TY - JOUR
T1 - Generalizability of time-based interventions
T2 - Effects of choice procedure and smaller-sooner delay
AU - Smith, Travis R.
AU - Panfil, Kelsey
AU - Kirkpatrick, Kimberly
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2022/3
Y1 - 2022/3
N2 - Interventions exposing rats to delayed-reward contingencies attenuate suboptimal impulsive choices, a preference for a smaller-sooner (SS) over a larger-later (LL) reward. Interventions may potentially improve delay-tolerance, timing of delays, and/or discrimination of reward magnitudes. Generalization from the intervention to impulsive choice under different procedures can provide insights into the processes that underlie the intervention effects. Experiment 1 tested intervention effects on systematic-delay (SYS) and adjusting-delay (ADJ) procedures, predicting that intervention effects would be more effective on the SYS procedure with predictable delays. The ADJ procedure did not benefit significantly from intervention, but the SYS procedure, unexpectedly, showed greater impulsive choices following intervention. Experiment 2 tested whether short (5 s) SS intervention delays may have promoted greater impulsivity in the SYS impulsive choice procedure in Experiment 1. Short SS delays in choice and intervention procedures increased impulsive choices in comparison to longer (10 s) delays. Incongruent SS delays in the intervention/choice procedures resulted in negative intervention effects. The results suggest that short SS delays are detrimental to self-control and that specific temporal information generalizes from the intervention to the SYS choice task, but not the ADJ choice task.
AB - Interventions exposing rats to delayed-reward contingencies attenuate suboptimal impulsive choices, a preference for a smaller-sooner (SS) over a larger-later (LL) reward. Interventions may potentially improve delay-tolerance, timing of delays, and/or discrimination of reward magnitudes. Generalization from the intervention to impulsive choice under different procedures can provide insights into the processes that underlie the intervention effects. Experiment 1 tested intervention effects on systematic-delay (SYS) and adjusting-delay (ADJ) procedures, predicting that intervention effects would be more effective on the SYS procedure with predictable delays. The ADJ procedure did not benefit significantly from intervention, but the SYS procedure, unexpectedly, showed greater impulsive choices following intervention. Experiment 2 tested whether short (5 s) SS intervention delays may have promoted greater impulsivity in the SYS impulsive choice procedure in Experiment 1. Short SS delays in choice and intervention procedures increased impulsive choices in comparison to longer (10 s) delays. Incongruent SS delays in the intervention/choice procedures resulted in negative intervention effects. The results suggest that short SS delays are detrimental to self-control and that specific temporal information generalizes from the intervention to the SYS choice task, but not the ADJ choice task.
KW - Delay discounting
KW - Impulsive choice
KW - Intervention
KW - Rat
KW - Timing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85123421342&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85123421342&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.beproc.2022.104584
DO - 10.1016/j.beproc.2022.104584
M3 - Article
C2 - 35033629
AN - SCOPUS:85123421342
SN - 0376-6357
VL - 196
JO - Behavioural Processes
JF - Behavioural Processes
M1 - 104584
ER -