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Updated: Aug 29, 2026

Measuring Delay Discounting in Humans Using an Adjusting Amount Task
Published on: January 9, 2016
Delay discounting by pathological gamblers
Mark R Dixon1, Janice Marley, Eric A Jacobs
1Behavior Analysis and Therapy Program, Rehabilitation Institute, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IIlinois 62901, USA. mdixon@siu.edu
Abstract:
Discounting of delayed rewards by pathological gamblers was compared to discounting of delayed rewards by matched control nongambling participants. All participants completed a hypothetical choice task in which they made repeated choices between dollars 1,000 available after a delay and an equal or lesser amount of money available immediately. The delay to the large amount of money was varied from 1 week to 10 years across conditions. Indifference points between immediate money and delayed money were identified at each delay condition by varying the amount of immediate money across choice trials. For the majority of participants, indifference points decreased monotonically across delays. Overall, gamblers discounted the delayed rewards more steeply than did control participants.
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