delay can decrease its effectiveness as a punisher. The effects of delaying punishment of drug self-administration can be conceptualized within the delay discounting framework.
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Future Discounting in Congo Basin Hunter-Gatherers Declines with Socio-Economic Transitions.
Salali, Gul Deniz; Migliano, Andrea Bamberg
2015-01-01
Humans have a tendency to discount the future; that is we value small, short-term rewards over larger, long-term rewards. The degree of future discounting, however, changes in response to socio-ecological factors. Here, we study Mbendjele BaYaka hunter-gatherers of northern Congo and their farmer neighbours to investigate adaptations in inter-temporal preferences in humans. We argue that in immediate-return systems, where food storage is absent and egalitarianism is enforced through levelling mechanisms, future discounting is an adaptive strategy to prevent wealth accumulation and the emergence of hierarchies. This ensures food sharing and allows for survival in unpredictable environments where there is risk of an energy shortfall. On the other hand, when food storage is made possible by the emergence of agriculture or as seen in some delayed-return hunter-gatherer populations, wealth accumulation, hierarchies and lower discount rates become the adaptive strategy. Therefore, individuals in immediate-return, egalitarian societies will discount the future more than those in non-egalitarian, delayed-return societies. Consistent with the predictions we found that market integration and socio-economic transitions decrease the future discounting in Mbendjele hunter-gatherers. Our measures of socio-economic differences marked this transition in hunter-gatherers living in a logging town. The degree of future-discounting was the same between more market-integrated hunter-gatherers and their farmer neighbours.
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Focus on the future: Episodic future thinking reduces discount rate and snacking.
Dassen, Fania C M; Jansen, Anita; Nederkoorn, Chantal; Houben, Katrijn
2016-01-01
Obesity seems related to a preference for immediate gratification. By changing this focus on short term benefits to a more future-oriented outlook, delay discounting (impulsive decision making) can be changed by a manipulation of episodic future thinking (EFT). EFT comprises a vivid mental simulation of general future experiences. EFT may also affect consumption of unhealthy foods, which can be seen as a choice for immediate gratification. Recent research shows that future orientation should be tailored to the behavior at outcome. We therefore hypothesize that the effectiveness of EFT on food intake could be enhanced by making the content food-related. We conducted a 2 (future vs past thinking) by 2 (food vs non-food related thoughts) between-subject design experiment in female undergraduates (N = 94), to compare the efficacy of EFT versus the recalling of episodic past events in reducing discount rate and caloric intake. Content of imagery was either unrestricted or food-related. Participants engaged in EFT or control episodic imagery while snacks were offered to freely consume, and next the Monetary Choice Questionnaire was completed as a measure of delay discounting, while again being engaged in EFT or control imagery. Both types of EFT reduced delay discounting, however, only food-related EFT lead to more restricted caloric consumption. Thus, we found evidence that EFT reduced discount rate during decision making. However, in order to restrict caloric intake, EFT should entail food-related imagery. As discount rate and caloric intake were not related in the current sample, the underlying mechanism remains to be discovered. Results however suggest that EFT is a promising technique to resist immediate gratification. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Kable, Joseph W; Caulfield, M Kathleen; Falcone, Mary; McConnell, Mairead; Bernardo, Leah; Parthasarathi, Trishala; Cooper, Nicole; Ashare, Rebecca; Audrain-McGovern, Janet; Hornik, Robert; Diefenbach, Paul; Lee, Frank J; Lerman, Caryn
2017-08-02
Increased preference for immediate over delayed rewards and for risky over certain rewards has been associated with unhealthy behavioral choices. Motivated by evidence that enhanced cognitive control can shift choice behavior away from immediate and risky rewards, we tested whether training executive cognitive function could influence choice behavior and brain responses. In this randomized controlled trial, 128 young adults (71 male, 57 female) participated in 10 weeks of training with either a commercial web-based cognitive training program or web-based video games that do not specifically target executive function or adapt the level of difficulty throughout training. Pretraining and post-training, participants completed cognitive assessments and functional magnetic resonance imaging during performance of the following validated decision-making tasks: delay discounting (choices between smaller rewards now vs larger rewards in the future) and risk sensitivity (choices between larger riskier rewards vs smaller certain rewards). Contrary to our hypothesis, we found no evidence that cognitive training influences neural activity during decision-making; nor did we find effects of cognitive training on measures of delay discounting or risk sensitivity. Participants in the commercial training condition improved with practice on the specific tasks they performed during training, but participants in both conditions showed similar improvement on standardized cognitive measures over time. Moreover, the degree of improvement was comparable to that observed in individuals who were reassessed without any training whatsoever. Commercial adaptive cognitive training appears to have no benefits in healthy young adults above those of standard video games for measures of brain activity, choice behavior, or cognitive performance. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Engagement of neural regions and circuits important in executive cognitive function can bias behavioral choices away from immediate rewards. Activity in these regions may be enhanced through adaptive cognitive training. Commercial brain training programs claim to improve a broad range of mental processes; however, evidence for transfer beyond trained tasks is mixed. We undertook the first randomized controlled trial of the effects of commercial adaptive cognitive training (Lumosity) on neural activity and decision-making in young adults ( N = 128) compared with an active control (playing on-line video games). We found no evidence for relative benefits of cognitive training with respect to changes in decision-making behavior or brain response, or for cognitive task performance beyond those specifically trained. Copyright © 2017 the authors 0270-6474/17/377390-13$15.00/0.
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Caulfield, M. Kathleen; McConnell, Mairead; Bernardo, Leah; Parthasarathi, Trishala; Cooper, Nicole; Ashare, Rebecca; Audrain-McGovern, Janet; Lee, Frank J.; Lerman, Caryn
2017-01-01
Increased preference for immediate over delayed rewards and for risky over certain rewards has been associated with unhealthy behavioral choices. Motivated by evidence that enhanced cognitive control can shift choice behavior away from immediate and risky rewards, we tested whether training executive cognitive function could influence choice behavior and brain responses. In this randomized controlled trial, 128 young adults (71 male, 57 female) participated in 10 weeks of training with either a commercial web-based cognitive training program or web-based video games that do not specifically target executive function or adapt the level of difficulty throughout training. Pretraining and post-training, participants completed cognitive assessments and functional magnetic resonance imaging during performance of the following validated decision-making tasks: delay discounting (choices between smaller rewards now vs larger rewards in the future) and risk sensitivity (choices between larger riskier rewards vs smaller certain rewards). Contrary to our hypothesis, we found no evidence that cognitive training influences neural activity during decision-making; nor did we find effects of cognitive training on measures of delay discounting or risk sensitivity. Participants in the commercial training condition improved with practice on the specific tasks they performed during training, but participants in both conditions showed similar improvement on standardized cognitive measures over time. Moreover, the degree of improvement was comparable to that observed in individuals who were reassessed without any training whatsoever. Commercial adaptive cognitive training appears to have no benefits in healthy young adults above those of standard video games for measures of brain activity, choice behavior, or cognitive performance. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Engagement of neural regions and circuits important in executive cognitive function can bias behavioral choices away from immediate rewards. Activity in these regions may be enhanced through adaptive cognitive training. Commercial brain training programs claim to improve a broad range of mental processes; however, evidence for transfer beyond trained tasks is mixed. We undertook the first randomized controlled trial of the effects of commercial adaptive cognitive training (Lumosity) on neural activity and decision-making in young adults (N = 128) compared with an active control (playing on-line video games). We found no evidence for relative benefits of cognitive training with respect to changes in decision-making behavior or brain response, or for cognitive task performance beyond those specifically trained. PMID:28694338
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The Gist of Delay of Gratification: Understanding and Predicting Problem Behaviors
REYNA, VALERIE F.; WILHELMS, EVAN A.
2017-01-01
Delay of gratification captures elements of temptation and self-denial that characterize real-life problems with money and other problem behaviors such as unhealthy risk taking. According to fuzzy-trace theory, decision makers mentally represent social values such as delay of gratification in a coarse but meaningful form of memory called “gist.” Applying this theory, we developed a gist measure of delay of gratification that does not involve quantitative trade-offs (as delay discounting does) and hypothesize that this construct explains unique variance beyond sensation seeking and inhibition in accounting for problem behaviors. Across four studies, we examine this Delay-of-gratification Gist Scale by using principal components analyses and evaluating convergent and divergent validity with other potentially related scales such as Future Orientation, Propensity to Plan, Time Perspectives Inventory, Spendthrift-Tightwad, Sensation Seeking, Cognitive Reflection, Barratt Impulsiveness, and the Monetary Choice Questionnaire (delay discounting). The new 12-item measure captured a single dimension of delay of gratification, correlated as predicted with other scales, but accounted for unique variance in predicting such outcomes as overdrawing bank accounts, substance abuse, and overall subjective well-being. Results support a theoretical distinction between reward-related approach motivation, including sensation seeking, and inhibitory faculties, including cognitive reflection. However, individuals’ agreement with the qualitative gist of delay of gratification, as expressed in many cultural traditions, could not be reduced to such dualist distinctions nor to quantitative conceptions of delay discounting, shedding light on mechanisms of self-control and risk taking. PMID:28808356
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The Gist of Delay of Gratification: Understanding and Predicting Problem Behaviors.
Reyna, Valerie F; Wilhelms, Evan A
2017-04-01
Delay of gratification captures elements of temptation and self-denial that characterize real-life problems with money and other problem behaviors such as unhealthy risk taking. According to fuzzy-trace theory, decision makers mentally represent social values such as delay of gratification in a coarse but meaningful form of memory called "gist." Applying this theory, we developed a gist measure of delay of gratification that does not involve quantitative trade-offs (as delay discounting does) and hypothesize that this construct explains unique variance beyond sensation seeking and inhibition in accounting for problem behaviors. Across four studies, we examine this Delay-of-gratification Gist Scale by using principal components analyses and evaluating convergent and divergent validity with other potentially related scales such as Future Orientation, Propensity to Plan, Time Perspectives Inventory, Spendthrift-Tightwad, Sensation Seeking, Cognitive Reflection, Barratt Impulsiveness, and the Monetary Choice Questionnaire (delay discounting). The new 12-item measure captured a single dimension of delay of gratification, correlated as predicted with other scales, but accounted for unique variance in predicting such outcomes as overdrawing bank accounts, substance abuse, and overall subjective well-being. Results support a theoretical distinction between reward-related approach motivation, including sensation seeking, and inhibitory faculties, including cognitive reflection. However, individuals' agreement with the qualitative gist of delay of gratification, as expressed in many cultural traditions, could not be reduced to such dualist distinctions nor to quantitative conceptions of delay discounting, shedding light on mechanisms of self-control and risk taking.
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Psychophysics of time perception and intertemporal choice models
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Takahashi, Taiki; Oono, Hidemi; Radford, Mark H. B.
2008-03-01
Intertemporal choice and psychophysics of time perception have been attracting attention in econophysics and neuroeconomics. Several models have been proposed for intertemporal choice: exponential discounting, general hyperbolic discounting (exponential discounting with logarithmic time perception of the Weber-Fechner law, a q-exponential discount model based on Tsallis's statistics), simple hyperbolic discounting, and Stevens' power law-exponential discounting (exponential discounting with Stevens' power time perception). In order to examine the fitness of the models for behavioral data, we estimated the parameters and AICc (Akaike Information Criterion with small sample correction) of the intertemporal choice models by assessing the points of subjective equality (indifference points) at seven delays. Our results have shown that the orders of the goodness-of-fit for both group and individual data were [Weber-Fechner discounting (general hyperbola) > Stevens' power law discounting > Simple hyperbolic discounting > Exponential discounting], indicating that human time perception in intertemporal choice may follow the Weber-Fechner law. Indications of the results for neuropsychopharmacological treatments of addiction and biophysical processing underlying temporal discounting and time perception are discussed.
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Harrison, Justin; McKay, Ryan
2012-01-01
Temporal discounting rates have become a popular dependent variable in social science research. While choice procedures are commonly employed to measure discounting rates, equivalent present value (EPV) procedures may be more sensitive to experimental manipulation. However, their use has been impeded by the absence of test-retest reliability data.…
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Weatherly, Jeffrey N.; Derenne, Adam
2013-01-01
The present study tested whether participants would discount "won" money differently than they would "owed" money in a probability-discounting task. Participants discounted $1000 or $100,000 that they had won in a sweepstakes or that was owed to them using the multiple-choice (Experiment 1) or fill-in-the-blank (Experiment 2) method of collecting…
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Kräplin, Anja; Dshemuchadse, Maja; Behrendt, Silke; Scherbaum, Stefan; Goschke, Thomas; Bühringer, Gerhard
2014-03-30
Dysfunctional decision-making in individuals with pathological gambling (PGs) may result from dominating reward-driven processes, indicated by higher impulsivity. In the current study we examined (1) if PGs show specific decision-making impairments related to dominating reward-driven processes rather than to strategic planning deficits and (2) whether these impairments are related to impulsivity. Nineteen PGs according to DSM-IV and 19 matched control subjects undertook the Cambridge Gambling Task (CGT) to assess decision-making. The delay discounting paradigm (DDP) as well as the UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale (measuring urgency, premeditation, perseverance and sensation seeking) were administered as multidimensional measures of impulsivity. Results revealed that (1) PGs exhibited higher risk seeking and an immediate reward focus in the CGT and, in contrast, comparable strategic planning to the control group. (2) Decision-making impairments were related to more severe delay discounting and, specifically, to increased urgency and less premeditation. Our findings suggest (1) the necessity to disentangle decision-making components in order to improve etiological models of PGs, and (2) that urgency and premeditation are specifically related to disadvantageous decision-making and should be tackled in intervention strategies focusing on emotion tolerance and control strategies. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Gunn, Rachel L; Gerst, Kyle R; Lake, Allison J; Finn, Peter R
2018-02-01
Executive working memory capacity (eWMC) is central to adaptive decision-making. Research has revealed reduced eWMC and higher rates of impulsive decision making in individuals with alcohol use disorders (AUDs: DSM-IV Alcohol Dependence of Alcohol Abuse) and antisocial psychopathology (AP). Recent work has shown that placing a load on working memory (WM) further increases impulsive decision making on the delay discounting (DD) task in those with AUDs and AP. The current study examined the effects of an attention refocusing manipulation to offset the effects of this WM-load on DD rates in control subjects, those with AUDs without AP, and AUDs with AP (AUD-AP). Results revealed that 1) the AUD-AP group had higher DD rates (i.e., more impulsive decision-making) than the AUD group, followed by controls, and 2) attention refocusing after a load is placed on WM was associated with lower DD rates compared to the load without refocusing in both AUD groups, but not controls. Results suggest that refocusing attention after a cognitive load may be an effective cognitive strategy for reducing the impulsivity-enhancing effects of cognitive load on decision making in individuals with AUDs and AP. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Impaired Decision Making and Loss of Inhibitory-Control in a Rat Model of Huntington Disease
El Massioui, Nicole; Lamirault, Charlotte; Yagüe, Sara; Adjeroud, Najia; Garces, Daniel; Maillard, Alexis; Tallot, Lucille; Yu-Taeger, Libo; Riess, Olaf; Allain, Philippe; Nguyen, Huu Phuc; von Hörsten, Stephan; Doyère, Valérie
2016-01-01
Cognitive deficits associated with Huntington disease (HD) are generally dominated by executive function disorders often associated with disinhibition and impulsivity/compulsivity. Few studies have directly examined symptoms and consequences of behavioral disinhibition in HD and its relation with decision-making. To assess the different forms of impulsivity in a transgenic model of HD (tgHD rats), two tasks assessing cognitive/choice impulsivity were used: risky decision-making with a rat gambling task (RGT) and intertemporal choices with a delay discounting task (DD). To assess waiting or action impulsivity the differential reinforcement of low rate of responding task (DRL) was used. In parallel, the volume as well as cellular activity of the amygdala was analyzed. In contrast to WT rats, 15 months old tgHD rats exhibited a poor efficiency in the RGT task with difficulties to choose advantageous options, a steep DD curve as delays increased in the DD task and a high rate of premature and bursts responses in the DRL task. tgHD rats also demonstrated a concomitant and correlated presence of both action and cognitive/choice impulsivity in contrast to wild type (WT) animals. Moreover, a reduced volume associated with an increased basal cellular activity of the central nucleus of amygdala indicated a dysfunctional amygdala in tgHD rats, which could underlie inhibitory dyscontrol. In conclusion, tgHD rats are a good model for impulsivity disorder that could be used more widely to identify potential pharmacotherapies to treat these invasive symptoms in HD. PMID:27833538
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Weston, Hiromi I; Weston, Douglas D; Allen, Joshua L; Cory-Slechta, Deborah A
2014-09-01
A prior study demonstrated increased overall response rates on a fixed interval (FI) schedule of reward in female offspring that had been subjected to maternal lead (Pb) exposure, prenatal stress (PS) and offspring stress challenge relative to control, prenatal stress alone, lead alone and lead+prenatal stress alone (Virgolini et al., 2008). Response rates on FI schedules have been shown to directly relate to measures of self-control (impulsivity) in children and in infants (Darcheville et al., 1992, 1993). The current study sought to determine whether enhanced effects of Pb±PS would therefore be seen in a more direct measure of impulsive choice behavior, i.e., a delay discounting paradigm. Offspring of dams exposed to 0 or 50ppm Pb acetate from 2 to 3 months prior to breeding through lactation, with or without immobilization restraint stress (PS) on gestational days 16 and 17, were trained on a delay discounting paradigm that offered a choice between a large reward (three 45mg food pellets) after a long delay or a small reward (one 45mg food pellet) after a short delay, with the long delay value increased from 0s to 30s across sessions. Alterations in extinction of this performance, and its subsequent re-acquisition after reinforcement delivery was reinstated were also examined. Brains of littermates of behaviorally-trained offspring were utilized to examine corresponding changes in monoamines and in levels of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), the serotonin transporter (SERT) and the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) 2A in brain regions associated with impulsive choice behavior. Results showed that Pb±PS-induced changes in delay discounting occurred almost exclusively in males. In addition to increasing percent long delay responding at the indifference point (i.e., reduced impulsive choice behavior), Pb±PS slowed acquisition of delayed discounting performance, and increased numbers of both failures to and latencies to initiate trials. Overall, the profile of these alterations were more consistent with impaired learning/behavioral flexibility and/or with enhanced sensitivity to the downshift in reward opportunities imposed by the transition from delay discounting training conditions to delay discounting choice response contingencies. Consistent with these behavioral changes, Pb±PS treated males also showed reductions in brain serotonin function in all mesocorticolimbic regions, broad monoamine changes in nucleus accumbens, and reductions in both BDNF and NMDAR 2A levels and increases in SERT in frontal cortex, i.e., in regions and neurotransmitter systems known to mediate learning/behavioral flexibility, and which were of greater impact in males. The current findings do not fully support a generality of the enhancement of Pb effects by PS, as previously seen with FI performance in females (Virgolini et al., 2008), and suggest a dissociation of the behaviors controlled by FI and delay discounting paradigms, at least in response to Pb±PS in rats. Collectively, however, the findings remain consistent with sex-dependent differences in the impacts of both Pb and PS and with the need to understand both the role of contingencies of reinforcement and underlying neurobiological effects in these sex differences. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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MacKillop, James; Amlung, Michael T; Wier, Lauren M; David, Sean P; Ray, Lara A; Bickel, Warren K; Sweet, Lawrence H
2012-04-30
Neuroeconomics integrates behavioral economics and cognitive neuroscience to understand the neurobiological basis for normative and maladaptive decision making. Delay discounting is a behavioral economic index of impulsivity that reflects capacity to delay gratification and has been consistently associated with nicotine dependence. This preliminary study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine delay discounting for money and cigarette rewards in 13 nicotine dependent adults. Significant differences between preferences for smaller immediate rewards and larger delayed rewards were evident in a number of regions of interest (ROIs), including the medial prefrontal cortex, anterior insular cortex, middle temporal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, and cingulate gyrus. Significant differences between money and cigarette rewards were generally lateralized, with cigarette choices associated with left hemisphere activation and money choices associated with right hemisphere activation. Specific ROI differences included the posterior parietal cortex, medial and middle frontal gyrus, ventral striatum, temporoparietal cortex, and angular gyrus. Impulsivity as measured by behavioral choices was significantly associated with both individual ROIs and a combined ROI model. These findings provide initial evidence in support of applying a neuroeconomic approach to understanding nicotine dependence. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
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A dual-process approach to exploring the role of delay discounting in obesity.
Price, Menna; Higgs, Suzanne; Maw, James; Lee, Michelle
2016-08-01
Delay discounting of financial rewards has been related to overeating and obesity. Neuropsychological evidence supports a dual-system account of both discounting and overeating behaviour where the degree of impulsive decision making is determined by the relative strength of reward desire and executive control. A dual-parameter model of discounting behaviour is consistent with this theory. In this study, the fit of the commonly used one-parameter model was compared to a new dual-parameter model for the first time in a sample of adults with wide ranging BMI. Delay discounting data from 79 males and females (males=26) across a wide age (M=28.44years (SD=8.81)) and BMI range (M=25.42 (SD=5.16)) was analysed. A dual-parameter model (saturating-hyperbolic; Doya, [Doya (2008) ]) was applied to the data and compared on model fit indices to the single-parameter model. Discounting was significantly greater in the overweight/obese participants using both models, however, the two parameter model showed a superior fit to data (p<0.0001). The two parameters were shown to be related yet distinct measures consistent with a dual-system account of inter-temporal choice behaviour. The dual-parameter model showed superior fit to data and the two parameters were shown to be related yet distinct indices sensitive to differences between weight groups. Findings are discussed in terms of the impulsive reward and executive control systems that contribute to unhealthy food choice and within the context of obesity related research. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Barlow, Rebecca L; Gorges, Martin; Wearn, Alfie; Niessen, Heiko G; Kassubek, Jan; Dalley, Jeffrey W; Pekcec, Anton
2018-03-15
Low dopamine D2/3 receptor availability in the nucleus accumbens (NAcb) shell is associated with highly-impulsive behavior in rats, as measured by premature responses in a cued attentional task. However, it is unclear whether dopamine D2/3 receptor availability in the NAcb is equally linked to intolerance for delayed rewards, a related form of impulsivity. We investigated the relationship between D2/3 receptor availability in the NAcb and impulsivity in a delay-discounting task (DDT) where animals must choose between immediate small-magnitude rewards and delayed larger-magnitude rewards. Corticostriatal D2/3 receptor availability was measured in rats stratified for high-, and low-impulsivity using in-vivo [18F]fallypride positron emission tomography (PET) and ex-vivo [3H]raclopride autoradiography. Resting-state functional connectivity in limbic corticostriatal networks was also assessed using fMRI. DDT impulsivity was inversely related to D2/3 receptor availability in the NAcb core but not the dorsal striatum with higher D2/3 binding in the NAcb shell of high-impulsive rats compared with low-impulsive rats. D2/3 receptor availability was associated with stronger connectivity between the cingulate cortex and hippocampus of high versus low impulsive rats. We conclude that DDT impulsivity is associated with low D2/3 receptor binding in the NAcb core. Thus two related forms of waiting impulsivity - premature responding and delay intolerance in a delay-of-reward task - implicate an involvement of D2/3 receptor availability in the NAcb shell and core, respectively. This dissociation may be causal or consequential to enhanced functional connectivity of limbic brain circuitry and hold relevance for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, drug addiction and other psychiatric disorders.
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Steep delay discounting and addictive behavior: a meta-analysis of continuous associations.
Amlung, Michael; Vedelago, Lana; Acker, John; Balodis, Iris; MacKillop, James
2017-01-01
To synthesize continuous associations between delayed reward discounting (DRD) and both addiction severity and quantity-frequency (QF); to examine moderators of these relationships; and to investigate publication bias. Meta-analysis of published studies examining continuous associations between DRD and addictive behaviors. Published, peer-reviewed studies on addictive behaviors (alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, stimulants, opiates and gambling) were identified via PubMed, MEDLINE and PsycInfo. Studies were restricted to DRD measures of monetary gains. Random-effects meta-analysis was conducted using Pearson's r as the effect size. Publication bias was evaluated using fail-safe N, Begg-Mazumdar and Egger's tests, meta-regression of publication year and effect size and imputation of missing studies. The primary meta-analysis revealed a small magnitude effect size that was highly significant (r = 0.14, P < 10 -14 ). Significantly larger effect sizes were observed for studies examining severity compared with QF (P = 0.01), but not between the type of addictive behavior (P = 0.30) or DRD assessment (P = 0.90). Indices of publication bias suggested a modest impact of unpublished findings. Delayed reward discounting is associated robustly with continuous measures of addiction severity and quantity-frequency. This relation is generally robust across type of addictive behavior and delayed reward discounting assessment modality. © 2016 Society for the Study of Addiction.
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Adolescent Methylmercury Exposure Affects Choice and Delay Discounting in Mice
Boomhower, Steven R.; Newland, M. Christopher
2016-01-01
The developing fetus is vulnerable to low-level exposure to methylmercury (MeHg), an environmental neurotoxicant, but the consequences of exposure during the adolescent period remain virtually unknown. The current experiments were designed to assess the effects of low-level MeHg exposure during adolescence on delay discounting, preference for small, immediate reinforcers over large, delayed ones, using a mouse model. Thirty-six male C57BL/6n mice were exposed to 0, 0.3, or 3.0 ppm mercury (as MeHg) via drinking water from postnatal day 21 through 59, encompassing the murine adolescent period. As adults, mice lever-pressed for a 0.01-cc droplet of milk solution delivered immediately or four 0.01-cc droplets delivered after a delay. Delays ranged from 1.26 to 70.79 seconds, all presented within a session. A model based on the Generalized Matching Law indicated that sensitivity to reinforcer magnitude was lower for MeHg-exposed mice relative to controls; responding in MeHg-exposed mice was relatively indifferent to the larger reinforcer. Sensitivity to reinforcer delay was reduced (delay discounting was decreased) in the 0.3-ppm group, but not in the 3.0-ppm group, compared to controls. Adolescence is a developmental period during which the brain and behavior may be vulnerable to MeHg exposure. As with gestational exposure, the effects are reflected in the impact of reinforcing stimuli. PMID:27677934
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Decision processes in choice overload: a product of delay and probability discounting?
Kaplan, Brent A; Reed, Derek D
2013-07-01
Recent research in the behavioral decision making literature has demonstrated that humans hyperbolically discount the subjective value of options as the number of options increases (Reed et al., 2012). These findings provide a cognitive-behavioral synthesis of the "choice overload" phenomenon, also known as the "paradox of choice." Specifically, these findings suggest that temporal discounting may serve as the underlying process contributing to this effect. As an extension, this study examined the effects of reward magnitude sizes had on rates temporal and options discounting. This manipulation was conducted to determine what role temporal discounting plays in discounting of options. The present results suggest that temporal discounting may not be the only process contributing to the choice overload effect. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Ostaszewski, Paweł
2017-01-01
The effort required to obtain a rewarding outcome is an important factor in decision-making. Describing the reward devaluation by increasing effort intensity is substantial to understanding human preferences, because every action and choice that we make is in itself effortful. To investigate how reward valuation is affected by physical and cognitive effort, we compared mathematical discounting functions derived from research on discounting. Seven discounting models were tested across three different reward magnitudes. To test the models, data were collected from a total of 114 participants recruited from the general population. For one-parameter models (hyperbolic, exponential, and parabolic), the data were explained best by the exponential model as given by a percentage of explained variance. However, after introducing an additional parameter, data obtained in the cognitive and physical effort conditions were best described by the power function model. Further analysis, using the second order Akaike and Bayesian Information Criteria, which account for model complexity, allowed us to identify the best model among all tested. We found that the power function best described the data, which corresponds to conventional analyses based on the R2 measure. This supports the conclusion that the function best describing reward devaluation by physical and cognitive effort is a concave one and is different from those that describe delay or probability discounting. In addition, consistent magnitude effects were observed that correspond to those in delay discounting research. PMID:28759631
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Rasagiline in the Treatment of the Persistent Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia.
Buchanan, Robert W; Weiner, Elaine; Kelly, Deanna L; Gold, James M; Keller, William R; Waltz, James A; McMahon, Robert P; Gorelick, David A
2015-07-01
The current study examined the efficacy and safety of rasagiline, a selective MAO-B inhibitor, for the treatment of persistent negative symptoms. Sixty people with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, who met a priori criteria for persistent negative symptoms, were randomized to receive rasagiline, 1mg/d (n = 31) or placebo (n = 29) in a 12-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. The Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) total score was used to assess change in negative symptoms. The Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), N-Back test, a probabilistic learning task, and a delayed discounting task were used to assess cognition. In a mixed model analysis of covariance (MM-ANCOVA), with time as a continuous variable, there was a significant treatment × time effect for SANS total score (F = 5.61(df = 1,40.3), P = .023). The treatment × time interaction effect was also significant for the SANS avolition subscale score (F(1,40.2) = 10.41, P = .002). In a post hoc MM-ANCOVA analyses, with time as a categorical variable, group differences were significant at week 12 for SANS total score (t(37.3) = 2.15; P = .04; d = -0.41) and SANS avolition subscale score (t(49.0) = 3.06; P = .004; d = -0.46). There was a significant difference in number of participants with a ≥20% reduction in SANS avolition score (χ(2)(1) = 10.94; P = .0009), but not in SANS total score (χ(2)(1) = 1.11; P = .29). There were no significant group differences on the RBANS, N-Back, probabilistic learning, or delayed discounting tasks. Study results support future studies of the utility of rasagiline for the treatment of negative symptoms, including avolition (clinicaltrials.gov trial number: NCT00492336). © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.
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Rasagiline in the Treatment of the Persistent Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia
Buchanan, Robert W.; Weiner, Elaine; Kelly, Deanna L.; Gold, James M.; Keller, William R.; Waltz, James A.; McMahon, Robert P.; Gorelick, David A.
2015-01-01
Objective: The current study examined the efficacy and safety of rasagiline, a selective MAO-B inhibitor, for the treatment of persistent negative symptoms. Methods: Sixty people with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, who met a priori criteria for persistent negative symptoms, were randomized to receive rasagiline, 1mg/d (n = 31) or placebo (n = 29) in a 12-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. The Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) total score was used to assess change in negative symptoms. The Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), N-Back test, a probabilistic learning task, and a delayed discounting task were used to assess cognition. Results: In a mixed model analysis of covariance (MM-ANCOVA), with time as a continuous variable, there was a significant treatment × time effect for SANS total score (F = 5.61(df = 1,40.3), P = .023). The treatment × time interaction effect was also significant for the SANS avolition subscale score (F(1,40.2) = 10.41, P = .002). In a post hoc MM-ANCOVA analyses, with time as a categorical variable, group differences were significant at week 12 for SANS total score (t(37.3) = 2.15; P = .04; d = −0.41) and SANS avolition subscale score (t(49.0) = 3.06; P = .004; d = −0.46). There was a significant difference in number of participants with a ≥20% reduction in SANS avolition score (χ2(1) = 10.94; P = .0009), but not in SANS total score (χ2(1) = 1.11; P = .29). There were no significant group differences on the RBANS, N-Back, probabilistic learning, or delayed discounting tasks. Conclusions: Study results support future studies of the utility of rasagiline for the treatment of negative symptoms, including avolition (clinicaltrials.gov trial number: NCT00492336). PMID:25368372
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Pornpattananangkul, Narun; Nadig, Ajay; Heidinger, Storm; Walden, Keegan; Nusslock, Robin
2017-06-01
Although waiting for a reward reduces or discounts its value, some people have a stronger tendency to wait for larger rewards and forgo smaller-but-immediate rewards. This ability to delay gratification is captured by individual differences in so-called intertemporal choices in which individuals are asked to choose between larger-but-delayed versus smaller-but-immediate rewards. The current study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine whether enhancement in two neurocognitive processes, outcome anticipation and outcome evaluation, modulate individual variability in intertemporal responses. After completing a behavioral intertemporal choice task, 34 participants performed an ERP gambling task. From this ERP task, we separately examined individual differences in outcome anticipation (stimulus-preceding negativity; SPN), early outcome valuation (feedback-related negativity; FRN), and late outcome evaluation (P3). We observed that both elevated outcome-anticipation (SPN) and late outcome-evaluation (P3) neural processes predicted a stronger preference toward larger-but-delayed rewards. No relationship was observed between intertemporal responses and early outcome evaluation (FRN), indicating that the relationship between outcome evaluation and intertemporal responses was specific to the late outcome-evaluation processing stream. Moreover, multiple regression analyses indicated that the SPN and P3 independently modulate individual differences in intertemporal responses, suggesting separate mechanisms underlie the relationship between these two neurocognitive processes and intertemporal responses. Accordingly, we identify two potential neurocognitive modulators of individual variability in intertemporal responses. We discuss the mechanisms underlying these modulators in terms of anticipation-related processing (SPN) and a saliency bias toward gain (compared to loss) outcomes (P3).
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Hartmann, Matthias N; Hager, Oliver M; Reimann, Anna V; Chumbley, Justin R; Kirschner, Matthias; Seifritz, Erich; Tobler, Philippe N; Kaiser, Stefan
2015-03-01
Negative symptoms in schizophrenia have been grouped into the 2 factors of apathy and diminished expression, which might be caused by separable pathophysiological mechanisms. Recently, it has been proposed that apathy could be due to dysfunctional integration of reward and effort during decision making. We asked whether apathy in particular is associated with stronger devaluation ("discounting") of monetary rewards that require physical effort. Thirty-one patients with schizophrenia and 20 healthy control participants performed a computerized effort discounting task in which they could choose to exert physical effort on a handgrip to obtain monetary rewards. This procedure yields an individual measure for the strength of effort discounting. The degree of effort discounting was strongly correlated with apathy, but not with diminished expression. Importantly, the association between apathy and effort discounting was not driven by cognitive ability, antipsychotic medication, or other clinical and demographic variables. This study provides the first evidence for a highly specific association of apathy with effort-based decision making in patients with schizophrenia. Within a translational framework, the present effort discounting task could provide a bridge between apathy as a psychopathological phenomenon and established behavioral tasks to address similar states in animals. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.
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Ericson, Keith M Marzilli; White, John Myles; Laibson, David; Cohen, Jonathan D
2015-06-01
Heuristic models have been proposed for many domains involving choice. We conducted an out-of-sample, cross-validated comparison of heuristic models of intertemporal choice (which can account for many of the known intertemporal choice anomalies) and discounting models. Heuristic models outperformed traditional utility-discounting models, including models of exponential and hyperbolic discounting. The best-performing models predicted choices by using a weighted average of absolute differences and relative percentage differences of the attributes of the goods in a choice set. We concluded that heuristic models explain time-money trade-off choices in experiments better than do utility-discounting models. © The Author(s) 2015.
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Marzilli Ericson, Keith M.; White, John Myles; Laibson, David; Cohen, Jonathan D.
2015-01-01
Heuristic models have been proposed for many domains of choice. We compare heuristic models of intertemporal choice, which can account for many of the known intertemporal choice anomalies, to discounting models. We conduct an out-of-sample, cross-validated comparison of intertemporal choice models. Heuristic models outperform traditional utility discounting models, including models of exponential and hyperbolic discounting. The best performing models predict choices by using a weighted average of absolute differences and relative (percentage) differences of the attributes of the goods in a choice set. We conclude that heuristic models explain time-money tradeoff choices in experiments better than utility discounting models. PMID:25911124
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Applying a behavioral economic framework to understanding adolescent smoking.
Audrain-McGovern, Janet; Rodriguez, Daniel; Tercyak, Kenneth P; Epstein, Leonard H; Goldman, Paula; Wileyto, E Paul
2004-03-01
Adolescents' choice to smoke may depend on substitute reinforcers for smoking, complementary activities to smoking, and individual differences in reinforcer value. The influence of these variables on smoking was determined among 983 adolescents. Substitutes were school involvement, academic performance, physical activity, and sports team participation: complements were peer smoking and substance use; delay discounting assessed individual differences in reinforcer value. Latent growth modeling indicated that substitute reinforcers reduced the odds of smoking progression almost two-fold, complementary reinforcers increased the odds by 1.14. and delay discounting indirectly influenced the odds of smoking progression through complementary reinforcers. Adolescents who smoke may have fewer reinforcers that protect against smoking and more reinforcers that promote smoking. Discounting of future rewards affects smoking through reinforcer type.
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Schlund, Michael W.; Brewer, Adam T.; Richman, David M.; Magee, Sandy K.; Dymond, Simon
2015-01-01
The dorsal anterior cingulate (adACC) and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) play a central role in the discrimination and appraisal of threatening stimuli. Yet, little is known about what specific features of threatening situations recruit these regions and how avoidance may modulate appraisal and activation through prevention of aversive events. In this investigation, 30 healthy adults underwent functional neuroimaging while completing an avoidance task in which responses to an Avoidable CS+ threat prevented delivery of an aversive stimulus, but not to an Unavoidable CS+ threat. Extinction testing was also completed where CSs were presented without aversive stimulus delivery and an opportunity to avoid. The Avoidable CS+ relative to the Unavoidable CS+ was associated with reductions in ratings of negative valence, fear, and US expectancy and activation. Greater regional activation was consistently observed to the Unavoidable CS+ during avoidance, which declined during extinction. Individuals exhibiting greater aversive discounting—that is, those more avoidant of immediate monetary loss compared to a larger delayed loss—also displayed greater activation to the Unavoidable CS+, highlighting aversive discounting as a significant individual difference variable. These are the first results linking adACC/dmPFC reactivity to avoidance-based reductions of aversive events and modulation of activation by individual differences in aversive discounting. PMID:26113813
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The behavioral economics of driving after drinking among college drinkers.
Teeters, Jenni B; Murphy, James G
2015-05-01
Driving after drinking (DAD) among college students is a significant public health concern, yet little is known about specific theoretical risk factors for DAD, beyond drinking level, among college student drinkers. This study had the following aims: (i) to examine the associations between elevated alcohol demand and DAD, (ii) to determine whether demand decreases in response to a hypothetical driving scenario, (iii) to determine whether drivers who report DAD in the past 3 months would show less of a reduction in demand in response to the hypothetical driving scenario, and (iv) to determine whether delayed reward discounting (DRD) is associated with DAD. Participants were 419 college students who reported at least 1 day of past-month alcohol use. Participants completed 2 alcohol purchase tasks (APTs) that assessed hypothetical alcohol consumption across 17 drink prices with and without a driving scenario, a delay-discounting task, and a series of questions regarding DAD. In logistic regression models that controlled for drinking level, demographics, and sensation seeking, participants reporting higher demand intensity (95% confidence interval [95% CI] [1.04, 2.34]), breakpoint (95% CI [1.23, 2.28]), Omax (95% CI [1.03, 1.53]), and lower elasticity (95% CI [0.15, 1.02]) were more likely to report DAD. Additionally, in analyses of covariance, DAD(+) participants exhibited significantly less of a reduction in demand between the standard and the driving APT (intensity, p < 0.01, breakpoint, p = 0.05, and Omax , p < 0.01). A binary logistic regression model with identical covariates revealed that DRD is not associated with DAD. DAD is associated with elevated/inelastic demand and less sensitivity to a hypothetical driving scenario. Drinkers with elevated demand should be prioritized for DAD intervention efforts. Copyright © 2015 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Demurie, Ellen; Roeyers, Herbert; Baeyens, Dieter; Sonuga-Barke, Edmund
2013-01-01
It has been shown that delayed consumable rewards are discounted to a higher degree than money, which has been referred to as the "domain effect". Until now the effects of reward type on temporal discounting (TD) have mainly been studied in adults. Although there is evidence that children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) tend…
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Guo, Yiqun; Chen, Zhiyi; Feng, Tingyong
2017-07-28
Although several previous studies have shown that individuals' attitude towards time could affect their intertemporal preference, little is known about the neural basis of the relation between time perspective (TP) and delay discounting. In the present study, we quantified the gray matter (GM) cortical volume using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) methods to investigate the effect of TP on delay discounting (DD) across two independent samples. For group 1 (102 healthy college students; 46 male; 20.40 ± 1.87 years), behavioral results showed that only Future TP was a significant predictor of DD, and higher scores on Future TP were related to lower discounting rates. Whole-brain analysis revealed that steeper discounting correlated with greater GM volume in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and ventral part of posterior cingulate cortex (vPCC). Also, GM volume of a cluster in the vmPFC was correlated with Future TP. Interestingly, there was an overlapping region in vmPFC that was correlated with both DD and Future TP. Region-of-interest analysis further indicated that the overlapping region of vmPFC played a partially mediating role in the relation between Future TP and DD in the other independent dataset (Group 2, 36 healthy college students; 14 male; 20.18±1.80 years). Taken together, our results provide a new perspective from neural basis for explaining the relation between DD and future TP. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Cosenza, Marina; Nigro, Giovanna
2015-12-01
This study investigated the relationship of cognitive distortions, self-reported impulsivity, delay discounting, and time perspective to gambling severity in Italian adolescents. One thousand and thirty high school students were administered the South Oaks Gambling Screen Revised for Adolescents (SOGS-RA), the Gambling Related Cognitions Scale (GRCS), the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), the Monetary Choice Questionnaire (MCQ), and the Consideration of Future Consequences Scale (CFC-14). A factor analysis, used to evaluate common factors assessed by the different measures, revealed a three-factor structure of Cognitive distortions, Impulsive present orientation, and Delay discounting. The results of regression analysis using factor scores showed that males scored higher than females on the SOGS-RA and that gambling severity correlated positively with high scores on the three factors. These results indicate that cognitive distortions associated with gambling are a powerful predictor of gambling severity, and that adolescent gamblers are impaired in their abilities to think about the future. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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Can you change my preferences? Effect of social influence on intertemporal choice behavior.
Calluso, Cinzia; Tosoni, Annalisa; Fortunato, Gianfranco; Committeri, Giorgia
2017-07-14
The present study presents a novel social observation paradigm to examine whether temporal discounting (TD) can be modulated in a specific direction. In particular, after estimating a baseline discount rate, we exposed subjects to a pattern of choice that was opposite to their baseline preferences, i.e., subjects preferring immediate over delayed rewards were exposed to a farsighted pattern of behavior and vice-versa. The results showed a significant decrease of the discount rate in the discounter group and an increase in the farsighted group. The effect was mainly guided by a modification of the subjective values at short time delays and was stronger in subjects with extreme, compared to mild, baseline preferences. Importantly, the magnitude and direction of the effect predicted the baseline preferences. These findings have potentially very relevant implications for the prevention and treatment of clinical conditions, such as addition-related disorders, characterized by severe impairments of decision-making mechanisms. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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The behavioral economics of will in recovery from addiction.
Monterosso, John; Ainslie, George
2007-09-01
Behavioral economic studies demonstrate that rewards are discounted proportionally with their delay (hyperbolic discounting). Hyperbolic discounting implies temporary preference for smaller rewards when they are imminent, and this concept has been widely considered by researchers interested in the causes of addictive behavior. Far less consideration has been given to the fact that systematic preference reversal also predicts various self-control phenomena, which may also be analyzed from a behavioral economic perspective. Here we summarize self-control phenomena predicted by hyperbolic discounting, particularly with application to the field of addiction. Of greatest interest is the phenomenon of choice bundling, an increase in motivation to wait for delayed rewards that can be expected to result from making choices in whole categories. Specifically, when a person's expectations about her own future behavior are conditional upon her current behavior, the value of these expectations is added to the contingencies for the current behavior, resulting in reduced impulsivity. Hyperbolic discounting provides a bottom-up basis for the intuitive learning of choice bundling, the properties of which match common descriptions of willpower. We suggest that the bundling effect can also be discerned in the advice of 12-step programs.
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The behavioral economics of will in recovery from addiction
Monterosso, John; Ainslie, George
2007-01-01
Behavioral economic studies demonstrate that rewards are discounted proportionally with their delay (hyperbolic discounting). Hyperbolic discounting implies temporary preference for smaller rewards when they are imminent, and this concept has been widely considered by researchers interested in the causes of addictive behavior. Far less consideration has been given to the fact that systematic preference reversal also predicts various self-control phenomena, which may also be analyzed from a behavioral economic perspective. Here we summarize self-control phenomena predicted by hyperbolic discounting, particularly with application to the field of addiction. Of greatest interest is the phenomenon of choice bundling, an increase in motivation to wait for delayed rewards that can be expected to result from making choices in whole categories. Specifically, when a person’s expectations about her own future behavior are conditional upon her current behavior, the value of these expectations is added to the contingencies for the current behavior, resulting in reduced impulsivity. Hyperbolic discounting provides a bottom-up basis for the intuitive learning of choice bundling, the properties of which match common descriptions of willpower. We suggest that the bundling effect can also be discerned in the advice of 12-step programs. PMID:17034958
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Time and outcome framing in intertemporal tradeoffs.
Scholten, Marc; Read, Daniel
2013-07-01
A robust anomaly in intertemporal choice is the delay-speedup asymmetry: Receipts are discounted more, and payments are discounted less, when delayed than when expedited over the same interval. We developed 2 versions of the tradeoff model (Scholten & Read, 2010) to address such situations, in which an outcome is expected at a given time but then its timing is changed. The outcome framing model generalizes the approach taken by the hyperbolic discounting model (Loewenstein & Prelec, 1992): Not obtaining a positive outcome when expected is a worse than expected state, to which people are over-responsive, or hypersensitive, and not incurring a negative outcome when expected is a better than expected state, to which people are under-responsive, or hyposensitive. The time framing model takes a new approach: Delaying a positive outcome or speeding up a negative one involves a loss of time to which people are hypersensitive, and speeding up a positive outcome or delaying a negative one involves a gain of time to which people are hyposensitive. We compare the models on their quantitative predictions of indifference data from matching and preference data from choice. The time framing model systematically outperforms the outcome framing model. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.
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White, Thomas J; Redner, Ryan; Skelly, Joan M; Higgins, Stephen T
2014-10-01
We investigated three potential predictors (educational attainment, prepregnancy smoking rate, and delay discounting [DD]) of spontaneous quitting among pregnant smokers. These predictors were examined alone and in combination with other potential predictors using study-intake assessments from controlled clinical trials examining the efficacy of financial incentives for smoking cessation and relapse prevention. Data from 349 pregnant women (231 continuing smokers and 118 spontaneous quitters) recruited from the greater Burlington, VT, area contributed to this secondary analysis, including psychiatric/sociodemographic characteristics, smoking characteristics, and performance on a computerized DD task. Educational attainment, smoking rate, and DD values were each significant predictors of spontaneous quitting in univariate analyses. A model examining those three predictors together retained educational attainment as a main effect and revealed a significant interaction of DD and smoking rate (i.e., DD was a significant predictor at lower but not higher smoking rates). A final model considering all potential predictors, included education, the interaction of DD and smoking rate, and five additional predictors (i.e., stress ratings, the belief that smoking during pregnancy will "greatly harm my baby," age of smoking initiation, marital status, and prior quit attempts during pregnancy). The study presented here contributes new knowledge on predictors of spontaneous quitting among pregnant smokers with substantive practical implications for reducing smoking during pregnancy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
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The decision neuroscience perspective on suicidal behavior: evidence and hypotheses
Dombrovski, Alexandre Y.; Hallquist, Michael N.
2017-01-01
Purpose of review Suicide attempts are usually regretted by people who survive them. Furthermore, addiction and gambling are over-represented among people who attempt or die by suicide, raising the question whether their decision-making is impaired. Advances in decision neuroscience have enabled us to investigate decision processes in suicidal people and to elucidate putative neural substrates of disadvantageous decision-making. Recent findings Early studies have linked attempted suicide to poor performance on gambling tasks. More recently, functional MRI augmented with a reinforcement learning computational model revealed that impaired decision-making in suicide attempters is paralleled by disrupted expected value (expected reward) signals in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Behavioral studies have linked increased delay discounting to low-lethality/poorly planned attempts, multiple attempts, and the co-occurrence of attempted suicide and addiction. This behavioral tendency may be related to altered integrity of the basal ganglia. By contrast, well-planned, serious suicide attempts were associated with intact/diminished delay discounting. One study has linked high-lethality suicide attempts and impaired social decision-making. Summary This emerging literature supports the notion that various impairments in decision-making – often broadly related to impulsivity – may mark different pathways to suicide. We propose that aggressive and self-destructive responses to social stressors in people prone to suicide result from a predominance of automatic, Pavlovian processes over goal-directed computations. PMID:27875379
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Individual laboratory-measured discount rates predict field behavior
Chabris, Christopher F.; Laibson, David; Morris, Carrie L.; Schuldt, Jonathon P.; Taubinsky, Dmitry
2009-01-01
We estimate discount rates of 555 subjects using a laboratory task and find that these individual discount rates predict inter-individual variation in field behaviors (e.g., exercise, BMI, smoking). The correlation between the discount rate and each field behavior is small: none exceeds 0.28 and many are near 0. However, the discount rate has at least as much predictive power as any variable in our dataset (e.g., sex, age, education). The correlation between the discount rate and field behavior rises when field behaviors are aggregated: these correlations range from 0.09-0.38. We present a model that explains why specific intertemporal choice behaviors are only weakly correlated with discount rates, even though discount rates robustly predict aggregates of intertemporal decisions. PMID:19412359
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Individual laboratory-measured discount rates predict field behavior.
Chabris, Christopher F; Laibson, David; Morris, Carrie L; Schuldt, Jonathon P; Taubinsky, Dmitry
2008-12-01
We estimate discount rates of 555 subjects using a laboratory task and find that these individual discount rates predict inter-individual variation in field behaviors (e.g., exercise, BMI, smoking). The correlation between the discount rate and each field behavior is small: none exceeds 0.28 and many are near 0. However, the discount rate has at least as much predictive power as any variable in our dataset (e.g., sex, age, education). The correlation between the discount rate and field behavior rises when field behaviors are aggregated: these correlations range from 0.09-0.38. We present a model that explains why specific intertemporal choice behaviors are only weakly correlated with discount rates, even though discount rates robustly predict aggregates of intertemporal decisions.
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Pornpattananangkul, Narun; Nadig, Ajay; Heidinger, Storm; Walden, Keegan; Nusslock, Robin
2017-01-01
Although waiting for a reward reduces or discounts its value, some people have a stronger tendency to wait for larger rewards and forgo smaller-but-immediate rewards. This ability to delay gratification is captured by individual differences in so-called inter-temporal choices in which individuals are asked to choose between larger-but-delayed versus smaller-but-immediate rewards. The current study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine whether enhancement in two neuro-cognitive processes, outcome-anticipation and outcome-evaluation, modulate individual variability in inter-temporal responses. After completing a behavioral inter-temporal choice task, 34 participants performed an ERP gambling task. From this ERP task, we separately examined individual differences in outcome-anticipation (Stimulus-Preceding Negativity, SPN), early outcome-evaluation (Feedback-Related Negativity; FRN) and late outcome-evaluation (P3). We observed that both elevated outcome-anticipation (SPN) and late outcome-evaluation (P3) neural processes predicted a stronger preference toward larger-but-delayed rewards. No relationship was observed between inter-temporal responses and early outcome-evaluation (FRN), indicating that the relationship between outcome-evaluation and inter-temporal responses was specific to the late outcome-evaluation processing stream. Moreover, multiple regression analyses indicated that the SPN and P3 independently modulate individual differences in inter-temporal responses, suggesting separate mechanisms underlie the relationship between these two neuro-cognitive processes and inter-temporal responses. Accordingly, we identify two potential neural-cognitive modulators of individual variability in inter-temporal responses. We discuss the mechanisms underlying these modulators in terms of anticipation-related processing (SPN) and a saliency-bias toward gain (compared to loss) outcomes (P3). PMID:28224457
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Minamimoto, Takafumi; La Camera, Giancarlo; Richmond, Barry J
2009-01-01
Motivation is usually inferred from the likelihood or the intensity with which behavior is carried out. It is sensitive to external factors (e.g., the identity, amount, and timing of a rewarding outcome) and internal factors (e.g., hunger or thirst). We trained macaque monkeys to perform a nonchoice instrumental task (a sequential red-green color discrimination) while manipulating two external factors: reward size and delay-to-reward. We also inferred the state of one internal factor, level of satiation, by monitoring the accumulated reward. A visual cue indicated the forthcoming reward size and delay-to-reward in each trial. The fraction of trials completed correctly by the monkeys increased linearly with reward size and was hyperbolically discounted by delay-to-reward duration, relations that are similar to those found in free operant and choice tasks. The fraction of correct trials also decreased progressively as a function of the satiation level. Similar (albeit noiser) relations were obtained for reaction times. The combined effect of reward size, delay-to-reward, and satiation level on the proportion of correct trials is well described as a multiplication of the effects of the single factors when each factor is examined alone. These results provide a quantitative account of the interaction of external and internal factors on instrumental behavior, and allow us to extend the concept of subjective value of a rewarding outcome, usually confined to external factors, to account also for slow changes in the internal drive of the subject.
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Minamimoto, Takafumi; La Camera, Giancarlo; Richmond, Barry J.
2009-01-01
Motivation is usually inferred from the likelihood or the intensity with which behavior is carried out. It is sensitive to external factors (e.g., the identity, amount, and timing of a rewarding outcome) and internal factors (e.g., hunger or thirst). We trained macaque monkeys to perform a nonchoice instrumental task (a sequential red-green color discrimination) while manipulating two external factors: reward size and delay-to-reward. We also inferred the state of one internal factor, level of satiation, by monitoring the accumulated reward. A visual cue indicated the forthcoming reward size and delay-to-reward in each trial. The fraction of trials completed correctly by the monkeys increased linearly with reward size and was hyperbolically discounted by delay-to-reward duration, relations that are similar to those found in free operant and choice tasks. The fraction of correct trials also decreased progressively as a function of the satiation level. Similar (albeit noiser) relations were obtained for reaction times. The combined effect of reward size, delay-to-reward, and satiation level on the proportion of correct trials is well described as a multiplication of the effects of the single factors when each factor is examined alone. These results provide a quantitative account of the interaction of external and internal factors on instrumental behavior, and allow us to extend the concept of subjective value of a rewarding outcome, usually confined to external factors, to account also for slow changes in the internal drive of the subject. PMID:18987119
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Lavagnino, Luca; Arnone, Danilo; Cao, Bo; Soares, Jair C; Selvaraj, Sudhakar
2016-09-01
The ability to exercise appropriate inhibitory control is critical in the regulation of body weight, but the exact mechanisms are not known. In this systematic review, we identified 37 studies that used specific neuropsychological tasks relevant to inhibitory control performance in obese participants with and without binge eating disorder (BED). We performed a meta-analysis of the studies that used the stop signal task (N=8). We further examined studies on the delay discounting task, the go/no-go task and the Stroop task in a narrative review. We found that inhibitory control is significantly impaired in obese adults and children compared to individuals with body weight within a healthy range (Standardized Mean Difference (SMD): 0.30; CI=0.00, 0.59, p=0.007). The presence of BED in obese individuals did not impact on task performance (SMD: 0.05; CI: -0.22, 0.32, p=0.419). Neuroimaging studies in obesity suggest that lower prefrontal cortex activity affects inhibitory control and BMI. In summary, impairment in inhibitory control is a critical feature associated with obesity and a potential target for clinical interventions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Beyond discounting: possible experimental models of impulse control.
Monterosso, J; Ainslie, G
1999-10-01
Animal studies of impulsivity have typically used one of three models: a delay of reward procedure, a differential reinforcement for low rate responding (DRL) procedure, or an autoshaping procedure. In each of these paradigms, we argue, measurement of impulsivity is implicitly or explicitly equated with the effect delay has on the value of reward. The steepness by which delay diminishes value (the temporal discount function) is treated as an index of impulsivity. In order to provide a better analog of human impulsivity, this model needs to be expanded to include the converse of impulsivity - self-control. Through mechanisms such as committing to long range interests before the onset of temptation, or through bundling individual choices into classes of choices that are made at once, human decision-making can often look far less myopic than single trial experiments predict. For people, impulsive behavior may be more often the result of the breakdown of self-control mechanisms than of steep discount functions. Existing animal models of self-control are discussed, and future directions are suggested for psychopharmacological research.
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Stress hormones predict hyperbolic time-discount rates six months later in adults.
Takahashi, Taiki; Shinada, Mizuho; Inukai, Keigo; Tanida, Shigehito; Takahashi, Chisato; Mifune, Nobuhiro; Takagishi, Haruto; Horita, Yutaka; Hashimoto, Hirofumi; Yokota, Kunihiro; Kameda, Tatsuya; Yamagishi, Toshio
2010-01-01
Stress hormones have been associated with temporal discounting. Although time-discount rate is shown to be stable over a long term, no study to date examines whether individual differences in stress hormones could predict individuals' time-discount rates in the relatively distant future (e.g., six month later), which is of interest in neuroeconomics of stress-addiction association. We assessed 87 participants' salivary stress hormone (cortisol, cortisone, and alpha-amylase) levels and hyperbolic discounting of delayed rewards consisting of three magnitudes, at the time-interval of six months. For salivary steroid assays, we employed a liquid chromatography/ mass spectroscopy (LC/MS) method. The correlations between the stress hormone levels and time-discount rates were examined. We observed that salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) levels were negatively associated with time-discount rates in never-smokers. Notably, salivary levels of stress steroids (i.e., cortisol and cortisone) negatively and positively related to time-discount rates in men and women, respectively, in never-smokers. Ever-smokers' discount rates were not predicted from these stress hormone levels. Individual differences in stress hormone levels predict impulsivity in temporal discounting in the future. There are sex differences in the effect of stress steroids on temporal discounting; while there was no sex defference in the relationship between sAA and temporal discounting.
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Transactional Problem Content in Cost Discounting: Parallel Effects for Probability and Delay
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jones, Stephen; Oaksford, Mike
2011-01-01
Four experiments investigated the effects of transactional content on temporal and probabilistic discounting of costs. Kusev, van Schaik, Ayton, Dent, and Chater (2009) have shown that content other than gambles can alter decision-making behavior even when associated value and probabilities are held constant. Transactions were hypothesized to lead…
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The Effects of Reduced Cigarette Smoking on Discounting Future Rewards: An Initial Evaluation
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Yi, Richard; Johnson, Matthew W.; Giordano, Louis A.; Landes, Reid D.; Badger, Gary J.; Bickel, Warren K.
2008-01-01
To determine whether reduction of smoking via contingency management in dependent smokers would decrease the discounting of delayed reinforcers compared with smokers who did not reduce their smoking, moderate to heavy cigarette smokers were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: a contingency management condition and a control condition. In…
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Wang, Yifan; Wu, Lingdan; Wang, Lingxiao; Zhang, Yifen; Du, Xiaoxia; Dong, Guangheng
2017-11-01
Although Internet games have been proven to be addictive, only a few game players develop online gaming addiction. A large number of players play online games recreationally without being addicted to it. These individuals are defined as recreational Internet gaming users (RGU). So far, no research has investigated decision-making and impulse control in RGU. In the current study, we used delay discounting (DD) task and probabilistic discounting (PD) task to examine decision-making and impulse control in 20 healthy controls, 20 subjects with Internet gaming disorder (IGD) and 23 RGU during fMRI scanning. At the behavioral level, RGU showed lower DD rate and higher PD rate than subjects with IGD and there was no significant difference between RGU and healthy controls on the DD and PD rates. At the neural level, RGU showed increased neural response in the parahippocampal gyrus, the anterior cingulate cortex, the medial frontal gyrus and the inferior frontal gyrus as compared with subjects with IGD. These brain regions may play an important role in preventing RGU from developing addiction. The results suggest that the RGU are capable of inhibiting impulse due to additional cognitive endeavor and the subjects with IGD have deficit in decision-making and impulsive control, which are associated with brain dysfunction. © 2016 Society for the Study of Addiction.
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Winstanley, Catharine A; Baunez, Christelle; Theobald, David E H; Robbins, Trevor W
2005-06-01
Although the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is involved in regulating motor function, and inactivation of this structure relieves the motor symptoms in Parkinsonian patients, recent data indicate that corticosubthalamic connections are involved in both the regulation of attention and the ability to withhold from responding. Considerable evidence suggests that the neural circuitry underlying such behavioural disinhibition or impulsive action can be at least partially dissociated from that implicated in impulsive decision-making and it has been suggested that the tendency to choose impulsively is related to the ability to form and use Pavlovian associations. To explore these hypotheses further, STN-lesioned rats were tested on the delay-discounting model of impulsive choice, where impulsivity is defined as the selection of a small immediate over a larger delayed reward, as well as in a rodent autoshaping paradigm. In contrast to previous reports of increased impulsive action, STN lesions decreased impulsive choice but dramatically impaired the acquisition of the autoshaping response. When the STN was lesioned after the establishment of autoshaping behaviour, lesioned subjects were more sensitive to the omission of reward, indicative of a reduction in the use of Pavlovian associations to control autoshaping performance. These results emphasize the importance of the STN in permitting conditioned stimulus-unconditioned stimulus associations to regulate goal-seeking, a function which may relate to the alterations in impulsive choice observed in the delay-discounting task. These data bear a striking similarity to those observed after lesions of the orbitofrontal cortex and are suggestive of an important role for corticosubthalamic connections in complex cognitive behaviour.
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Do neurocognitive deficits in decision making differentiate conduct disorder subtypes?
Fanti, Kostas A; Kimonis, Eva R; Hadjicharalambous, Maria-Zoe; Steinberg, Laurence
2016-09-01
The present study aimed to test whether neurocognitive deficits involved in decision making underlie subtypes of conduct-disorder (CD) differentiated on the basis of callous-unemotional (CU) traits. Eighty-five participants (M age = 10.94 years) were selected from a sample of 1200 children based on repeated assessment of CD and CU traits. Participants completed a multi-method battery of well-validated measures of risky decision making and associated constructs of selective attention and future orientation (Stroop, Stoplight, and Delay-Discounting Tasks). Findings indicated that impaired decision making, selective attention, and future orientation contribute to the antisocial presentations displayed by children with CD, irrespective of level of CU traits. Youth high on CU traits without CD showed less risky decision making, as indicated by their performance on the Stoplight laboratory task, than those high on both CD and CU traits, suggesting a potential protective factor against the development of antisocial behavior.
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Always Gamble on an Empty Stomach: Hunger Is Associated with Advantageous Decision Making
de Ridder, Denise; Kroese, Floor; Adriaanse, Marieke; Evers, Catharine
2014-01-01
Three experimental studies examined the counterintuitive hypothesis that hunger improves strategic decision making, arguing that people in a hot state are better able to make favorable decisions involving uncertain outcomes. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that participants with more hunger or greater appetite made more advantageous choices in the Iowa Gambling Task compared to sated participants or participants with a smaller appetite. Study 3 revealed that hungry participants were better able to appreciate future big rewards in a delay discounting task; and that, in spite of their perception of increased rewarding value of both food and monetary objects, hungry participants were not more inclined to take risks to get the object of their desire. Together, these studies for the first time provide evidence that hot states improve decision making under uncertain conditions, challenging the conventional conception of the detrimental role of impulsivity in decision making. PMID:25340399
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Always gamble on an empty stomach: hunger is associated with advantageous decision making.
de Ridder, Denise; Kroese, Floor; Adriaanse, Marieke; Evers, Catharine
2014-01-01
Three experimental studies examined the counterintuitive hypothesis that hunger improves strategic decision making, arguing that people in a hot state are better able to make favorable decisions involving uncertain outcomes. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that participants with more hunger or greater appetite made more advantageous choices in the Iowa Gambling Task compared to sated participants or participants with a smaller appetite. Study 3 revealed that hungry participants were better able to appreciate future big rewards in a delay discounting task; and that, in spite of their perception of increased rewarding value of both food and monetary objects, hungry participants were not more inclined to take risks to get the object of their desire. Together, these studies for the first time provide evidence that hot states improve decision making under uncertain conditions, challenging the conventional conception of the detrimental role of impulsivity in decision making.
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Patros, Connor H G; Alderson, R Matt; Kasper, Lisa J; Tarle, Stephanie J; Lea, Sarah E; Hudec, Kristen L
2016-02-01
Impulsive behavior is a core DSM-5 diagnostic feature of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) that is associated with several pejorative outcomes. Impulsivity is multidimensional, consisting of two sub-constructs: rapid-response impulsivity and reward-delay impulsivity (i.e., choice-impulsivity). While previous research has extensively examined the presence and implications of rapid-response impulsivity in children with ADHD, reviews of choice-impulsive behavior have been both sparse and relatively circumscribed. This review used meta-analytic methods to comprehensively examine between-group differences in choice-impulsivity among children and adolescents with and without ADHD. Twenty-eight tasks (from 26 studies), consisting of 4320 total children (ADHD=2360, TD=1,960), provided sufficient information to compute an overall between-group effect size for choice-impulsivity performance. Results revealed a medium-magnitude between-group effect size (g=.47), suggesting that children and adolescents with ADHD exhibited moderately increased impulsive decision-making compared to TD children and adolescents. Further, relative to the TD group, children and adolescents with ADHD exhibited similar patterns of impulsive decision-making across delay discounting and delay of gratification tasks. However, the use of single-informant diagnostic procedures relative to multiple informants yielded larger between-group effects, and a similar pattern was observed across samples that excluded females relative to samples that included females. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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The effects of oral d-amphetamine on impulsivity in smoked and intranasal cocaine users.
Reed, Stephanie Collins; Evans, Suzette M
2016-06-01
Effective treatments for cocaine use disorders remain elusive. Two factors that may be related to treatment failures are route of cocaine used and impulsivity. Smoked cocaine users are more likely to have poorer treatment outcomes compared to intranasal cocaine users. Further, cocaine users are impulsive and impulsivity is associated with poor treatment outcomes. While stimulants are used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and attenuate certain cocaine-related behaviors, few studies have comprehensively examined whether stimulants can reduce behavioral impulsivity in cocaine users, and none examined route of cocaine use as a factor. The effects of immediate release oral d-amphetamine (AMPH) were examined in 34 cocaine users (13 intranasal, 21 smoked). Participants had three separate sessions where they were administered AMPH (0, 10, or 20mg) and completed behavioral measures of impulsivity and risk-taking and subjective measures of abuse liability. Smoked cocaine users were more impulsive on the Delayed Memory Task, the GoStop task and the Delay Discounting Task than intranasal cocaine users. Smoked cocaine users also reported more cocaine craving and negative mood than intranasal cocaine users. AMPH produced minimal increases on measures of abuse liability (e.g., Drug Liking). Smoked cocaine users were more impulsive than intranasal cocaine users on measures of impulsivity that had a delay component. Additionally, although AMPH failed to attenuate impulsive responding, there was minimal evidence of abuse liability in cocaine users. These preliminary findings need to be confirmed in larger samples that control for route and duration of cocaine use. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
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The Effects of Oral d-Amphetamine on Impulsivity in Smoked and Intranasal Cocaine Users
Reed, Stephanie Collins; Evans, Suzette M.
2016-01-01
BACKGROUND Effective treatments for cocaine use disorders remain elusive. Two factors that may be related to treatment failures are route of cocaine used and impulsivity. Smoked cocaine users are more likely to have poorer treatment outcomes compared to intranasal cocaine users. Further, cocaine users are impulsive and impulsivity is associated with poor treatment outcomes. While stimulants are used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and attenuate certain cocaine-related behaviors, few studies have comprehensively examined whether stimulants can reduce behavioral impulsivity in cocaine users, and none examined route of cocaine use as a factor. METHODS The effects of immediate release oral d-amphetamine (AMPH) were examined in 34 cocaine users (13 intranasal, 21 smoked). Participants had three separate sessions where they were administered AMPH (0, 10, or 20 mg) and completed behavioral measures of impulsivity and risk-taking and subjective measures of abuse liability. RESULTS Smoked cocaine users were more impulsive on the Delayed Memory Task, the GoStop task and the Delay Discounting Task than intranasal cocaine users. Smoked cocaine users also reported more cocaine craving and negative mood than intranasal cocaine users. AMPH produced minimal increases on measures of abuse liability (e.g., Drug Liking). CONCLUSIONS Smoked cocaine users were more impulsive than intranasal cocaine users on measures of impulsivity that had a delay component. Additionally, although AMPH failed to attenuate impulsive responding, there was minimal evidence of abuse liability in cocaine users. These preliminary findings need to be confirmed in larger samples that control for route and duration of cocaine use. PMID:27114203
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Zhu, Youwei; Jiang, Haifeng; Su, Hang; Zhong, Na; Li, Runji; Li, Xiaotong; Chen, Tianzhen; Tan, Haoye; Du, Jiang; Xu, Ding; Yan, Huan; Xu, Dawen; Zhao, Min
2018-06-20
Cognitive rehabilitation therapy has been found to improve cognitive deficits and impulse control problems in methamphetamine use disorder (MUD). However, there is limited research regarding this therapy's feasibility when using mobile-based health technologies in supporting recovery from MUD in China. The main aim of this study was to test whether 4 weeks of a newly designed computerized cognitive addiction therapy (CCAT) app can improve cognitive impairments, eliminate drug-related attention bias, and attenuate risk decision-making behaviors in participants with MUD. Forty MUD participants were assigned randomly to either the CCAT group (n=20), who received 4 weeks of CCAT plus regular detoxification treatment as usual, or the control group (n=20), who only received the regular detoxification treatment as usual, in drug rehabilitation centers in Shanghai. The CCAT was designed by combine methamphetamine use-related picture stimuli with cognitive training with the aim of improving cognitive function and eliminating drug-related attention bias. The CogState Battery, Delay Discounting Task (DDT), Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), and Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART) were administered face-to-face to all participants before and after CCAT interventions. Forty male patients were recruited. The mean age was 32.70 (SD 5.27) years in the CCAT group and mean 35.05 (SD 8.02) years in the control group. Compared to the control group, CCAT improved working memory in the CCAT group (P=.01). Group×time interactions were observed among DDT, IGT, and BART tasks, with rates of discounting delayed rewards, IGT, and BART scores (P<.001) being reduced among those who received CCAT, whereas no changes were found in the control group. The newly designed CCAT can help to improve cognitive impairment and impulsive control in MUD. Further study is needed to understand the underlying brain mechanisms of the cognitive therapy. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03318081; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03318081 (Archived by WebCite at https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03318081). ©Youwei Zhu, Haifeng Jiang, Hang Su, Na Zhong, Runji Li, Xiaotong Li, Tianzhen Chen, Haoye Tan, Jiang Du, Ding Xu, Huan Yan, Dawen Xu, Min Zhao. Originally published in JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth (http://mhealth.jmir.org), 20.06.2018.
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Renee Renda, C; Rung, Jillian M; Hinnenkamp, Jay E; Lenzini, Stephanie N; Madden, Gregory J
2018-04-23
Impulsive choice describes preference for smaller, sooner rewards over larger, later rewards. Excessive delay discounting (i.e., rapid devaluation of delayed rewards) underlies some impulsive choices, and is observed in many maladaptive behaviors (e.g., substance abuse, gambling). Interventions designed to reduce delay discounting may provide therapeutic gains. One such intervention provides rats with extended training with delayed reinforcers. When compared to a group given extended training with immediate reinforcers, delay-exposed rats make significantly fewer impulsive choices. To what extent is this difference due to delay-exposure training shifting preference toward self-control or immediacy-exposure training (the putative control group) shifting preference toward impulsivity? The current study compared the effects of delay- and immediacy-exposure training to a no-training control group and evaluated within-subject changes in impulsive choice across 51 male Wistar rats. Delay-exposed rats made significantly fewer impulsive choices than immediacy-exposed and control rats. Between-group differences in impulsive choice were not observed in the latter two groups. While delay-exposed rats showed large, significant pre- to posttraining reductions in impulsive choice, immediacy-exposed and control rats showed small reductions in impulsive choice. These results suggest that extended training with delayed reinforcers reduces impulsive choice, and that extended training with immediate reinforcers does not increase impulsive choice. © 2018 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Locey, Matthew L.; Dallery, Jesse
2009-01-01
Many drugs of abuse produce changes in impulsive choice, that is, choice for a smaller-sooner reinforcer over a larger-later reinforcer. Because the alternatives differ in both delay and amount, it is not clear whether these drug effects are due to the differences in reinforcer delay or amount. To isolate the effects of delay, we used a titrating…
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Individual and social discounting in a viscous population.
Sozou, Peter D
2009-08-22
Social discounting in economics involves applying a diminishing weight to community-wide benefits or costs into the future. It impacts on public policy decisions involving future positive or negative effects, but there is no consensus on the correct basis for determining the social discount rate. This study presents an evolutionary biological framework for social discounting. How an organism should value future benefits to its local community is governed by the extent to which members of the community in the future are likely to be its kin. Trade-offs between immediate and delayed benefits to an individual or to its community are analysed for a modelled patch-structured iteroparous population with limited dispersal. It is shown that the social discount rate is generally lower than the individual (private) discount rate. The difference in the two rates is most pronounced, in ratio terms, when the dispersal level is low and the hazard rate for patch destruction is much smaller than the individual mortality rate. When decisions involve enforced collective action rather than individuals acting independently, social investment increases but the social discount rate remains the same.
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Subspecialization in the human posterior medial cortex
Bzdok, Danilo; Heeger, Adrian; Langner, Robert; Laird, Angela R.; Fox, Peter T.; Palomero-Gallagher, Nicola; Vogt, Brent A.; Zilles, Karl; Eickhoff, Simon B.
2014-01-01
The posterior medial cortex (PMC) is particularly poorly understood. Its neural activity changes have been related to highly disparate mental processes. We therefore investigated PMC properties with a data-driven exploratory approach. First, we subdivided the PMC by whole-brain coactivation profiles. Second, functional connectivity of the ensuing PMC regions was compared by task-constrained meta-analytic coactivation mapping (MACM) and task-unconstrained resting-state correlations (RSFC). Third, PMC regions were functionally described by forward/reverse functional inference. A precuneal cluster was mostly connected to the intraparietal sulcus, frontal eye fields, and right temporo-parietal junction; associated with attention and motor tasks. A ventral posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) cluster was mostly connected to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and middle left inferior parietal cortex (IPC); associated with facial appraisal and language tasks. A dorsal PCC cluster was mostly connected to the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, anterior/posterior IPC, posterior midcingulate cortex, and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; associated with delay discounting. A cluster in the retrosplenial cortex was mostly connected to the anterior thalamus and hippocampus. Furthermore, all PMC clusters were congruently coupled with the default mode network according to task-constrained but not task-unconstrained connectivity. We thus identified distinct regions in the PMC and characterized their neural networks and functional implications. PMID:25462801
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A low tension between individual and societal time aspects in health improved outcomes.
Ortendahl, Monica; Fries, James F
2006-11-01
To review intertemporal choices, involving decisions with a trade-off between something now and something later. These choices are common in health both at an individual and societal level. The present value of an outcome, for example, the amount of money or the health outcomes in various aspects, is equivalent to the value of a future outcome discounted with the delay of time. The concept of diminishing value over time is positive discounting. Economic forecasts generally use discount rates in which the value of a future dollar is less than the value of a present dollar, and where the discount rates are similar for the individual investor and society. The value of future health is commonly thought of as similar to the value of future money. Yet, the individual may rationally choose a discount rate that is exceedingly low or even negative. This paradox is particularly relevant when considering primary and secondary prevention, where initial and continuing costs may precede beneficent outcomes by decades, making discount rate selections the dominant factor in determining decisions. We suggest that the societal perspective should also recognize that discount rates for health outcomes are largely irrelevant and that even negative discount rates have crucial relevance.
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Time-discounting and tobacco smoking: a systematic review and network analysis
Barlow, Pepita; McKee, Martin; Reeves, Aaron; Galea, Gauden; Stuckler, David
2017-01-01
Abstract Background: Tobacco smoking harms health, so why do people smoke and fail to quit? An explanation originating in behavioural economics suggests a role for time-discounting, which describes how the value of a reward, such as better health, decreases with delay to its receipt. A large number of studies test the relationship of time-discounting with tobacco outcomes but the temporal pattern of this relationship and its variation according to measurement methods remain unclear. We review the association between time-discounting and smoking across (i) the life course, from initiation to cessation, and (ii) diverse discount measures. Methods: We identified 69 relevant studies in Web of Science and PubMed. We synthesized findings across methodologies and evaluated discount measures, study quality and cross-disciplinary fertilization. Results: In 44 out of 54 studies, smokers more greatly discounted the future than non-smokers and, in longitudinal studies, higher discounting predicted future smoking. Smokers with lower time-discount rates achieved higher quit rates. Findings were consistent across studies measuring discount rates using hypothetical monetary or cigarette reward scenarios. The methodological quality of the majority of studies was rated as ‘moderate’ and co-citation analysis revealed an isolation of economics journals and a dearth of studies in public health. Conclusion: There is moderate yet consistent evidence that high time-discounting is a risk factor for smoking and unsuccessful cessation. Policy scenarios assuming a flat rate of population discounting may inadequately capture smokers’ perceptions of costs and benefits. PMID:27818375
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Murphy, Clodagh M; Christakou, Anastasia; Giampietro, Vincent; Brammer, Michael; Daly, Eileen M; Ecker, Christine; Johnston, Patrick; Spain, Debbie; Robertson, Dene M; Murphy, Declan G; Rubia, Katya
2017-11-01
People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have poor decision-making and temporal foresight. This may adversely impact on their everyday life, mental health, and productivity. However, the neural substrates underlying poor choice behavior in people with ASD, or its' neurofunctional development from childhood to adulthood, are unknown. Despite evidence of atypical structural brain development in ASD, investigation of functional brain maturation in people with ASD is lacking. This cross-sectional developmental fMRI study investigated the neural substrates underlying performance on a temporal discounting (TD) task in 38 healthy (11-35 years old) male adolescents and adults with ASD and 40 age, sex, and IQ-matched typically developing healthy controls. Most importantly, we assessed group differences in the neurofunctional maturation of TD across childhood and adulthood. Males with ASD had significantly poorer task performance and significantly lower brain activation in typical regions that mediate TD for delayed choices, in predominantly right hemispheric regions of ventrolateral/dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, striatolimbic regions, and cerebellum. Importantly, differential activation in ventromedial frontal cortex and cerebellum was associated with abnormal functional brain maturation; controls, in contrast to people with ASD, showed progressively increasing activation with increasing age in these regions; which furthermore was associated with performance measures and clinical ASD measures (stereotyped/restricted interests). Findings provide first cross-sectional evidence that reduced activation of TD mediating brain regions in people with ASD during TD is associated with abnormal functional brain development in these regions between childhood and adulthood, and this is related to poor task performance and clinical measures of ASD. Hum Brain Mapp 38:5343-5355, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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Reviewing and piloting methods for decreasing discount rates; someone, somewhere in time.
Parouty, Mehraj B Y; Krooshof, Daan G M; Westra, Tjalke A; Pechlivanoglou, Petros; Postma, Maarten J
2013-08-01
There has been substantial debate on the need for decreasing discounting for monetary and health gains in economic evaluations. Next to the discussion on differential discounting, a way to identify the need for such discounting strategies is through eliciting the time preferences for monetary and health outcomes. In this article, the authors investigate the perceived time preference for money and health gains through a pilot survey on Dutch university students using methods on functional forms previously suggested. Formal objectives of the study were to review such existing methods and to pilot them on a convenience sample using a questionnaire designed for this specific purpose. Indeed, a negative relation between the time of delay and the variance of the discounting rate for all models was observed. This study was intended as a pilot for a large-scale population-based investigation using the findings from this pilot on wording of the questionnaire, interpretation, scope and analytic framework.
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Manwaring, Jamie L.; Green, Leonard; Myerson, Joel; Strube, Michael J.; Wilfley, Denise E.
2011-01-01
The present study compared the extent to which obese women with binge eating disorder (BED), obese women without BED, and controls discounted delayed and probabilistic money and directly consumable rewards: food, massage time, and preferred sedentary activity. Of special interest was whether the BED group differed from the other groups in terms of…
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Paret, Christian; Jennen-Steinmetz, Christine; Schmahl, Christian
2017-01-01
To achieve long-term goals, organisms evaluate outcomes and expected consequences of their behaviors. Unfavorable decisions maintain many symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD); therefore, a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying decision-making in BPD is needed. In this review, the current literature comparing decision-making in patients with BPD versus healthy controls is analyzed. Twenty-eight empirical studies were identified through a structured literature search. The effect sizes from studies applying comparable experimental tasks were analyzed. It was found that (1) BPD patients discounted delayed rewards more strongly; (2) reversal learning was not significantly altered in BPD; and (3) BPD patients achieved lower net gains in the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Current psychotropic medication, sex and differences in age between the patient and control group moderated the IGT outcome. Altered decision-making in a variety of other tasks was supported by a qualitative review. In summary, current evidence supports the altered valuation of outcomes in BPD. A multifaceted influence on decision-making and adaptive learning is reflected in this literature. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Delay discounting, impulsiveness, and addiction severity in opioid-dependent patients.
Robles, Elias; Huang, B Emma; Simpson, Pippa M; McMillan, Donald E
2011-12-01
Individuals who abuse drugs show higher delay discounting (DD) rate and impulsiveness scores compared with controls; however, it is unclear if DD rate covaries with severity of the addiction or if an individual's discounting rate can be changed by effective substance abuse treatment. This study compared methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) patients (n = 30) who had not used illegal drugs for 2 years with drug-using MMT patients (n = 30) and controls (n = 25) in terms of addiction severity, DD rate, and impulsiveness. Methadone patients abstinent from illegal drugs scored significantly lower on a number of addiction severity measures than the drug-using methadone patients. In addition, both groups of MMT patients showed significantly higher rates of DD and impulsiveness than the control group; however, no differences in DD rate or impulsiveness were found between the groups of patients. Results suggest that DD rate and impulsiveness may not covary with indicators of addiction severity in MMT patients. Published by Elsevier Inc.
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Locey, Matthew L; Dallery, Jesse
2009-03-01
Many drugs of abuse produce changes in impulsive choice, that is, choice for a smaller-sooner reinforcer over a larger-later reinforcer. Because the alternatives differ in both delay and amount, it is not clear whether these drug effects are due to the differences in reinforcer delay or amount. To isolate the effects of delay, we used a titrating delay procedure. In phase 1, 9 rats made discrete choices between variable delays (1 or 19 s, equal probability of each) and a delay to a single food pellet. The computer titrated the delay to a single food pellet until the rats were indifferent between the two options. This indifference delay was used as the starting value for the titrating delay for all future sessions. We next evaluated the acute effects of nicotine (subcutaneous 1.0, 0.3, 0.1, and 0.03 mg/kg) on choice. If nicotine increases delay discounting, it should have increased preference for the variable delay. Instead, nicotine had very little effect on choice. In a second phase, the titrated delay alternative produced three food pellets instead of one, which was again produced by the variable delay (1 s or 19 s) alternative. Under this procedure, nicotine increased preference for the one pellet alternative. Nicotine-induced changes in impulsive choice are therefore likely due to differences in reinforcer amount rather than differences in reinforcer delay. In addition, it may be necessary to include an amount sensitivity parameter in any mathematical model of choice when the alternatives differ in reinforcer amount.
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Vaughan, Christopher; Paulus, Martin P.; Dunlop, Boadie W.
2013-01-01
Background Decisions under risk and with outcomes that are delayed in time are ubiquitous in real life and can have a significant impact on the health and wealth of the decision-maker. Despite its potential relevance for real-world choices, the degree of aberrant risky and intertemporal decision-making in patients suffering from major depressive disorder (MDD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has received little attention to date. Method We used a case-control design to compare decision-making in healthy control subjects (N=16) versus untreated depressed subjects in a current major depressive episode (N=20). In order to examine how major depressive disorder (MDD) may impact decision-making, subjects made decisions over (1) risky outcomes and (2) delayed outcomes in the domain of gains and losses using choice paradigms from neuroeconomics. In a pre-planned analysis, depressed subjects were subdivided into those with primary PTSD along with comorbid MDD (MDD+PTSD) versus those with primary MDD without PTSD (MDD-only). Choice behavior was modeled via a standard econometric model of intertemporal choice, a quasi-hyperbolic temporal discounting function, which was estimated for each subject group separately. Results Under conditions of potential gain, depressed subjects demonstrated greater discounting for gains across all time frames compared to controls. In the realm of losses, both subgroups of depressed subjects discounted more steeply than controls for short time frames. However, for delayed losses ranging from >1-10 years, MDD+PTSD subjects showed shallower discounting rates relative to MDD-only subjects, who continued to discount future losses steeply. Risk attitudes did not contribute to differences in intertemporal choice. Conclusions Depressed patients make choices that minimize current pain and maximize current reward, despite severe later consequences or lost opportunities. Anxiety associated with PTSD may serve as a partially protective factor in decision-making about long-term potential losses compared to MDD patients without PTSD. PMID:24116235
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Engelmann, Jan B; Maciuba, Britta; Vaughan, Christopher; Paulus, Martin P; Dunlop, Boadie W
2013-01-01
Decisions under risk and with outcomes that are delayed in time are ubiquitous in real life and can have a significant impact on the health and wealth of the decision-maker. Despite its potential relevance for real-world choices, the degree of aberrant risky and intertemporal decision-making in patients suffering from major depressive disorder (MDD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has received little attention to date. We used a case-control design to compare decision-making in healthy control subjects (N=16) versus untreated depressed subjects in a current major depressive episode (N=20). In order to examine how major depressive disorder (MDD) may impact decision-making, subjects made decisions over (1) risky outcomes and (2) delayed outcomes in the domain of gains and losses using choice paradigms from neuroeconomics. In a pre-planned analysis, depressed subjects were subdivided into those with primary PTSD along with comorbid MDD (MDD+PTSD) versus those with primary MDD without PTSD (MDD-only). Choice behavior was modeled via a standard econometric model of intertemporal choice, a quasi-hyperbolic temporal discounting function, which was estimated for each subject group separately. Under conditions of potential gain, depressed subjects demonstrated greater discounting for gains across all time frames compared to controls. In the realm of losses, both subgroups of depressed subjects discounted more steeply than controls for short time frames. However, for delayed losses ranging from >1-10 years, MDD+PTSD subjects showed shallower discounting rates relative to MDD-only subjects, who continued to discount future losses steeply. Risk attitudes did not contribute to differences in intertemporal choice. Depressed patients make choices that minimize current pain and maximize current reward, despite severe later consequences or lost opportunities. Anxiety associated with PTSD may serve as a partially protective factor in decision-making about long-term potential losses compared to MDD patients without PTSD.
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Time-discounting and tobacco smoking: a systematic review and network analysis.
Barlow, Pepita; McKee, Martin; Reeves, Aaron; Galea, Gauden; Stuckler, David
2017-06-01
Tobacco smoking harms health, so why do people smoke and fail to quit? An explanation originating in behavioural economics suggests a role for time-discounting, which describes how the value of a reward, such as better health, decreases with delay to its receipt. A large number of studies test the relationship of time-discounting with tobacco outcomes but the temporal pattern of this relationship and its variation according to measurement methods remain unclear. We review the association between time-discounting and smoking across (i) the life course, from initiation to cessation, and (ii) diverse discount measures. We identified 69 relevant studies in Web of Science and PubMed. We synthesized findings across methodologies and evaluated discount measures, study quality and cross-disciplinary fertilization. In 44 out of 54 studies, smokers more greatly discounted the future than non-smokers and, in longitudinal studies, higher discounting predicted future smoking. Smokers with lower time-discount rates achieved higher quit rates. Findings were consistent across studies measuring discount rates using hypothetical monetary or cigarette reward scenarios. The methodological quality of the majority of studies was rated as 'moderate' and co-citation analysis revealed an isolation of economics journals and a dearth of studies in public health. There is moderate yet consistent evidence that high time-discounting is a risk factor for smoking and unsuccessful cessation. Policy scenarios assuming a flat rate of population discounting may inadequately capture smokers' perceptions of costs and benefits. © The Author 2016; Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association
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Appelhans, Bradley M.; Woolf, Kathleen; Pagoto, Sherry L.; Schneider, Kristin L.; Whited, Matthew C.; Liebman, Rebecca
2012-01-01
Overeating is believed to result when the appetitive motivation to consume palatable food exceeds an individual’s capacity for inhibitory control of eating. This hypothesis was supported in recent studies involving predominantly normal weight women, but has not been tested in obese populations. The current study tested the interaction between food reward sensitivity and inhibitory control in predicting palatable food intake among energy-replete overweight and obese women (N=62). Sensitivity to palatable food reward was measured with the Power of Food Scale. Inhibitory control was assessed with a computerized choice task that captures the tendency to discount large delayed rewards relative to smaller immediate rewards. Participants completed an eating in the absence of hunger protocol in which homeostatic energy needs were eliminated with a bland preload of plain oatmeal, followed by a bogus laboratory taste test of palatable and bland snacks. The interaction between food reward sensitivity and inhibitory control was a significant predictor of palatable food intake in regression analyses controlling for body mass index and the amount of preload consumed. Probing this interaction indicated that higher food reward sensitivity predicted greater palatable food intake at low levels of inhibitory control, but was not associated with intake at high levels of inhibitory control. As expected, no associations were found in a similar regression analysis predicting intake of bland foods. Findings support a neurobehavioral model of eating behavior in which sensitivity to palatable food reward drives overeating only when accompanied by insufficient inhibitory control. Strengthening inhibitory control could enhance weight management programs. PMID:21475139
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Trajectories of impulsivity by sex predict substance use and heavy drinking.
Martinez-Loredo, Victor; Fernandez-Hermida, Jose Ramon; De La Torre-Luque, Alejandro; Fernandez-Artamendi, Sergio
2018-10-01
Although impulsivity and sensation seeking have been consistently associated with substance use, few studies have analyzed the relationship between changes in these variables and substance use in early adolescents. The aim of this study was to identify trajectories of impulsivity and sensation seeking and explore their relationship with substance use and heavy drinking. A total of 1342 non-user adolescents (53.6% males; mean age = 12.98, SD = 0.50) annually completed the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, the Zuckerman's Impulsive Sensation Seeking scale and a delay discounting task, over a total period of three years. Past alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use, drunkenness episodes (DE) and problem drinking were also assessed. Impulsivity trajectories were explored using latent class mixed modelling. To study their predictive power binary logistic regressions were used. Two trajectories of impulsivity were found in males and five were found in females. Males with an increasing impulsivity trajectory were more likely to report tobacco [odds ratio (OR) = 1.84] and cannabis (OR = 3.01) use, DE (OR = 2.44) and problem drinking (OR = 3.12). The early increasing trajectory in females predicted tobacco use (OR = 3.71), cannabis use (OR = 5.87) and DE (OR = 3.64). Lack of premeditation and delay discounting were the most relevant facets in high-risk trajectories. Selective intervention and more intense and tailored treatment might help these adolescents to reduce early increases in impulsivity and prevent escalation of substance use. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Dennhardt, Ashley A; Murphy, James G
2011-12-01
Although levels of heavy drinking and alcohol-related problems are high in college students, there is significant variability in the number and type of problems experienced, even among students who drink heavily. African American students drink less and experience fewer alcohol-related problems than European American students, but are still at risk, and little research has investigated the potentially unique patterns and predictors of problems among these students. Depression, distress tolerance, and delay discounting have been implicated in adult substance abuse and may be important predictors of alcohol problem severity among college students. We examined the relationship between these variables and alcohol-related problems among African American and European American students (N = 206; 53% female; 68% European American; 28% African American) who reported recent heavy drinking. In regression models that controlled for drinking level, depression, distress tolerance, and delay discounting were associated with alcohol problems among African American students, but only depression was associated with alcohol problems among European American students. These results suggest that negative affect is a key risk factor for alcohol problems among college student drinkers. For African American students, the inability to tolerate negative emotions and to organize their behavior around future outcomes may also be especially relevant risk factors.
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Sharing, Discounting, and Selfishness: A Japanese-American Comparison
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ito, Masato; Saeki, Daisuke; Green, Leonard
2011-01-01
Social discounting rates were compared between Japanese and American college students. In a series of psychophysical questionnaire tasks, participants chose between a hypothetical unshared monetary reward and a hypothetical monetary reward to be shared with other people (relatives or strangers), to determine amounts of the unshared reward…
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Risk preferences impose a hidden distortion on measures of choice impulsivity
Konova, Anna B.; Louie, Kenway; Glimcher, Paul W.
2018-01-01
Measuring temporal discounting through the use of intertemporal choice tasks is now the gold standard method for quantifying human choice impulsivity (impatience) in neuroscience, psychology, behavioral economics, public health and computational psychiatry. A recent area of growing interest is individual differences in discounting levels, as these may predispose to (or protect from) mental health disorders, addictive behaviors, and other diseases. At the same time, more and more studies have been dedicated to the quantification of individual attitudes towards risk, which have been measured in many clinical and non-clinical populations using closely related techniques. Economists have pointed to interactions between measurements of time preferences and risk preferences that may distort estimations of the discount rate. However, although becoming standard practice in economics, discount rates and risk preferences are rarely measured simultaneously in the same subjects in other fields, and the magnitude of the imposed distortion is unknown in the assessment of individual differences. Here, we show that standard models of temporal discounting —such as a hyperbolic discounting model widely present in the literature which fails to account for risk attitudes in the estimation of discount rates— result in a large and systematic pattern of bias in estimated discounting parameters. This can lead to the spurious attribution of differences in impulsivity between individuals when in fact differences in risk attitudes account for observed behavioral differences. We advance a model which, when applied to standard choice tasks typically used in psychology and neuroscience, provides both a better fit to the data and successfully de-correlates risk and impulsivity parameters. This results in measures that are more accurate and thus of greater utility to the many fields interested in individual differences in impulsivity. PMID:29373590
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Risk preferences impose a hidden distortion on measures of choice impulsivity.
Lopez-Guzman, Silvia; Konova, Anna B; Louie, Kenway; Glimcher, Paul W
2018-01-01
Measuring temporal discounting through the use of intertemporal choice tasks is now the gold standard method for quantifying human choice impulsivity (impatience) in neuroscience, psychology, behavioral economics, public health and computational psychiatry. A recent area of growing interest is individual differences in discounting levels, as these may predispose to (or protect from) mental health disorders, addictive behaviors, and other diseases. At the same time, more and more studies have been dedicated to the quantification of individual attitudes towards risk, which have been measured in many clinical and non-clinical populations using closely related techniques. Economists have pointed to interactions between measurements of time preferences and risk preferences that may distort estimations of the discount rate. However, although becoming standard practice in economics, discount rates and risk preferences are rarely measured simultaneously in the same subjects in other fields, and the magnitude of the imposed distortion is unknown in the assessment of individual differences. Here, we show that standard models of temporal discounting -such as a hyperbolic discounting model widely present in the literature which fails to account for risk attitudes in the estimation of discount rates- result in a large and systematic pattern of bias in estimated discounting parameters. This can lead to the spurious attribution of differences in impulsivity between individuals when in fact differences in risk attitudes account for observed behavioral differences. We advance a model which, when applied to standard choice tasks typically used in psychology and neuroscience, provides both a better fit to the data and successfully de-correlates risk and impulsivity parameters. This results in measures that are more accurate and thus of greater utility to the many fields interested in individual differences in impulsivity.
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Collins, Christy L; McKenzie, Lara B; Roberts, Kristin J; Fields, Sarah K; Comstock, R Dawn
2015-10-01
Although mouthguards are effective, inexpensive, easy to use, and readily available, this form of protective equipment has been underutilized. "Impulsive delay discounting" (an index of impulsive behavior) among high school athletes may help explain their decision making regarding use of protective equipment such as mouthguards. We investigated the relationship between high school baseball, softball, and basketball players' mouthguard use, impulsive delay discounting, and the precaution adoption process model (a behavior change theory). A convenience sample of boys' and girls' basketball and baseball/softball players at 21 high schools in the Greater Columbus, Ohio, metro area completed a self-administered survey that captured their demographic information, knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs regarding mouthguard use, impulsive delay discounting, and precaution adoption process model stage. We surveyed a total of 1636 students (55.9 % male, 43.8 % female, 0.3 % unknown). Only 12.3 % reported using a mouthguard either every time or sometimes during practice or competition. The primary reasons reported for not wearing mouthguards were they were not required to (65.3 %) and that the athletes could not breathe or talk while wearing one (61.5 %). These reasons were consistent across sex and sport. Most athletes reported that their coaches (87.3 %) and parents (64.5 %) had never talked to them about wearing a mouthguard. Lower precaution adoption process model stage was significantly associated with higher impulsivity (p < 0.001) and higher delayed discounting (p = 0.016) after adjusting for school, sport, and sex. Voluntary mouthguard use among high school athletes playing basketball and baseball/softball remains low despite the risk of dental injury in these sports. Effective, evidence-based, targeted, and tailored interventions to improve adolescent athletes' use of mouthguards to prevent sports-related dental injuries should be based on the specific behavioral and social factors influencing each athlete's decision making regarding use of mouthguards.
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Rewards boost sustained attention through higher effort: A value-based decision making approach.
Massar, Stijn A A; Lim, Julian; Sasmita, Karen; Chee, Michael W L
2016-10-01
Maintaining sustained attention over time is an effortful process limited by finite cognitive resources. Recent theories describe the role of motivation in the allocation of such resources as a decision process: the costs of effortful performance are weighed against its gains. We examined this hypothesis by combining methods from attention research and decision neuroscience. Participants first performed a sustained attention task at different levels of reward. They then performed a reward-discounting task, measuring the subjective costs of performance. Results demonstrated that higher rewards led to improved performance (Exp 1-3), and enhanced attentional effort (i.e. pupil diameter; Exp 2 & 3). Moreover, discounting curves constructed from the choice task indicated that subjects devalued rewards that came at the cost of staying vigilant for a longer duration (Exp 1 & 2). Motivation can thus boost sustained attention through increased effort, while sustained performance is regarded as a cost against which rewards are discounted. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Normative arguments from experts and peers reduce delay discounting.
Senecal, Nicole; Wang, Teresa; Thompson, Elizabeth; Kable, Joseph W
2012-09-01
When making decisions that involve tradeoffs between the quality and timing of desirable outcomes, people consistently discount the value of future outcomes. A puzzling finding regarding such decisions is the extremely high rate at which people discount future monetary outcomes. Most economists would argue that decision-makers should only turn down rates of return that are lower than those available to them elsewhere. Yet the vast majority of studies find discount rates that are significantly higher than market interest rates (Frederick et al., 2002). Here we ask whether a lack of knowledge about the normative strategy can explain high discount rates. In an initial experiment, we find that nearly half of subjects do not spontaneously cite elements of the normative strategy when asked how people should make intertemporal monetary decisions. In two follow-up experiments, we find that after subjects read a "financial guide" detailing the normative strategy, discount rates declined by up to 85%, but were still higher than market interest rates. This decline persisted, though attenuated, for at least one month. In a final experiment, we find that peer-generated advice influences discount rates in a similar manner to "expert" advice, and that arguments focusing on normative considerations are at least as effective as others. These studies show that part of the explanation for high discount rates is a lack of knowledge regarding the normative strategy, and quantify how much discount rates are reduced in response to normative arguments. Given the high level of discounting that remains, however, there are other contributing factors to high discount rates that remain to be quantified.
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Normative arguments from experts and peers reduce delay discounting
Senecal, Nicole; Wang, Teresa; Thompson, Elizabeth; Kable, Joseph W
2013-01-01
When making decisions that involve tradeoffs between the quality and timing of desirable outcomes, people consistently discount the value of future outcomes. A puzzling finding regarding such decisions is the extremely high rate at which people discount future monetary outcomes. Most economists would argue that decision-makers should only turn down rates of return that are lower than those available to them elsewhere. Yet the vast majority of studies find discount rates that are significantly higher than market interest rates (Frederick et al., 2002). Here we ask whether a lack of knowledge about the normative strategy can explain high discount rates. In an initial experiment, we find that nearly half of subjects do not spontaneously cite elements of the normative strategy when asked how people should make intertemporal monetary decisions. In two follow-up experiments, we find that after subjects read a “financial guide” detailing the normative strategy, discount rates declined by up to 85%, but were still higher than market interest rates. This decline persisted, though attenuated, for at least one month. In a final experiment, we find that peer-generated advice influences discount rates in a similar manner to “expert” advice, and that arguments focusing on normative considerations are at least as effective as others. These studies show that part of the explanation for high discount rates is a lack of knowledge regarding the normative strategy, and quantify how much discount rates are reduced in response to normative arguments. Given the high level of discounting that remains, however, there are other contributing factors to high discount rates that remain to be quantified. PMID:23596504
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The Stomach-Derived Hormone Ghrelin Increases Impulsive Behavior
Anderberg, Rozita H; Hansson, Caroline; Fenander, Maya; Richard, Jennifer E; Dickson, Suzanne L; Nissbrandt, Hans; Bergquist, Filip; Skibicka, Karolina P
2016-01-01
Impulsivity, defined as impaired decision making, is associated with many psychiatric and behavioral disorders, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder as well as eating disorders. Recent data indicate that there is a strong positive correlation between food reward behavior and impulsivity, but the mechanisms behind this relationship remain unknown. Here we hypothesize that ghrelin, an orexigenic hormone produced by the stomach and known to increase food reward behavior, also increases impulsivity. In order to assess the impact of ghrelin on impulsivity, rats were trained in three complementary tests of impulsive behavior and choice: differential reinforcement of low rate (DRL), go/no-go, and delay discounting. Ghrelin injection into the lateral ventricle increased impulsive behavior, as indicated by reduced efficiency of performance in the DRL test, and increased lever pressing during the no-go periods of the go/no-go test. Central ghrelin stimulation also increased impulsive choice, as evidenced by the reduced choice for large rewards when delivered with a delay in the delay discounting test. In order to determine whether signaling at the central ghrelin receptors is necessary for maintenance of normal levels of impulsive behavior, DRL performance was assessed following ghrelin receptor blockade with central infusion of a ghrelin receptor antagonist. Central ghrelin receptor blockade reduced impulsive behavior, as reflected by increased efficiency of performance in the DRL task. To further investigate the neurobiological substrate underlying the impulsivity effect of ghrelin, we microinjected ghrelin into the ventral tegmental area, an area harboring dopaminergic cell bodies. Ghrelin receptor stimulation within the VTA was sufficient to increase impulsive behavior. We further evaluated the impact of ghrelin on dopamine-related gene expression and dopamine turnover in brain areas key in impulsive behavior control. This study provides the first demonstration that the stomach-produced hormone ghrelin increases impulsivity and also indicates that ghrelin can change two major components of impulsivity—motor and choice impulsivity. PMID:26424164
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Locey, Matthew L.; Jones, Bryan A.; Rachlin, Howard
2012-01-01
Laboratory studies of choice and decision making among real monetary rewards typically use smaller real rewards than those common in real life. When laboratory rewards are large, they are almost always hypothetical. In applying laboratory results meaningfully to real-life situations, it is important to know the extent to which choices among hypothetical rewards correspond to choices among real rewards and whether variation of the magnitude of hypothetical rewards affects behavior in meaningful ways. The present study compared real and hypothetical monetary rewards in two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants played a temporal discounting game that incorporates the logic of a repeated prisoner’s-dilemma (PD) type game versus tit-for-tat; choice of one alternative (“defection” in PD terminology) resulted in a small-immediate reward; choice of the other alternative (“cooperation” in PD terminology) resulted in a larger reward delayed until the following trial. The larger-delayed reward was greater for half of the groups than for the other half. Rewards also differed in type across groups: multiples of real nickels, hypothetical nickels or hypothetical hundred-dollar bills. All groups significantly increased choice of the larger delayed reward over the 40 trials of the experiment. Over the last 10 trials, cooperation was significantly higher when the difference between larger and smaller hypothetical rewards was greater. Reward type (real or hypothetical) made no significant difference in cooperation. In Experiment 2, real and hypothetical rewards were compared in social discounting – the decrease in value to the giver of a reward as social distance increases to the receiver of the reward. Social discount rates were well described by a hyperbolic function. Discounting rates for real and hypothetical rewards did not significantly differ. These results add to the evidence that results of experiments with hypothetical rewards validly apply in everyday life. PMID:22582110
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Ulbrich, Philipp; Gail, Alexander
2017-01-01
When deciding between alternative options, a rational agent chooses on the basis of the desirability of each outcome, including associated costs. As different options typically result in different actions, the effort associated with each action is an essential cost parameter. How do humans discount physical effort when deciding between movements? We used an action-selection task to characterize how subjective effort depends on the parameters of arm transport movements and controlled for potential confounding factors such as delay discounting and performance. First, by repeatedly asking subjects to choose between 2 arm movements of different amplitudes or durations, performed against different levels of force, we identified parameter combinations that subjects experienced as identical in effort (isoeffort curves). Movements with a long duration were judged more effortful than short-duration movements against the same force, while movement amplitudes did not influence effort. Biomechanics of the movements also affected effort, as movements towards the body midline were preferred to movements away from it. Second, by introducing movement repetitions, we further determined that the cost function for choosing between effortful movements had a quadratic relationship with force, while choices were made on the basis of the logarithm of these costs. Our results show that effort-based action selection during reaching cannot easily be explained by metabolic costs. Instead, force-loaded reaches, a widely occurring natural behavior, imposed an effort cost for decision making similar to cost functions in motor control. Our results thereby support the idea that motor control and economic choice are governed by partly overlapping optimization principles. PMID:28586347
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7 CFR 59.202 - Mandatory daily reporting for barrows and gilts.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-01-01
... live weight basis; and (iv) The base price and premiums and discounts paid for carcass characteristics... unavailable due to pricing that is determined on a delayed basis. The packer shall report information on such... reporting day, unless such information is unavailable due to pricing that is determined on a delayed basis...
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Strickland, Justin C.; Feinstein, Max A.; Lacy, Ryan T.; Smith, Mark A.
2016-01-01
Impulsive choice is a diagnostic feature and/or complicating factor for several psychological disorders and may be examined in the laboratory using delay-discounting procedures. Recent investigators have proposed using quantitative measures of analysis to examine the behavioral processes contributing to impulsive choice. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of physical activity (i.e., wheel running) on impulsive choice in a single-response, discrete-trial procedure using two quantitative methods of analysis. To this end, rats were assigned to physical activity or sedentary groups and trained to respond in a delay-discounting procedure. In this procedure, one lever always produced one food pellet immediately, whereas a second lever produced three food pellets after a 0, 10, 20, 40, or 80-second delay. Estimates of sensitivity to reinforcement amount and sensitivity to reinforcement delay were determined using (1) a simple linear analysis and (2) an analysis of logarithmically transformed response ratios. Both analyses revealed that physical activity decreased sensitivity to reinforcement amount and sensitivity to reinforcement delay. These findings indicate that (1) physical activity has significant but functionally opposing effects on the behavioral processes that contribute to impulsive choice and (2) both quantitative methods of analysis are appropriate for use in single-response, discrete-trial procedures. PMID:26964905
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Does Goal Relevant Episodic Future Thinking Amplify the Effect on Delay Discounting?
O’Donnell, Sara; Daniel, Tinuke Oluyomi; Epstein, Leonard H.
2017-01-01
Delay discounting (DD) is the preference for smaller immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards. Research shows episodic future thinking (EFT), or mentally simulating future experiences, reframes the choice between small immediate and larger delayed rewards, and can reduce DD. Only general EFT has been studied, whereby people reframe decisions in terms of non-goal related future events. Since future thinking is often goal-oriented and leads to greater activation of brain regions involved in prospection, goal-oriented EFT may be associated with greater reductions in DD than general goal-unrelated EFT. The present study (n = 104, Mage = 22.25, SD = 3.42; 50% Female) used a between-subjects 2×2 factorial design with type of episodic thinking (Goal, General) and temporal perspective (Episodic future versus recent thinking; EFT vs ERT) as between factors. Results showed a significant reduction in DD for EFT groups (p < 0.001, Cohen’s d effect size = 0.89), and goal-EFT was more effective than general-EFT on reducing DD (p = 0.03, d = 0.64). PMID:28282631
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Does goal relevant episodic future thinking amplify the effect on delay discounting?
O'Donnell, Sara; Oluyomi Daniel, Tinuke; Epstein, Leonard H
2017-05-01
Delay discounting (DD) is the preference for smaller immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards. Research shows episodic future thinking (EFT), or mentally simulating future experiences, reframes the choice between small immediate and larger delayed rewards, and can reduce DD. Only general EFT has been studied, whereby people reframe decisions in terms of non-goal related future events. Since future thinking is often goal-oriented and leads to greater activation of brain regions involved in prospection, goal-oriented EFT may be associated with greater reductions in DD than general goal-unrelated EFT. The present study (n=104, M age =22.25, SD=3.42; 50% Female) used a between-subjects 2×2 factorial design with type of episodic thinking (Goal, General) and temporal perspective (Episodic future versus recent thinking; EFT vs ERT) as between factors. Results showed a significant reduction in DD for EFT groups (p<0.001, Cohen's d effect size=0.89), and goal-EFT was more effective than general-EFT on reducing DD (p=0.03, d=0.64). Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Emotional arousal predicts intertemporal choice
Lempert, Karolina M.; Johnson, Eli; Phelps, Elizabeth A.
2016-01-01
People generally prefer immediate rewards to rewards received after a delay, often even when the delayed reward is larger. This phenomenon is known as temporal discounting. It has been suggested that preferences for immediate rewards may be due to their being more concrete than delayed rewards. This concreteness may evoke an enhanced emotional response. Indeed, manipulating the representation of a future reward to make it more concrete has been shown to heighten the reward’s subjective emotional intensity, making people more likely to choose it. Here we use an objective measure of arousal – pupil dilation – to investigate if emotional arousal mediates the influence of delayed reward concreteness on choice. We recorded pupil dilation responses while participants made choices between immediate and delayed rewards. We manipulated concreteness through time interval framing: delayed rewards were presented either with the date on which they would be received (e.g., “$30, May 3”; DATE condition, more concrete) or in terms of delay to receipt (e.g., “$30, 7 days; DAYS condition, less concrete). Contrary to prior work, participants were not overall more patient in the DATE condition. However, there was individual variability in response to time framing, and this variability was predicted by differences in pupil dilation between conditions. Emotional arousal increased as the subjective value of delayed rewards increased, and predicted choice of the delayed reward on each trial. This study advances our understanding of the role of emotion in temporal discounting. PMID:26882337
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Sonuga-Barke, Edmund J S
2014-02-01
Young people with conduct disorder often experience histories of psychosocial adversity and socioeconomic insecurity. For these individuals, real-world future outcomes are not only delayed in their delivery but also highly uncertain. Under such circumstances, accentuated time preference (extreme favoring of the present over the future) is a rational response to the everyday reality of social and economic transactions. Building on this observation, the author sets out the hypothesis that the exaggerated temporal discounting displayed by individuals with conduct disorder reported by White et al. (2014) is an adaptation to chronic exposure to psychosocial insecurity during development. The author postulates that this adaptation leads to (a) a decision-making bias whereby delay and uncertainty are coded as inseparable characteristics of choice outcomes and/or (b) reprogramming of the brain networks regulating intertemporal decision making. Future research could explore the putative role of environmental exposures to adversity in the development of exaggerated temporal discounting in conduct disorder as well as the mediating role of putative cognitive and neurobiological adaptations.
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Jones, Scott A; Steele, Joel S; Nagel, Bonnie J
2017-07-01
To test whether binge drinking, the density of familial alcoholism (FHD) and their interaction are associated with an altered developmental trajectory of impulsive choice across adolescence, and whether more life-time drinks are associated with a greater change in impulsive choice across age. Alcohol-naive adolescents, with varying degrees of FHD, were recruited as part of an ongoing longitudinal study on adolescent development, and were grouped based on whether they remained non-drinkers (n = 83) or initiated binge drinking (n = 33) during follow-up. During all visits, adolescents completed a monetary delay discounting task to measure impulsive choice. The effects of binge-drinking status, FHD and their interaction on impulsive choice across adolescence were tested. Developmental Brain Imaging Laboratory, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon, USA. A total of 116 healthy male and female adolescents (ages 10-17 years at baseline) completed two to four visits between July 2008 and May 2016. Discounting rates were obtained based on adolescents' preference for immediate or delayed rewards. FHD was based on parent-reported prevalence of alcohol use disorder in the participant's first- and second-degree relatives. Binge-drinking status was determined based on the number of recent binge-drinking episodes. There was a significant interaction effect of binge-drinking status and FHD on impulsive choice across age (b = 1.090, P < 0.05, β = 0.298). In adolescents who remained alcohol-naive, greater FHD was associated with a steeper decrease in discounting rates across adolescence (b = -0.633, P < 0.05, β = -0.173); however, this effect was not present in binge-drinkers. Furthermore, total life-time drinks predicted escalated impulsive choice (b = 0.002, P < 0.05, β = 0.295) in binge-drinking adolescents. A greater degree of familial alcoholism is associated with a steeper decline in impulsive choice across adolescence, but only in those who remain alcohol-naive. Meanwhile, more life-time drinks during adolescence is associated with increases in impulsive choice across age. © 2017 Society for the Study of Addiction.
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Children's Conceptions of Work and Play: Exploring an Alternative to the Discounting Principle.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hennessey, Beth A.; Berger, Andrea R.
Factors such as an expected reward have been shown to severely undermine individuals' intrinsic interest in a given task. This "overjustification effect," or "discounting principle," has been demonstrated across the life span, except in the case of young children, who have been shown to be incapable of engaging in this…
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Pain Now or Later: An Outgrowth Account of Pain-Minimization
Chen, Shuai; Zhao, Dan; Rao, Li-Lin; Liang, Zhu-Yuan; Li, Shu
2015-01-01
The preference for immediate negative events contradicts the minimizing loss principle given that the value of a delayed negative event is discounted by the amount of time it is delayed. However, this preference is understandable if we assume that the value of a future outcome is not restricted to the discounted utility of the outcome per se but is complemented by an anticipated negative utility assigned to an unoffered dimension, which we termed the “outgrowth.” We conducted three studies to establish the existence of the outgrowth and empirically investigated the mechanism underlying the preference for immediate negative outcomes. Study 1 used a content analysis method to examine whether the outgrowth was generated in accompaniment with the delayed negative events. The results revealed that the investigated outgrowth was composed of two elements. The first component is the anticipated negative emotions elicited by the delayed negative event, and the other is the anticipated rumination during the waiting process, in which one cannot stop thinking about the negative event. Study 2 used a follow-up investigation to examine whether people actually experienced the negative emotions they anticipated in a real situation of waiting for a delayed negative event. The results showed that the participants actually experienced a number of negative emotions when waiting for a negative event. Study 3 examined whether the existence of the outgrowth could make the minimizing loss principle work. The results showed that the difference in pain anticipation between the immediate event and the delayed event could significantly predict the timing preference of the negative event. Our findings suggest that people’s preference for experiencing negative events sooner serves to minimize the overall negative utility, which is divided into two parts: the discounted utility of the outcome itself and an anticipated negative utility assigned to the outgrowth. PMID:25747461
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Pope, Derek A; Boomhower, Steven R; Hutsell, Blake A; Teixeira, Kathryn M; Newland, M Christopher
2016-04-01
Adolescence is marked by the continued development of the neural pathways that support choice and decision-making, particularly those involving dopamine signaling. Cocaine exposure during adolescence may interfere with this development and manifest as increased perseveration and delay discounting in adulthood, behavioral processes that are related to drug addiction. Adolescent mice were exposed to 30mg/kg/day of cocaine (n=11) or saline vehicle (n=10) for 14days and behavior was assessed in adulthood. In Experiment 1, performance on a spatial-discrimination-reversal procedure was evaluated. In the first two sessions following the first reversal, cocaine-exposed mice produced more preservative errors relative to controls. In Experiment 2, cocaine-exposed mice displayed steeper delay discounting than saline-exposed mice, effects that were reversed by acute cocaine administration. Experiment 3 examined responding maintained by a range of fixed-ratio schedules of reinforcement. An analysis based on a theoretical framework called Mathematical Principles of Reinforcement (MPR) was applied to response-rate functions of individual mice. According to MPR, differences in response-rate functions in adulthood were due to a steepening of the delay-of-reinforcement gradient, disrupted motoric capacity (lower maximum response rates), and enhanced reinforcer efficacy for the adolescent cocaine- compared with saline-exposed mice. Overall, these experiments suggest that chronic exposure to cocaine during adolescence may impair different features of 'executive functions' in adulthood, and these may be related to distortions in the impact of reinforcing events. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Todokoro, Ayako; Tanaka, Saori C; Kawakubo, Yuki; Yahata, Noriaki; Ishii-Takahashi, Ayaka; Nishimura, Yukika; Kano, Yukiko; Ohtake, Fumio; Kasai, Kiyoto
2018-04-24
Impulsivity, which significantly affects social adaptation, is an important target behavioral characteristic in interventions for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Typically, people are willing to wait longer to acquire greater rewards. Impulsivity in ADHD may be associated with brain dysfunction in decision-making involving waiting behavior under such situations. We tested the hypothesis that brain circuitry during a period of waiting (i.e., prior to the acquisition of reward) is altered in adults with ADHD. The participants included 14 medication-free adults with ADHD and 16 healthy controls matched for age, sex, IQ, and handedness. The behavioral task had participants choose between a delayed, larger monetary reward and an immediate, smaller monetary reward, where the reward waiting time actually occurred during functional magnetic resonance imaging measurement. We tested for group differences in the contrast values of blood-oxygen-level dependent signals associated with the length of waiting time, calculated using the parametric modulation method. While the two groups did not differ in the time discounting rate, the delay-sensitive contrast values were significantly lower in the caudate and visual cortex in individuals with ADHD. The higher impulsivity scores were significantly associated with lower delay-sensitive contrast values in the caudate and visual cortex. These results suggest that deficient neural activity affects decision-making involving reward waiting time during intertemporal choice tasks, and provide an explanation for the basis of impulsivity in adult ADHD. © 2018 The Author. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences © 2018 Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology.
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Response effort discounts the subjective value of rewards.
Nishiyama, Ryoji
2014-09-01
Factors associated with obtaining a reward, such as a temporal delay in receiving the reward, can influence the subjective value of the reward. Cognitive as well as physical response effort is also known to influence choice behaviors. The present study used hypothetical situations to assess whether response effort affects the subjective value of rewards. The results demonstrated that increasing response effort increases the amount of money that participants are willing to forgo to avoid engaging in work. An exponential as well as hyperbolic function provided a good fit for such discounting. The findings suggest that response effort discounts the subjective value of a reward as a function of its amount. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Ipser, Alberta; Agolli, Vlera; Bajraktari, Anisa; Al-Alawi, Fatimah; Djaafara, Nurfitriani; Freeman, Elliot D.
2017-01-01
Are sight and sound out of synch? Signs that they are have been dismissed for over two centuries as an artefact of attentional and response bias, to which traditional subjective methods are prone. To avoid such biases, we measured performance on objective tasks that depend implicitly on achieving good lip-synch. We measured the McGurk effect (in which incongruent lip-voice pairs evoke illusory phonemes), and also identification of degraded speech, while manipulating audiovisual asynchrony. Peak performance was found at an average auditory lag of ~100 ms, but this varied widely between individuals. Participants’ individual optimal asynchronies showed trait-like stability when the same task was re-tested one week later, but measures based on different tasks did not correlate. This discounts the possible influence of common biasing factors, suggesting instead that our different tasks probe different brain networks, each subject to their own intrinsic auditory and visual processing latencies. Our findings call for renewed interest in the biological causes and cognitive consequences of individual sensory asynchronies, leading potentially to fresh insights into the neural representation of sensory timing. A concrete implication is that speech comprehension might be enhanced, by first measuring each individual’s optimal asynchrony and then applying a compensatory auditory delay. PMID:28429784
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Panlilio, Leigh V; Secci, Maria E; Schindler, Charles W; Bradberry, Charles W
2017-11-01
Addiction involves maladaptive choice behavior in which immediate drug effects are valued more than delayed nondrug rewards. To model this behavior and extend our earlier work with the prescription opioid oxycodone, we allowed rats to choose between immediate intravenous delivery of the short-acting opioid remifentanil and delayed delivery of highly palatable food pellets. Treatment drugs were tested on a baseline where remifentanil was preferred over food. Treatment with a high dose of the opioid antagonist naltrexone decreased but did not reverse the preference for remifentanil. Treatment with the serotonin 5-HT 2C agonist lorcaserin decreased remifentanil and food self-administration nonselectively. Across conditions in which the alternative to delayed food was either a moderate dose of oxycodone, a moderate or high dose of remifentanil, a smaller more immediate delivery of food, or timeout with no primary reinforcement, choice was determined by both the length of the delay and the nature of the alternative option. Delayed food was discounted most steeply when the alternative was a high dose of remifentanil, which was preferred over food when food was delayed by 30 s or more. Within-subject comparisons showed no evidence for trait-like impulsivity or sensitivity to delay across these conditions. Choice was determined more by the current contingencies of reinforcement than by innate individual differences. This finding suggests that people might develop steep delay-discounting functions because of the contingencies in their environment, and it supports the use of contingency management to enhance the relative value of delayed nondrug reinforcers.
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Paule, Merle G; Green, Leonard; Myerson, Joel; Alvarado, Maria; Bachevalier, Jocelyne; Schneider, Jay S; Schantz, Susan L
2012-03-01
A variety of behavioral instruments are available for assessing important aspects of cognition in both animals and humans and, in many cases, the same instruments can be used in both. While nonhuman primates are phylogenetically closest to humans, rodents, pigeons and other animals also offer behaviors worthy of note. Delay Discounting procedures are as useful as any in studies of impulsivity and may have utility in shedding light on processes associated with drug abuse. Specific memory tests such as Visual Paired Comparisons tasks (similar to the Fagan test of infant intelligence) can be modified to allow for assessment of different aspects of memory such as spatial memory. Use of these and other specific memory tasks can be used to directly monitor aspects of cognitive development in infant animals, particularly in nonhuman primates such as monkeys, and children and to draw inferences with respect to possible neuroanatomical substrates sub-serving their functions. Tasks for assessing working memory such as Variable Delayed Response (VDR), modified VDR and Spatial Working Memory tasks are now known to be affected in Parkinson's disease (PD). These and other cognitive function tasks are being used in a monkey model of PD to assess the ability of anti-Parkinson's disease therapies to ameliorate these cognitive deficits without diminishing their therapeutic effects on motor dysfunction. Similarly, in a rat model of the cognitive deficits associated with perinatal exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), clear parallels with children can be seen in at least two areas of executive function: cognitive flexibility and response inhibition. In the rat model, discrimination reversal tasks were utilized to assess cognitive flexibility, a function often assessed in humans using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task. Response inhibition was assessed using performance in a Differential Reinforcement of Low Response Rates (DRL) task. As the data continue to accumulate, it becomes more clear that our attempts to adapt animal-appropriate tasks for the study of important aspects of human cognition have proven to be very fruitful. Published by Elsevier Inc.
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Drechsler, Renate; Rizzo, Patrizia; Steinhausen, Hans-Christoph
2010-01-01
Reward-related processes are impaired in children with ADHD. Whether these deficits can be ascribed to an aversion to delay or to an altered responsiveness to magnitude, frequency, valence, or the probability of rewards still needs to be explored. In the present study, children with ADHD and normal controls aged 7 to 10 years performed a simple probabilistic discounting task. They had to choose between alternatives where the magnitude of rewards was inversely related to the probability of outcomes. As a result, children with ADHD opted more frequently for less likely but larger rewards than normal controls. Shifts of the response category after positive or negative feedback, however, occurred as often in children with ADHD as in control children. In children with ADHD, the frequency of risky choices was correlated with neuropsychological measures of response time variability but unrelated to measures of inhibitory control. It is concluded that the tendency to select less likely but larger rewards possibly represents a separate facet of dysfunctional reward processing, independent of delay aversion or altered responsiveness to feedback.
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Dopaminergic modulation of the trade-off between probability and time in economic decision-making.
Arrondo, Gonzalo; Aznárez-Sanado, Maite; Fernández-Seara, Maria A; Goñi, Joaquín; Loayza, Francis R; Salamon-Klobut, Ewa; Heukamp, Franz H; Pastor, Maria A
2015-06-01
Studies on animals and humans have demonstrated the importance of dopamine in modulating decision-making processes. In this work, we have tested dopaminergic modulation of economic decision-making and its neural correlates by administering either placebo or metoclopramide, a dopamine D2-receptor antagonist, to healthy subjects, during a functional MRI study. The decision-making task combined probability and time delay with a fixed monetary reward. For individual behavioral characterization, we used the Probability Time Trade-off (PTT) economic model, which integrates the traditional trade-offs of reward magnitude-time and reward magnitude-probability into a single measurement, thereby quantifying the subjective value of a delayed and probabilistic outcome. A regression analysis between BOLD signal and the PTT model index permitted to identify the neural substrate encoding the subjective reward-value. Behaviorally, medication reduced the rate of temporal discounting over probability, reflected in medicated subjects being more prone to postpone the reward in order to increase the outcome probability. In addition, medicated subjects showed less activity during the task in the postcentral gyrus as well as frontomedian areas, whereas there were no differences in the ventromedial orbitofrontal cortex (VMOFC) between groups when coding the subjective value. The present study demonstrates by means of behavior and imaging that dopamine modulation alters the probability-time trade-off in human economic decision-making. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.
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Amlung, Michael; Sweet, Lawrence H.; Acker, John; Brown, Courtney L.; MacKillop, James
2013-01-01
Impulsive delayed reward discounting (DRD) is an important behavioral process in alcohol use disorders (AUDs), reflecting incapacity to delay gratification. Recent work in neuroeconomics has begun to unravel the neural mechanisms supporting DRD, but applications of neuroeconomics in relation to AUDs have been limited. This study examined the neural mechanisms of DRD preferences in AUDs, with emphasis on dissociating activation patterns based on DRD choice type and level of cognitive conflict. Heavy drinking adult males with (n = 13) and without (n = 12) a diagnosis of an AUD completed a monetary DRD task during a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. Participant responses were coded based on choice type (impulsive vs. restrained) and level of cognitive conflict (easy vs. hard). AUD+ participants exhibited significantly more impulsive DRD decision-making. Significant activation during DRD was found in several decision-making regions, including dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), insula, posterior parietal cortex (PPC), and posterior cingulate. An axis of cognitive conflict was also observed, with hard choices associated with anterior cingulate cortex and easy choices associated with activation in supplementary motor area. AUD+ individuals exhibited significant hyperactivity in regions associated with cognitive control (DLPFC) and prospective thought (PPC) and exhibited less task-related deactivation of areas associated with the brain's default network during DRD decisions. This study provides further clarification of the brain systems supporting DRD in general and in relation to AUDs. PMID:23231650
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Temporal Discounting of Hypothetical Monetary Rewards by Adolescents, Adults, and Older Adults
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Whelan, Robert; McHugh, Louise A.
2009-01-01
The present experiment examined temporal discounting across 3 different age bands: adolescents, adults, and older adults (mean ages 14, 46, and 73 years, respectively). A computerized task was employed in which participants were asked to choose between larger rewards available at a specified time in the future--either 100 British Pounds or 1,000…
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Future Discounting by Slum-Dwelling Youth versus University Students in Rio de Janeiro
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ramos, Dandara; Victor, Tania; Seidl-de-Moura, Maria Lucia; Daly, Martin
2013-01-01
We compared Future Discounting (FD, preference for smaller, sooner rewards over larger, later ones) by 160 Brazilian youth (16-30 years old; 71 women and 89 men). University students and slum-dwelling (favela) youth were compared. Participants completed a monetary FD task, a scale of youngsters' view of their neighborhood, and self-reported…
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Antonini, Tanya N; Becker, Stephen P; Tamm, Leanne; Epstein, Jeffery N
2015-09-01
While neuropsychological deficits in both "hot" and "cool" executive functions (EFs) have been documented among individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), these EF deficits are not universal across all individuals with this diagnosis. One potential moderator of executive dysfunction may be the presence of comorbid oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). This study examined the association between "hot" and "cool" EFs and comorbid ODD in children with ADHD. Thirty-three children with ADHD and comorbid ODD (ADHD+ODD), 67 with ADHD without ODD (ADHD-ODD), and 30 typically developing controls participated. Children were 7-12 years of age. "Cool" EFs were assessed with a spatial span task and a card sorting test. "Hot" EFs were assessed using a delay discounting task and a gambling task. ADHD-ODD and ADHD+ODD groups performed more poorly on "cool" EF tasks than controls, but did not differ from each other. Furthermore, the number of ADHD symptoms, but not ODD symptoms, was associated with "cool" EF scores. The three groups did not differ on "hot" EF tasks and the number of ADHD or ODD symptoms was unrelated to "hot" EF scores. In sum, children with ADHD presented with "cool" EF deficits which appear to be unrelated to ODD comorbidity. However, "hot" EF deficits were not present among children with ADHD, irrespective of comorbid ODD status.
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Gender-Specific Effects of Cognitive Load on Social Discounting.
Strombach, Tina; Margittai, Zsofia; Gorczyca, Barbara; Kalenscher, Tobias
2016-01-01
We live busy, social lives, and meeting the challenges of our complex environments puts strain on our cognitive systems. However, cognitive resources are limited. It is unclear how cognitive load affects social decision making. Previous findings on the effects of cognitive load on other-regarding preferences have been ambiguous, allowing no coherent opinion whether cognitive load increases, decreases or does not affect prosocial considerations. Here, we suggest that social distance between individuals modulates whether generosity towards a recipient increases or decreases under cognitive load conditions. Participants played a financial social discounting task with several recipients at variable social distance levels. In this task, they could choose between generous alternatives, yielding medium financial rewards for the participant and recipient at variable social distances, or between a selfish alternative, yielding larger rewards for the participant alone. We show that the social discount function of male participants was significantly flattened under high cognitive load conditions, suggesting they distinguished less between socially close and socially distant recipients. Unexpectedly, the cognitive-load effect on social discounting was gender-specific: while social discounting was strongly dependent on cognitive load in men, women were nearly unaffected by cognitive load manipulations. We suggest that cognitive load leads men, but not women to simplify the decision problem by neglecting the social distance information. We consider our study a good starting point for further experiments exploring the role of gender in prosocial choice.
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Gender-Specific Effects of Cognitive Load on Social Discounting
Strombach, Tina; Margittai, Zsofia; Gorczyca, Barbara; Kalenscher, Tobias
2016-01-01
We live busy, social lives, and meeting the challenges of our complex environments puts strain on our cognitive systems. However, cognitive resources are limited. It is unclear how cognitive load affects social decision making. Previous findings on the effects of cognitive load on other-regarding preferences have been ambiguous, allowing no coherent opinion whether cognitive load increases, decreases or does not affect prosocial considerations. Here, we suggest that social distance between individuals modulates whether generosity towards a recipient increases or decreases under cognitive load conditions. Participants played a financial social discounting task with several recipients at variable social distance levels. In this task, they could choose between generous alternatives, yielding medium financial rewards for the participant and recipient at variable social distances, or between a selfish alternative, yielding larger rewards for the participant alone. We show that the social discount function of male participants was significantly flattened under high cognitive load conditions, suggesting they distinguished less between socially close and socially distant recipients. Unexpectedly, the cognitive-load effect on social discounting was gender-specific: while social discounting was strongly dependent on cognitive load in men, women were nearly unaffected by cognitive load manipulations. We suggest that cognitive load leads men, but not women to simplify the decision problem by neglecting the social distance information. We consider our study a good starting point for further experiments exploring the role of gender in prosocial choice. PMID:27788192
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Strickland, Justin C; Feinstein, Max A; Lacy, Ryan T; Smith, Mark A
2016-05-01
Impulsive choice is a diagnostic feature and/or complicating factor for several psychological disorders and may be examined in the laboratory using delay-discounting procedures. Recent investigators have proposed using quantitative measures of analysis to examine the behavioral processes contributing to impulsive choice. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of physical activity (i.e., wheel running) on impulsive choice in a single-response, discrete-trial procedure using two quantitative methods of analysis. To this end, rats were assigned to physical activity or sedentary groups and trained to respond in a delay-discounting procedure. In this procedure, one lever always produced one food pellet immediately, whereas a second lever produced three food pellets after a 0, 10, 20, 40, or 80-s delay. Estimates of sensitivity to reinforcement amount and sensitivity to reinforcement delay were determined using (1) a simple linear analysis and (2) an analysis of logarithmically transformed response ratios. Both analyses revealed that physical activity decreased sensitivity to reinforcement amount and sensitivity to reinforcement delay. These findings indicate that (1) physical activity has significant but functionally opposing effects on the behavioral processes that contribute to impulsive choice and (2) both quantitative methods of analysis are appropriate for use in single-response, discrete-trial procedures. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Unhealthy diets, obesity and time discounting: a systematic literature review and network analysis
Reeves, Aaron; McKee, Martin; Galea, Gauden; Stuckler, David
2016-01-01
Summary There is an increasing policy commitment to address the avoidable burdens of unhealthy diet, overweight and obesity. However, to design effective policies, it is important to understand why people make unhealthy dietary choices. Research from behavioural economics suggests a critical role for time discounting, which describes how people's value of a reward, such as better health, decreases with delay to its receipt. We systematically reviewed the literature on the relationship of time discounting with unhealthy diets, overweight and obesity in Web of Science and PubMed. We identified 41 studies that met our inclusion criteria as they examined the association between time discount rates and (i) unhealthy food consumption; (ii) overweight and (iii) response to dietary and weight loss interventions. Nineteen out of 25 cross‐sectional studies found time discount rates positively associated with overweight, obesity and unhealthy diets. Experimental studies indicated that lower time discounting was associated with greater weight loss. Findings varied by how time discount rates were measured; stronger results were observed for food than monetary‐based measurements. Network co‐citation analysis revealed a concentration of research in nutrition journals. Overall, there is moderate evidence that high time discounting is a significant risk factor for unhealthy diets, overweight and obesity and may serve as an important target for intervention. © 2016 The Authors Obesity Reviews published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Association for the Study of Obesity (IASO) PMID:27256685
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Dread and the disvalue of future pain.
Story, Giles W; Vlaev, Ivaylo; Seymour, Ben; Winston, Joel S; Darzi, Ara; Dolan, Raymond J
2013-01-01
Standard theories of decision-making involving delayed outcomes predict that people should defer a punishment, whilst advancing a reward. In some cases, such as pain, people seem to prefer to expedite punishment, implying that its anticipation carries a cost, often conceptualized as 'dread'. Despite empirical support for the existence of dread, whether and how it depends on prospective delay is unknown. Furthermore, it is unclear whether dread represents a stable component of value, or is modulated by biases such as framing effects. Here, we examine choices made between different numbers of painful shocks to be delivered faithfully at different time points up to 15 minutes in the future, as well as choices between hypothetical painful dental appointments at time points of up to approximately eight months in the future, to test alternative models for how future pain is disvalued. We show that future pain initially becomes increasingly aversive with increasing delay, but does so at a decreasing rate. This is consistent with a value model in which moment-by-moment dread increases up to the time of expected pain, such that dread becomes equivalent to the discounted expectation of pain. For a minority of individuals pain has maximum negative value at intermediate delay, suggesting that the dread function may itself be prospectively discounted in time. Framing an outcome as relief reduces the overall preference to expedite pain, which can be parameterized by reducing the rate of the dread-discounting function. Our data support an account of disvaluation for primary punishments such as pain, which differs fundamentally from existing models applied to financial punishments, in which dread exerts a powerful but time-dependent influence over choice.
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Dread and the Disvalue of Future Pain
Story, Giles W.; Vlaev, Ivaylo; Seymour, Ben; Winston, Joel S.; Darzi, Ara; Dolan, Raymond J.
2013-01-01
Standard theories of decision-making involving delayed outcomes predict that people should defer a punishment, whilst advancing a reward. In some cases, such as pain, people seem to prefer to expedite punishment, implying that its anticipation carries a cost, often conceptualized as ‘dread’. Despite empirical support for the existence of dread, whether and how it depends on prospective delay is unknown. Furthermore, it is unclear whether dread represents a stable component of value, or is modulated by biases such as framing effects. Here, we examine choices made between different numbers of painful shocks to be delivered faithfully at different time points up to 15 minutes in the future, as well as choices between hypothetical painful dental appointments at time points of up to approximately eight months in the future, to test alternative models for how future pain is disvalued. We show that future pain initially becomes increasingly aversive with increasing delay, but does so at a decreasing rate. This is consistent with a value model in which moment-by-moment dread increases up to the time of expected pain, such that dread becomes equivalent to the discounted expectation of pain. For a minority of individuals pain has maximum negative value at intermediate delay, suggesting that the dread function may itself be prospectively discounted in time. Framing an outcome as relief reduces the overall preference to expedite pain, which can be parameterized by reducing the rate of the dread-discounting function. Our data support an account of disvaluation for primary punishments such as pain, which differs fundamentally from existing models applied to financial punishments, in which dread exerts a powerful but time-dependent influence over choice. PMID:24277999
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Gray, Joshua C.; MacKillop, James
2016-01-01
We review recent advances in the application of behavioral economics to alcohol use disorders (AUDs). Specifically, we review individual differences in alcohol demand (i.e., the relative reinforcing value of alcohol) and delayed reward discounting (i.e., impulsive decision making) in relation to AUDs. Additionally, we review the efficacy of reinforcement-based clinical applications. What emerges from the literature is an extensive body of cross-sectional research implicating alcohol demand and delayed reward discounting with alcohol misuse. However, more research is needed to examine these domains across the lifespan in order to understand their longitudinal trajectories. Similarly, clinical research is consistently supportive of reinforcement-based clinical interventions, but the number of randomized controlled trials to date is relatively small and there has been limited examination of the putative mechanisms of behavior change. PMID:27795939
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Wang, L; Wu, L; Lin, X; Zhang, Y; Zhou, H; Du, X; Dong, G
2016-04-01
The present study identified the neural mechanism of risky decision-making in Internet gaming disorder (IGD) under a probability discounting task. Independent component analysis was used on the functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 19 IGD subjects (22.2 ± 3.08 years) and 21 healthy controls (HC, 22.8 ± 3.5 years). For the behavioral results, IGD subjects prefer the risky to the fixed options and showed shorter reaction time compared to HC. For the imaging results, the IGD subjects showed higher task-related activity in default mode network (DMN) and less engagement in the executive control network (ECN) than HC when making the risky decisions. Also, we found the activities of DMN correlate negatively with the reaction time and the ECN correlate positively with the probability discounting rates. The results suggest that people with IGD show altered modulation in DMN and deficit in executive control function, which might be the reason for why the IGD subjects continue to play online games despite the potential negative consequences. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
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Comprehensive manual handling limits for lowering, pushing, pulling and carrying activities.
Shoaf, C; Genaidy, A; Karwowski, W; Waters, T; Christensen, D
1997-11-01
The objective of this study was to develop a set of mathematical models for manual lowering, pushing, pulling and carrying activities that would result in establishing load capacity limits to protect the lower back against occupational low-back disorders. In order to establish safe guidelines, a three-stage process was used. First, psychophysical data was used to generate the models' discounting factors and recommended load capacities. Second, biomechanical analysis was used to refine the recommended load capacities. Third, physiological criteria were used to validate the models' discounting factors. Both task and personal factors were considered in the models' development. When compared to the results from prior psychophysical research for these activities, the developed load capacity values are lower than previously established limits. The results of this study allowed the authors to validate the hypothesis proposed and tested by Karwowski (1983) that states that the combination of physiological and biomechanical stresses should lead to the overall measure of task acceptability or the psychophysical stress. This study also found that some of the discounting factors for the task frequency parameters recommended in the prior psychophysical research should not be used as several of the high frequency factors violated physiological limits.
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Introducing Upfront Money Can Decrease Discounting in Intertemporal Choices with Losses
Jiang, Cheng-Ming; Sun, Hong-Yue; Zheng, Sheng-Hua; Wang, Liang-Jun; Qin, Yu
2016-01-01
People generally tend to advance gains and postpone losses in intertemporal choice. Jiang et al. (2014) recently showed that adding upfront losses or gains to both smaller and sooner (SS) and larger and later (LL) rewards can decrease people’s discounting. To account for this decrease, they proposed the salience hypothesis, which states that introducing upfront losses or gains makes the money dimension more salient than not, thus increasing people’s preference for LL rewards. Considering that decreasing the discounting of delayed losses is imperative and that most previous studies have focused on intertemporal choices with gains, in the current paper we conducted two experiments and used hypothetical money outcomes to examine whether the effect of upfront money could be extended to intertemporal choices with losses. The results showed that when both SS and LL intertemporal losses were combined with an upfront loss or gain, people’s discounting rate decreased and the preference for the SS option increased. This finding further supports the salience account. PMID:27597839
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Introducing Upfront Money Can Decrease Discounting in Intertemporal Choices with Losses.
Jiang, Cheng-Ming; Sun, Hong-Yue; Zheng, Sheng-Hua; Wang, Liang-Jun; Qin, Yu
2016-01-01
People generally tend to advance gains and postpone losses in intertemporal choice. Jiang et al. (2014) recently showed that adding upfront losses or gains to both smaller and sooner (SS) and larger and later (LL) rewards can decrease people's discounting. To account for this decrease, they proposed the salience hypothesis, which states that introducing upfront losses or gains makes the money dimension more salient than not, thus increasing people's preference for LL rewards. Considering that decreasing the discounting of delayed losses is imperative and that most previous studies have focused on intertemporal choices with gains, in the current paper we conducted two experiments and used hypothetical money outcomes to examine whether the effect of upfront money could be extended to intertemporal choices with losses. The results showed that when both SS and LL intertemporal losses were combined with an upfront loss or gain, people's discounting rate decreased and the preference for the SS option increased. This finding further supports the salience account.
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Unhealthy diets, obesity and time discounting: a systematic literature review and network analysis.
Barlow, Pepita; Reeves, Aaron; McKee, Martin; Galea, Gauden; Stuckler, David
2016-09-01
There is an increasing policy commitment to address the avoidable burdens of unhealthy diet, overweight and obesity. However, to design effective policies, it is important to understand why people make unhealthy dietary choices. Research from behavioural economics suggests a critical role for time discounting, which describes how people's value of a reward, such as better health, decreases with delay to its receipt. We systematically reviewed the literature on the relationship of time discounting with unhealthy diets, overweight and obesity in Web of Science and PubMed. We identified 41 studies that met our inclusion criteria as they examined the association between time discount rates and (i) unhealthy food consumption; (ii) overweight and (iii) response to dietary and weight loss interventions. Nineteen out of 25 cross-sectional studies found time discount rates positively associated with overweight, obesity and unhealthy diets. Experimental studies indicated that lower time discounting was associated with greater weight loss. Findings varied by how time discount rates were measured; stronger results were observed for food than monetary-based measurements. Network co-citation analysis revealed a concentration of research in nutrition journals. Overall, there is moderate evidence that high time discounting is a significant risk factor for unhealthy diets, overweight and obesity and may serve as an important target for intervention. © 2016 The Authors Obesity Reviews published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Association for the Study of Obesity (IASO). © 2016 The Authors Obesity Reviews published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Association for the Study of Obesity (IASO).
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The hierarchical structure of self-reported impulsivity
Kirby, Kris N.; Finch, Julia C.
2010-01-01
The hierarchical structure of 95 self-reported impulsivity items, along with delay-discount rates for money, was examined. A large sample of college students participated in the study (N = 407). Items represented every previously proposed dimension of self-reported impulsivity. Exploratory PCA yielded at least 7 interpretable components: Prepared/Careful, Impetuous, Divertible, Thrill and Risk Seeking, Happy-Go-Lucky, Impatiently Pleasure Seeking, and Reserved. Discount rates loaded on Impatiently Pleasure Seeking, and correlated with the impulsiveness and venturesomeness scales from the I7 (Eysenck, Pearson, Easting, & Allsopp, 1985). The hierarchical emergence of the components was explored, and we show how this hierarchical structure may help organize conflicting dimensions found in previous analyses. Finally, we argue that the discounting model (Ainslie, 1975) provides a qualitative framework for understanding the dimensions of impulsivity. PMID:20224803
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Brock, Douglas; Kim, Sara; Palmer, Odawni; Gallagher, Thomas; Holmboe, Eric
2013-01-01
Usability evaluation provides developers and educators with the means to understand user needs, improve overall product utility, and increase user satisfaction. The application of "discount usability" principles developed to make usability testing more practical and useful may improve user experience at minimal cost and require little existing expertise to conduct. We describe an application of discount usability to a high-fidelity online communications assessment application developed by the University of Washington for the American Board of Internal Medicine. Eight internal medicine physicians completed a discount usability test. Sessions were recorded and the videos analyzed for significant usability concerns. Concerns were identified, summarized, discussed, and prioritized by the authors in collaboration with the software developers before implementing any changes to the interface. Thirty-eight significant usability issues were detected and four technical problems were identified. Each issue was responded to through modification of the software, by providing additional instruction, or delayed for a later version to be developed. Discount usability can be easily implemented in academic developmental activities. Our study resulted in the discovery and remediation of significant user problems, in addition to giving important insight into the novel methods built into the application.
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Models and methods in delay discounting.
Tesch, Aaron D; Sanfey, Alan G
2008-04-01
Delay discounting (DD) is a term typically used to describe the devaluation of rewards over time, and much research across a wide variety of domains has illustrated that people in general prefer a smaller reward delivered soon as opposed to a larger reward delivered at a later stage. Despite numerous attempts, a single unified model of DD that accounts for the varied pattern of results typically observed has been elusive. One of the difficulties in deriving a unified model is the presence of many framing and context effects, situations in which changing, apparently irrelevant, aspects of the choice scenarios lead to different selections. Additionally, different paradigms of DD research use quite different methodology, which poses challenges for a unified model. This chapter describes some of the difficulties in creating a single DD model and suggests some experiments that would help integrate different paradigms to create a clearer picture of DD.
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Weber, S C; Beck-Schimmer, B; Kajdi, M-E; Müller, D; Tobler, P N; Quednow, B B
2016-07-05
Increased responding to drug-associated stimuli (cue reactivity) and an inability to tolerate delayed gratification (reward impulsivity) have been implicated in the development and maintenance of drug addiction. Whereas data from animal studies suggest that both the dopamine and opioid system are involved in these two reward-related processes, their role in humans is less clear. Moreover, dopaminergic and opioidergic drugs have not been directly compared with regard to these functions, even though a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms might inform the development of specific treatments for elevated cue reactivity and reward impulsivity. In a randomized, double-blind, between-subject design we administered the selective dopamine D2/D3 receptor antagonist amisulpride (400 mg, n=41), the unspecific opioid receptor antagonist naltrexone (50 mg, n=40) or placebo (n=40) to healthy humans and measured cue-induced responding with a Pavlovian-instrumental transfer task and reward impulsivity with a delay discounting task. Mood was assessed using a visual analogue scale. Compared with placebo, amisulpride significantly suppressed cue-induced responding and reward impulsivity. The effects of naltrexone were similar, although less pronounced. Both amisulpride and naltrexone decreased average mood ratings compared with placebo. Our results demonstrate that a selective blockade of dopamine D2/D3 receptors reduces cue-induced responding and reward impulsivity in healthy humans. Antagonizing μ-opioid receptors has similar effects for cue-induced responding and to a lesser extent for reward impulsivity.
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Amlung, Michael; Sweet, Lawrence H; Acker, John; Brown, Courtney L; MacKillop, James
2014-07-01
Impulsive delayed reward discounting (DRD) is an important behavioral process in alcohol use disorders (AUDs), reflecting incapacity to delay gratification. Recent work in neuroeconomics has begun to unravel the neural mechanisms supporting DRD, but applications of neuroeconomics in relation to AUDs have been limited. This study examined the neural mechanisms of DRD preferences in AUDs, with emphasis on dissociating activation patterns based on DRD choice type and level of cognitive conflict. Heavy drinking adult men with (n = 13) and without (n = 12) a diagnosis of an AUD completed a monetary DRD task during a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. Participant responses were coded based on choice type (impulsive versus restrained) and level of cognitive conflict (easy versus hard). AUD+ participants exhibited significantly more impulsive DRD decision-making. Significant activation during DRD was found in several decision-making regions, including dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), insula, posterior parietal cortex (PPC), and posterior cingulate. An axis of cognitive conflict was also observed, with hard choices associated with anterior cingulate cortex and easy choices associated with activation in supplementary motor area. AUD+ individuals exhibited significant hyperactivity in regions associated with cognitive control (DLPFC) and prospective thought (PPC) and exhibited less task-related deactivation of areas associated with the brain's default network during DRD decisions. This study provides further clarification of the brain systems supporting DRD in general and in relation to AUDs. © 2012 The Authors, Addiction Biology © 2012 Society for the Study of Addiction.
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Pinkston, Jonathan W.; Lamb, R. J.
2011-01-01
Impulsivity is a defining characteristic of adolescence. Compared to adults, for example, adolescents engage in higher rates of drug and alcohol experimentation, risky sexual practices, and criminal activity. Such behavior may reflect reduced sensitivity to long-term consequences for behavior during adolescence. Recently, our lab has attempted to refine mouse procedures to study developmental trends in decision making in the laboratory. In the present experiment, we examined sensitivity to delayed rewards in C57BL/6J (B6) and DBA/2J (D2) mice during adolescence and adulthood using an adaptation of a two-week delay discounting procedure developed by Adriani & Laviola (2003) [Behavioral Neuroscience, 117, 695-703]. During training, mice could choose between a 20- or 100-ul drop of milk delivered after a 1-s delay. During testing, the delay to the large drop of milk was increased from 1 to 100 seconds. As the delay to the larger volume increased, preference shifted to the smaller, more immediate option. In adolescence, both strains showed similar shifts in preference. In contrast, adult B6 mice were less sensitive to increasing delays than were adult D2 mice, who continued to perform much as their adolescent counterparts. A subsequent resistance-to-extinction test ruled out the possibility that the slower change in the adult B6 mice was due to perseverative responding. The present findings suggest that B6 and D2 strains may be differentially suited to uncovering the biological mechanism of short-term and long-term patterns of impulsive behavior. PMID:21463022
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Hsu, Chia-Fen; Benikos, Nicholas; Sonuga-Barke, Edmund J S
2015-04-01
Spontaneous very low frequency oscillations (VLFO), seen in the resting brain, are attenuated when individuals are working on attention demanding tasks or waiting for rewards (Hsu et al., 2013). Individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) display excess VLFO when working on attention tasks. They also have difficulty waiting for rewards. Here we examined the waiting brain signature in ADHD and its association with impulsive choice. DC-EEG from 21 children with ADHD and 21 controls (9-15 years) were collected under four conditions: (i) resting; (ii) choosing to wait; (iii) being "forced" to wait; and (iv) working on a reaction time task. A questionnaire measured two components of impulsive choice. Significant VLFO reductions were observed in controls within anterior brain regions in both working and waiting conditions. Individuals with ADHD showed VLFO attenuation while working but to a reduced level and none at all when waiting. A closer inspection revealed an increase of VLFO activity in temporal regions during waiting. Excess VLFO activity during waiting was associated with parents' ratings of temporal discounting and delay aversion. The results highlight the potential role for waiting-related spontaneous neural activity in the pathophysiology of impulsive decision-making of ADHD. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.
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Neuropsychological predictors of clinical outcome in opiate addiction.
Passetti, F; Clark, L; Mehta, M A; Joyce, E; King, M
2008-04-01
A growing literature supports a role for neurocognitive deficits such as impaired decision-making in the development and maintenance of addictive behaviour. On the basis of these findings, it has been suggested that measures of neurocognitive functioning may be applied to the task of predicting clinical outcome in drug addiction. This in turn may have relevance for differentiating treatment based on individual patient needs. To explore this hypothesis we obtained neurocognitive measures of planning, impulsivity and decision-making from 37 opiate dependent individuals within 6 weeks of starting a community drug treatment programme and we followed them up 3 months into the programme. Performance on two tests of decision-making, but not on tests of planning, motor inhibition, reflection impulsivity or delay discounting, was found to predict abstinence from illicit drugs at 3 months with high specificity and moderate sensitivity. In particular, two thirds of the participants performing normally on the Cambridge Gamble Task and the Iowa Gambling Task, but none of those impaired on both, were abstinent from illicit drugs at follow up. Other neuropsychological, psychiatric or psychosocial factors measured in this sample did not explain this finding. The results are discussed in terms of the brain circuitry involved and the potential implications for the planning of treatment services for opiate dependence.
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2014-01-01
The single parameter hyperbolic model has been frequently used to describe value discounting as a function of time and to differentiate substance abusers and non-clinical participants with the model's parameter k. However, k says little about the mechanisms underlying the observed differences. The present study evaluates several alternative models with the purpose of identifying whether group differences stem from differences in subjective valuation, and/or time perceptions. Using three two-parameter models, plus secondary data analyses of 14 studies with 471 indifference point curves, results demonstrated that adding a valuation, or a time perception function led to better model fits. However, the gain in fit due to the flexibility granted by a second parameter did not always lead to a better understanding of the data patterns and corresponding psychological processes. The k parameter consistently indexed group and context (magnitude) differences; it is thus a mixed measure of person and task level effects. This was similar for a parameter meant to index payoff devaluation. A time perception parameter, on the other hand, fluctuated with contexts in a non-predicted fashion and the interpretation of its values was inconsistent with prior findings that supported enlarged perceived delays for substance abusers compared to controls. Overall, the results provide mixed support for hyperbolic models of intertemporal choice in terms of the psychological meaning afforded by their parameters. PMID:25390941
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Strickland, Justin C; Bolin, B Levi; Romanelli, Michael R; Rush, Craig R; Stoops, William W
2017-01-01
Cocaine users display deficits in inhibitory control and make impulsive choices that may increase risky behavior. Buspirone is an anxiolytic that activates dopaminergic and serotonergic systems and improves impulsive choice (i.e., reduces sexual risk-taking intent) in cocaine users when administered chronically. We evaluated the effects of acutely administered buspirone on inhibitory control and impulsive choice. Eleven subjects with a recent history of cocaine use completed this within-subject, placebo-controlled study. Subjects performed two cued go/no-go and a sexual risk delay-discounting task following oral administration of buspirone (10 and 30 mg), triazolam (0.375 mg; positive control), and placebo (negative control). Physiological and psychomotor performance and subject-rated data were also collected. Buspirone failed to change inhibitory control or impulsive choice; however, slower reaction times were observed at the highest dose tested. Buspirone did not produce subject-rated drug effects but dose-dependently decreased diastolic blood pressure. Triazolam impaired psychomotor performance and increased ratings of positive subject-rated effects (e.g., Like Drug). These findings indicate that acutely administered buspirone has little impact on behavioral measures of inhibitory control and impulsive sexual decision-making. Considering previous findings with chronic dosing, these findings highlight that the behavioral effects of buspirone differ as a function of dosing conditions. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.