Testing the Reliability of Delay Discounting of Ten Commodities Using the Fill-in-the-Blank Method

Abstract

Key words: delay discounting, reliability, fill-in-the-blank method, different commodities, college students Delay discounting refers to the finding that when an outcome is delayed, its value is decreased. For instance, most individuals would accept $95 today rather than waiting 1 year for $100, indicating that the delay of 1 year has decreased the value of the larger amount by at least $5. The study of delay discounting has been widespread (e.g., Takahashi, Masataka, Malaivijitnond, & Wongsiri, 2008;Whelan & McHugh, 2009), partially because it has been linked to several behavioral disorders (e.g., pathological gambling; Dixon, Marley, & Jacobs, 2003;Petry, 2005) and partially because its study has general applications (e.g., setting government policies; Hardisty & Weber, 2009).With human participants, the typical procedure for measuring delay discounting is to present participants with a hypothetical choice (e.g., Would you prefer $95 now or $100 in 1 year?). The choice is then repeatedly administered with the value of the immediately available amount and the delay to the full amount varying in some fashion across choices (e.g., presented in ascending, descending, or random order). Discounting is then determined by identifying the "indifference" point, the point at which the participant switches from preferring the larger, delayed amount to the smaller, immediately available amount.

Risky Decision-Making but Not Delay Discounting Improves during Inpatient Treatment of Polysubstance Dependent Alcoholics

“…This is consistent with previous research results (10, 11, 13). It suggests that delay discounting, apart from risk discounting, might be more of a personality trait.…”

“…Consistent with this thought, only a few studies that used test-retest designs indicated that delay discounting was stable over time in healthy volunteers [e.g., (10–12)]. Studies in addicted patients were even fewer and less conclusive.…”

Altering Participants’ Hypothetical Annual Income Can Alter Their Rates of Discounting the Same Delayed Monetary Outcome

“…Participants answered this question by typing in the amount of money they would accept today rather than waiting, a procedure called the fill-in-the-blank method (Chapman, 1996). This particular method of measuring delay discounting has been shown to be reliable (Weatherly, Derenne, & Terrell, 2011), as well as to be sensitive to differences in discounting across outcomes (e.g., Chapman, 1996;. Participants answered this question five times, with the questions differing in the amount of time before the $1,000 became available.…”

Preference on Cash-Choice Task Predicts Externalizing Outcomes in 17-Year-Olds

“…Since it requires individuals to make a large number of choices, it is time-consuming and usually requires computer access. Some have argued that its ecological validity could be improved, since individuals typically focus on only one choice of interest and not an extensive series (Weatherly et al (2011)). …”