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Related Experiment Videos

Temporal discounting when the choice is between two delayed rewards.

Leonard Green1, Joel Myerson, Eric W Macaux

  • 1Department of Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis, MO 63130, USA. lgreen@wustl.edu

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition
|October 27, 2005
PubMed
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This study explores choices between two delayed rewards, finding that people discount future rewards less as the delay to the sooner option increases. The common-aspect attenuation hypothesis best explains this temporal discounting behavior.

Area of Science:

  • Behavioral Economics
  • Decision Science
  • Cognitive Psychology

Background:

  • Temporal discounting, the tendency to devalue future rewards, is typically studied using choices between immediate and delayed rewards.
  • This research extends the paradigm to evaluate choices solely between two delayed rewards.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how individuals make choices between two delayed monetary rewards.
  • To identify the best theoretical model explaining decision-making in this context.
  • To analyze the impact of varying reward amounts and delay periods on discounting behavior.

Main Methods:

  • Participants chose between a smaller reward available sooner and a larger reward available later.
  • Experiments systematically varied the amounts and delay periods for both rewards.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Data were analyzed using a hyperbola-like discounting function and compared against three theoretical models.

    • Main Results:

    • Decision-making data were consistently described by a hyperbola-like discounting function.
    • The degree of temporal discounting decreased as the delay to the sooner reward increased.
    • The common-aspect attenuation hypothesis provided the most accurate explanation for the observed choices.

    Conclusions:

    • The common-aspect attenuation hypothesis suggests that shared features, like the time to the sooner reward, receive less decision weight.
    • This finding offers new insights into the psychological mechanisms underlying delayed gratification and intertemporal choice.
    • The study highlights the importance of considering the relative timing of delayed options in economic and psychological models.