Is it patience or motivation? On motivational confounds in intertemporal choice tasks

2014 ◽  
Vol 103 (1) ◽  
pp. 196-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Paglieri ◽  
Elsa Addessi ◽  
Agnese Sbaffi ◽  
Maria Isabella Tasselli ◽  
Alexia Delfino
Keyword(s):  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Choice Tasks

Temporal Discounting Across Adulthood: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kendra Leigh Seaman ◽  
Sade J Abiodun ◽  
Zöe Fenn ◽  
Gregory Russell Samanez-Larkin ◽  
Rui Mata
Keyword(s):  
Age Differences ◽  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Temporal Discounting ◽  
Total N ◽  
Adult Age ◽  
Adult Age Differences ◽  
Choice Tasks

A number of developmental theories have been proposed that make differential predictions about the links between age and temporal discounting; that is, the valuation of rewards at different points in time. Most empirical studies examining adult age differences in temporal discounting have relied on economic intertemporal choice tasks, which pit choosing a smaller, sooner monetary reward against choosing a larger, later one. Although initial studies using these tasks suggested older adults discount less than younger adults, follow-up studies provided heterogeneous, and thus inconclusive, results. Using an open science approach, we test the replicability of adult age differences in temporal discounting by conducting a preregistered systematic literature search and meta-analysis of adult age differences in intertemporal choice tasks. Across 37 cross-sectional studies (Total N = 104,736), we found no reliable relation between age and temporal discounting (r = -0.081, 95% CI [-0.185, 0.025]). We also found little evidence of publication bias or p-hacking. Exploratory analyses of moderators found no effect of experimental design (e.g., extreme-group vs. continuous age), incentives (hypothetical vs. rewards), amount of delay (e.g., days, weeks, months, or years), or quantification of discounting behavior (e.g., proportion of immediate choices vs. parameters from computational modeling). Additional analyses of 12 participant-level data sets found little support for a nonlinear relation between age and temporal discounting across adulthood. Overall, the results suggest that adult age is not reliably associated with individual differences in temporal discounting. We provide recommendations for future empirical work on temporal discounting across the adult life span.

scholarly journals Poverty and Economic Decision-Making: Evidence from Changes in Financial Resources at Payday

2016 ◽  
Vol 106 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leandro S. Carvalho ◽  
Stephan Meier ◽  
Stephanie W. Wang
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Financial Resources ◽  
Economic Decision Making ◽  
Choice Tasks ◽  
Intertemporal Choices

We study the effect of financial resources on decision-making. Low-income US households are randomly assigned to receive an online survey before or after payday. The survey collects measures of cognitive function and administers risk and intertemporal choice tasks. The study design generates variation in cash, checking and savings balances, and expenditures. Before-payday participants behave as if they are more present-biased when making intertemporal choices about monetary rewards but not when making intertemporal choices about nonmonetary real-effort tasks. Nor do we find before-after differences in risk-taking, the quality of decision-making, the performance in cognitive function tasks, or in heuristic judgments. (JEL C83, D14, D81, D91, I32)

scholarly journals A guaranteed immediate payout reduces impatience of financially constrained individuals

2022 ◽  
Vol 119 (3) ◽  
pp. e2108832119
Author(s):  
Kimberley van der Heijden ◽  
Anouk Festjens ◽  
Caroline Goukens ◽  
Tom Meyvis
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Time Preferences ◽  
Financial Strain ◽  
Financial Constraint ◽  
Capture Time ◽  
Future Needs ◽  
The Future ◽  
Choice Tasks

A large stream of literature found that individuals who experience financial strain are particularly concerned about their present needs—that is, they are more likely to choose smaller immediate payoffs over larger future payoffs. In contrast, some recent findings suggest that financially constrained individuals may be more concerned about future needs instead (e.g., they are relatively more likely to invest in long-lived durables than in short-lived experiences). We propose that the use of traditional intertemporal choice tasks has made prior studies overly sensitive to the myopia-inducing effects of financial constraint. These tasks typically offer a choice between receiving a smaller payoff in the present versus a larger payoff in the future. Across three studies, we observe that, as long as some immediate payout is guaranteed, financially constrained individuals are as likely as nonconstrained individuals to accept a delay for a larger payoff. These findings qualify prior demonstrations of the myopic effects of financial constraint and suggest that the traditionally used choice paradigm might not accurately capture time preferences, particularly for financially constrained individuals. Furthermore, they provide possible interventions for those interested in reducing the myopia of financially constrained individuals who are facing all now versus all later decisions.

scholarly journals Author response: Rats exhibit similar biases in foraging and intertemporal choice tasks

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary A Kane ◽  
Aaron M Bornstein ◽  
Amitai Shenhav ◽  
Robert C Wilson ◽  
Nathaniel D Daw ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Author Response ◽  
Choice Tasks

scholarly journals Choosing Money over Drugs: The Neural Underpinnings of Difficult Choice in Chronic Cocaine Users

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Wesley ◽  
Terry Lohrenz ◽  
Mikhail N. Koffarnus ◽  
Samuel M. McClure ◽  
Richard De La Garza ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Dorsal Striatum ◽  
Revealed Preferences ◽  
Chronic Cocaine ◽  
Left Dlpfc ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Cocaine Users ◽  
Neural Underpinnings ◽  
Choice Tasks

Addiction is considered a disorder that drives individuals to choose drugs at the expense of healthier alternatives. However, chronic cocaine users (CCUs) who meet addiction criteria retain the ability to choose money in the presence of the opportunity to choose cocaine. The neural mechanisms that differentiate CCUs from non-cocaine using controls (Controls) while executing these preferred choices remain unknown. Thus, therapeutic strategies aimed at shifting preferences towards healthier alternatives remain somewhat uninformed. This study used BOLD neuroimaging to examine brain activity as fifty CCUs and Controls performed single- and cross-commodity intertemporal choice tasks for money and/or cocaine. Behavioral analyses revealed preferences for each commodity type. Imaging analyses revealed the brain activity that differentiated CCUs from Controls while choosing money over cocaine. We observed that CCUs devalued future commodities more than Controls. Choices for money as opposed to cocaine correlated with greater activity in dorsal striatum of CCUs, compared to Controls. In addition, choices for future money as opposed to immediate cocaine engaged the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) of CCUs more than Controls. These data suggest that the ability of CCUs to execute choices away from cocaine relies on activity in the dorsal striatum and left DLPFC.

scholarly journals Waiting in intertemporal choice tasks affects discounting and subjective time perception.

2020 ◽  
Vol 149 (12) ◽  
pp. 2289-2313
Author(s):  
Ping Xu ◽  
Claudia González-Vallejo ◽  
Benjamin T. Vincent
Keyword(s):  
Time Perception ◽  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Subjective Time ◽  
Choice Tasks

scholarly journals Impulsivity as Bayesian inference under dopaminergic control

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
John G. Mikhael ◽  
Samuel J. Gershman
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Bayesian Model ◽  
Opposite Effect ◽  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Preference Reversals ◽  
Temporal Precision ◽  
Choice Tasks ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Reward Delay

AbstractBayesian models successfully account for several of dopamine (DA)’s effects on contextual calibration in interval timing and reward estimation. In these models, DA controls the precision of stimulus encoding, which is weighed against contextual information when making decisions. When DA levels are high, the animal relies more heavily on the (highly precise) stimulus encoding, whereas when DA levels are low, the context affects decisions more strongly. Here, we extend this idea to intertemporal choice tasks, in which agents must choose between small rewards delivered soon and large rewards delivered later. Beginning with the principle that animals will seek to maximize their reward rates, we show that the Bayesian model predicts a number of curious empirical findings. First, the model predicts that higher DA levels should normally promote selection of the larger/later option, which is often taken to imply that DA decreases ‘impulsivity.’ However, if the temporal precision is sufficiently decreased, higher DA levels should have the opposite effect—promoting selection of the smaller/sooner option (more impulsivity). Second, in both cases, high enough levels of DA can result in preference reversals. Third, selectively decreasing the temporal precision, without manipulating DA, should promote selection of the larger/later option. Fourth, when a different post-reward delay is associated with each option, animals will not learn the option-delay contingencies, but this learning can be salvaged when the post-reward delays are made more salient. Finally, the Bayesian model predicts a correlation between behavioral phenotypes: Animals that are better timers will also appear less impulsive.Significance StatementDoes dopamine make animals more or less impulsive? Though impulsivity features prominently in several dopamine-related conditions, how dopamine actually influences impulsivity has remained unclear. In intertemporal choice tasks (ITCs), wherein animals must choose between small rewards delivered soon and large rewards delivered later, administering dopamine makes animals more willing to wait for larger/later rewards in some conditions (consistent with lower impulsivity), but less willing in others. We hypothesize that dopamine does not necessarily influence impulsivity at all, but rather gates the influence of contextual information during decision making. We show that this account explains an array of curious findings in ITCs, including the seemingly conflicting results above. Our work encourages a reexamination of ITCs as a method for assessing impulsivity.

Internal-Time Temporal Difference Model for Neural Value-Based Decision Making

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (12) ◽  
pp. 3062-3106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroyuki Nakahara ◽  
Sivaramakrishnan Kaveri
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Hyperbolic Discounting ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Subjective Time ◽  
Temporal Difference ◽  
Internal Time ◽  
Learning Framework ◽  
Neural Activities ◽  
Choice Tasks

The temporal difference (TD) learning framework is a major paradigm for understanding value-based decision making and related neural activities (e.g., dopamine activity). The representation of time in neural processes modeled by a TD framework, however, is poorly understood. To address this issue, we propose a TD formulation that separates the time of the operator (neural valuation processes), which we refer to as internal time, from the time of the observer (experiment), which we refer to as conventional time. We provide the formulation and theoretical characteristics of this TD model based on internal time, called internal-time TD, and explore the possible consequences of the use of this model in neural value-based decision making. Due to the separation of the two times, internal-time TD computations, such as TD error, are expressed differently, depending on both the time frame and time unit. We examine this operator-observer problem in relation to the time representation used in previous TD models. An internal time TD value function exhibits the co-appearance of exponential and hyperbolic discounting at different delays in intertemporal choice tasks. We further examine the effects of internal time noise on TD error, the dynamic construction of internal time, and the modulation of internal time with the internal time hypothesis of serotonin function. We also relate the internal TD formulation to research on interval timing and subjective time.

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