Pavlovian impatience: The anticipation of immediate rewards increases approach behaviour

Abstract

People often exhibit intertemporal impatience by choosing immediate small over delayed larger rewards, which has been implicated across maladaptive behaviours and mental health symptoms. In this preregistered study, we tested the role of an intertemporal Pavlovian bias as possible psychological mechanism driving the temptation posed by immediate rewards. Concretely, we hypothesized that the anticipation of immediate rewards (compared with preference-matched delayed rewards) enhances goal-directed approach behaviour but interferes with goal-directed inhibition. Such a mechanism could contribute to the difficulty to inhibit ourselves in the face of immediate rewards (e.g., a drug), at the cost of long-term (e.g., health) goals. A sample of 184 participants completed a newly developed reinforcement learning go/no-go task with four trial types: Go to win immediate reward; Go to win delayed reward; No-go to win immediate reward; and No-go to win delayed reward trials. Go responding was increased in trials in which an immediate reward was available compared with trials in which a preference-matched delayed reward was available. Computational models showed that on average, this behavioural pattern was best captured by a cue-response bias reflecting a stronger elicitation of go responses upon presentation of an immediate (versus delayed) reward cue. The results of this study support the role of an intertemporal Pavlovian bias as a psychological mechanism contributing to impatient intertemporal choice.