Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Impulsive decision making and working memory.

John M Hinson1, Tina L Jameson, Paul Whitney

  • 1Department of Psychology, Washington State University, Pullman 99164-4820, USA. hinson@mail.wsu.edu

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition
|April 17, 2003
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

An Improved Rapid and Sensitive Long Amplicon Method for Nanopore-Based RSV Whole-Genome Sequencing.

Influenza and other respiratory viruses·2025
Same author

Sleep restriction and age effects on distinct aspects of cognition in adolescents.

Sleep·2024
Same author

Author Correction: Sleep deprivation diminishes attentional control effectiveness and impairs flexible adaptation to changing conditions.

Scientific reports·2023
Same author

Temporary amnesia from sleep loss: A framework for understanding consequences of sleep deprivation.

Frontiers in neuroscience·2023
Same author

A simplified, amplicon-based method for whole genome sequencing of human respiratory syncytial viruses.

Journal of clinical virology : the official publication of the Pan American Society for Clinical Virology·2023
Same author

Race/ethnicity, sleep duration, and mortality risk in the United States.

SSM - population health·2023
Same journal

Memory loves company: Related object pairs benefit working memory.

Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition·2026
Same journal

Ranschburg unrepeated.

Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition·2026
Same journal

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times: Evidence for switch cost beyond stimulus-response tasks.

Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition·2026
Same journal

Testing the predictions of a distinctiveness model of memory: The production effect in backward recall.

Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition·2026
Same journal

On the impact of adjacency on transposed-word effects under serial presentation.

Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition·2026
Same journal

It's time to opt out: Metacognitive analysis of time regulation under uncertainty.

Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition·2026
See all related articles

Working memory (WM) limits impair decision-making, increasing impulsive choices. Higher WM load and executive function deficits predict greater discounting of future rewards, impacting financial decisions.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Behavioral Economics

Background:

  • Impulsive decision-making, characterized by favoring short-term over long-term consequences, is termed temporal myopia.
  • Individual differences in executive functions, particularly working memory (WM), may underlie these temporal myopia tendencies.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the relationship between working memory (WM) capacity and delay discounting (DD) behavior.
  • To examine how working memory load and individual differences in impulsiveness and executive function influence decisions involving delayed rewards.

Main Methods:

  • Four experiments were conducted, manipulating WM load during delay discounting (DD) judgments.
  • Participants were assessed on standardized measures of impulsiveness and dysexecutive function.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Monetary rewards were varied between hypothetical and real to assess impact on DD.

    • Main Results:

    • Increased WM load significantly enhanced the discounting of delayed monetary rewards.
    • A robust positive correlation was observed between measures of impulsiveness, dysexecutive function, and DD.
    • These findings held true even when using real monetary rewards.

    Conclusions:

    • Limitations in working memory (WM) function, whether inherent or induced, are strong predictors of an impulsive decision-making style.
    • Executive functions, including WM, play a critical role in modulating temporal discounting and long-term value assessment.