Temporal discounting when outcomes are experienced in the moment: Validation of a novel paradigm and comparison with a classic hypothetical intertemporal choice task

Abstract

When faced with intertemporal choices, people typically devalue rewards available in the future compared to rewards more immediately available, a phenomenon known as temporal discounting. Decisions involving intertemporal choices arise daily, with critical impact on health and financial wellbeing. Although many such decisions are “experiential” in that they involve delays and rewards that are experienced in real-time and can inform subsequent choices, most studies have focused on intertemporal choices with hypothetical outcomes (or outcomes delivered after all decisions are made). The present study focused on experiential intertemporal choices. First, a novel intertemporal choice task was developed and validated, using delays experienced in real time and artistic photographs as consumable perceptual rewards. Second, performance on the experiential task was compared to performance on a classic intertemporal choice task with hypothetical outcomes. Involvement of distinct processes across tasks was probed by examining differential relations to state and trait anxiety. A two-parameter logistic function framework was proposed to fit indifference point data. This approach accounts for individual variability not only in the delay at which an individual switches from choosing the delayed to more immediate option, but also in the slope of that switch. Fit results indicated that the experiential task elicited temporal discounting, with effective trade-off between delay and perceptual reward. Comparison with the hypothetical intertemporal choice task suggested distinct mechanisms: first, temporal discounting across the two tasks was not correlated; and second, state and trait anxiety both were associated with choice behavior in the experiential task, albeit in distinct ways, whereas neither was significantly associated with choice behavior in the hypothetical task. The engagement of different processes in the experiential compared to hypothetical task may align with neural evidence for the recruitment of the hippocampus in animal but not in classic human intertemporal choice studies.

Imagining emotional events benefits future-oriented decisions

“…Indeed, even when examining baseline discounting in association with trait (or even state) anxiety or depression, we failed to observe significant associations, whereas such associations do, at times, emerge in clinical samples. For example, in a study by Steinglass et al, 2017, although there was no evidence of an association between trait anxiety and discounting in the control group (also see e.g., Patt et al, 2021;Jenks & Lawyer, 2015), such associations did emerge in some of their clinical samples (higher trait anxiety in individuals with Obsessive…”

“…Indeed, even when examining baseline discounting in association with trait (or even state) anxiety or depression, we failed to observe significant associations, whereas such associations do, at times, emerge in clinical samples. For example, in a study by Steinglass et al, 2017, although there was no evidence of an association between trait anxiety and discounting in the control group (also see Jenks & Lawyer, 2015;Patt et al, 2021), such associations did emerge in some of their clinical samples (higher trait anxiety in individuals with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Social Anxiety Disorder was associated with discounting less steeply). Although we did observe a large range of scores on all clinical measures in our sample, it is possible that a relationship between discounting and aspects of anxiety or depression only manifests at a higher level of symptoms.…”

“…In both cases, there is the added concern that the process involved differs from more experiential paradigms, as in those typically used in non-human animals (see Palombo et al, 2015a ). Improving the ecological validity of delay discounting tasks is an important goal for future research (also see Patt et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Improving the ecological validity of delay discounting tasks is an important goal for future research (also see recent work by Patt et al, 2021).…”

How a second language and its future time reference impacts intertemporal decision: A holistic perspective

“…For example, although we controlled English ability for all three studies, it was difficult to balance familiarity between Chinese and English. While measuring intertemporal choice, a less hypothetical paradigm (Thoma & Tytus, 2018), e.g., with real waiting time or delayed payment (Patt, Hunsberger, Jones, Keane, & Verfaellie, 2021;Xu, González-Vallejo, & Vincent, 2020), may lead participants to become more emotionally involved in the intertemporal context, thus providing a more sensitive and ecologically valid measurement.…”