Experience matters: The effects of hypothetical versus experiential delays and magnitudes on impulsive choice in delay discounting tasks

Catherine C. Steele; Mackenzie Gwinner; Travis Smith; Michael E. Young; Kimberly Kirkpatrick

doi:10.3390/brainsci9120379

Experience matters: The effects of hypothetical versus experiential delays and magnitudes on impulsive choice in delay discounting tasks

Catherine C. Steele, Mackenzie Gwinner, Travis Smith, Michael E. Young, Kimberly Kirkpatrick

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Impulsive choice in humans is typically measured using hypothetical delays and rewards. In two experiments, we determined how experiencing the delay and/or the reward affected impulsive choice behavior. Participants chose between two amounts of real or hypothetical candy (M&Ms) after a real or hypothetical delay (5–30 s), where choosing the shorter delay was the impulsive choice. Experiment 1 compared choice behavior on a real-delay, real-reward (RD/RR) task where participants received M&Ms after experiencing the delays versus a real-delay, hypothetical-reward (RD/HR) task where participants accumulated hypothetical M&Ms after experiencing the delays. Experiment 2 compared the RD/HR task and a hypothetical-delay, hypothetical-reward (HD/HR) task where participants accumulated hypothetical M&Ms after hypothetical delays. The results indicated that choices did not differ between real and hypothetical M&Ms (Experiment 1), and participants were less sensitive to delay and more larger-later (LL)-preferring with hypothetical delays compared to real delays (Experiment 2). Experiencing delays to reward may be important for modeling real-world impulsive choices where delays are typically experienced. These novel experiential impulsive choice tasks may improve translational methods for comparison with animal models and may be improved procedures for predicting real-life choice behavior in humans.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	379
Journal	Brain Sciences
Volume	9
Issue number	12
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci9120379
State	Published - Dec 2019
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health, grant number MH085739, awarded to K.K. and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program awarded to C.C.S. Thanks to Cassi Friday, Carrie Bailey, and Julia Duran for their assistance with experimental design, program development, and data collection. Parts of this manuscript were presented at the Mid-American Association of Behavior Analysis meeting in 2019.

Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health, grant number MH085739, awarded to K.K. and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program awarded to C.C.S.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Keywords

Delay discounting
Experiential discounting task (EDT)
Impulsive choice

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10.3390/brainsci9120379

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title = "Experience matters: The effects of hypothetical versus experiential delays and magnitudes on impulsive choice in delay discounting tasks",

abstract = "Impulsive choice in humans is typically measured using hypothetical delays and rewards. In two experiments, we determined how experiencing the delay and/or the reward affected impulsive choice behavior. Participants chose between two amounts of real or hypothetical candy (M&Ms) after a real or hypothetical delay (5–30 s), where choosing the shorter delay was the impulsive choice. Experiment 1 compared choice behavior on a real-delay, real-reward (RD/RR) task where participants received M&Ms after experiencing the delays versus a real-delay, hypothetical-reward (RD/HR) task where participants accumulated hypothetical M&Ms after experiencing the delays. Experiment 2 compared the RD/HR task and a hypothetical-delay, hypothetical-reward (HD/HR) task where participants accumulated hypothetical M&Ms after hypothetical delays. The results indicated that choices did not differ between real and hypothetical M&Ms (Experiment 1), and participants were less sensitive to delay and more larger-later (LL)-preferring with hypothetical delays compared to real delays (Experiment 2). Experiencing delays to reward may be important for modeling real-world impulsive choices where delays are typically experienced. These novel experiential impulsive choice tasks may improve translational methods for comparison with animal models and may be improved procedures for predicting real-life choice behavior in humans.",

keywords = "Delay discounting, Experiential discounting task (EDT), Impulsive choice",

author = "Steele, {Catherine C.} and Mackenzie Gwinner and Travis Smith and Young, {Michael E.} and Kimberly Kirkpatrick",

note = "Funding Information: This research was funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health, grant number MH085739, awarded to K.K. and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program awarded to C.C.S. Thanks to Cassi Friday, Carrie Bailey, and Julia Duran for their assistance with experimental design, program development, and data collection. Parts of this manuscript were presented at the Mid-American Association of Behavior Analysis meeting in 2019. Funding Information: Funding: This research was funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health, grant number MH085739, awarded to K.K. and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program awarded to C.C.S. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.",

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AU - Young, Michael E.

AU - Kirkpatrick, Kimberly

N1 - Funding Information: This research was funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health, grant number MH085739, awarded to K.K. and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program awarded to C.C.S. Thanks to Cassi Friday, Carrie Bailey, and Julia Duran for their assistance with experimental design, program development, and data collection. Parts of this manuscript were presented at the Mid-American Association of Behavior Analysis meeting in 2019. Funding Information: Funding: This research was funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health, grant number MH085739, awarded to K.K. and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program awarded to C.C.S. Publisher Copyright: © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

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N2 - Impulsive choice in humans is typically measured using hypothetical delays and rewards. In two experiments, we determined how experiencing the delay and/or the reward affected impulsive choice behavior. Participants chose between two amounts of real or hypothetical candy (M&Ms) after a real or hypothetical delay (5–30 s), where choosing the shorter delay was the impulsive choice. Experiment 1 compared choice behavior on a real-delay, real-reward (RD/RR) task where participants received M&Ms after experiencing the delays versus a real-delay, hypothetical-reward (RD/HR) task where participants accumulated hypothetical M&Ms after experiencing the delays. Experiment 2 compared the RD/HR task and a hypothetical-delay, hypothetical-reward (HD/HR) task where participants accumulated hypothetical M&Ms after hypothetical delays. The results indicated that choices did not differ between real and hypothetical M&Ms (Experiment 1), and participants were less sensitive to delay and more larger-later (LL)-preferring with hypothetical delays compared to real delays (Experiment 2). Experiencing delays to reward may be important for modeling real-world impulsive choices where delays are typically experienced. These novel experiential impulsive choice tasks may improve translational methods for comparison with animal models and may be improved procedures for predicting real-life choice behavior in humans.

AB - Impulsive choice in humans is typically measured using hypothetical delays and rewards. In two experiments, we determined how experiencing the delay and/or the reward affected impulsive choice behavior. Participants chose between two amounts of real or hypothetical candy (M&Ms) after a real or hypothetical delay (5–30 s), where choosing the shorter delay was the impulsive choice. Experiment 1 compared choice behavior on a real-delay, real-reward (RD/RR) task where participants received M&Ms after experiencing the delays versus a real-delay, hypothetical-reward (RD/HR) task where participants accumulated hypothetical M&Ms after experiencing the delays. Experiment 2 compared the RD/HR task and a hypothetical-delay, hypothetical-reward (HD/HR) task where participants accumulated hypothetical M&Ms after hypothetical delays. The results indicated that choices did not differ between real and hypothetical M&Ms (Experiment 1), and participants were less sensitive to delay and more larger-later (LL)-preferring with hypothetical delays compared to real delays (Experiment 2). Experiencing delays to reward may be important for modeling real-world impulsive choices where delays are typically experienced. These novel experiential impulsive choice tasks may improve translational methods for comparison with animal models and may be improved procedures for predicting real-life choice behavior in humans.

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Experience matters: The effects of hypothetical versus experiential delays and magnitudes on impulsive choice in delay discounting tasks

Abstract

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