16
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
1 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      Delay discounting: concepts and measures

      research-article

      Read this article at

      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Delay discounting, one element which underlies decision-making, can be defined as the depreciation of the value of a reward related to the time that it takes to be released. High rates of delay discounting are found in subjects who are willing to forgo greater rewards available only after some length of time and who show a preference for smaller rewards that are available immediately. Widely used as a measure of impulsiveness, delay discounting can be evaluated using experimental tasks. The present review evaluated tasks of delay discounting, their features, measures of evaluation and anomalies, and some variables that can affect delay discounting results and applications in the study of individual and intra-individual differences.

          Related collections

          Most cited references77

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: not found
          • Article: not found

          Specious reward: a behavioral theory of impulsiveness and impulse control.

            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            Subjective probability and delay.

            Human subjects indicated their preference between a hypothetical $1,000 reward available with various probabilities or delays and a certain reward of variable amount available immediately. The function relating the amount of the certain-immediate reward subjectively equivalent to the delayed $1,000 reward had the same general shape (hyperbolic) as the function found by Mazur (1987) to describe pigeons' delay discounting. The function relating the certain-immediate amount of money subjectively equivalent to the probabilistic $1,000 reward was also hyperbolic, provided that the stated probability was transformed to odds against winning. In a second experiment, when human subjects chose between a delayed $1,000 reward and a probabilistic $1,000 reward, delay was proportional to the same odds-against transformation of the probability to which it was subjectively equivalent.
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: not found

              Heroin addicts have higher discount rates for delayed rewards than non-drug-using controls.

              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.
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: ND
                Role: ND
                Role: ND
                Journal
                pn
                Psychology & Neuroscience
                Psychol. Neurosci. (Online)
                Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, Universidade de São Paulo e Universidade de Brasília (Rio de Janeiro )
                1983-3288
                December 2012
                : 5
                : 2
                : 135-146
                Affiliations
                [1 ] Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul Brazil
                [2 ] Universidade Estadual Paulista Brazil
                Article
                S1983-32882012000200003
                10.3922/j.psns.2012.2.03
                486dc211-0500-4fe2-bcd0-993aba9862d1

                http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

                History

                delay discounting,decision making,impulsiveness,experimental tasks

                Comments

                Comment on this article