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

Subjective probability and delay.

H Rachlin1, A Raineri, D Cross

  • 1Psychology Department, State University of New York, Stony Brook 11794.

Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
|March 1, 1991
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

Achievement of Target Gain Larger than Unity in an Inertial Fusion Experiment.

Physical review letters·2024
Same author

Lawson Criterion for Ignition Exceeded in an Inertial Fusion Experiment.

Physical review letters·2022
Same author

Western Australian adolescent emotional wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health·2022
Same author

Prevalence and pattern of energy drink intake among Australian adolescents.

Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association·2020
Same author

Particle damage sources for fused silica optics and their mitigation on high energy laser systems.

Optics express·2017
Same author

Safety and efficacy of rescue flexible bronchoscopic intubation using the Bentson floppy-tip guidewire via a supraglottic airway in critically ill children.

Anaesthesia·2017
Same journal

The Genoeconomics of Impulsive Intertemporal Choice: A Critical Review.

Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior·2026
Same journal

Shaping the extinction burst: Increasing its probability and preventing its emergence across topographies.

Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior·2026
Same journal

Evaluating the combined effects of effort and probability on monetary discounting.

Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior·2026
Same journal

An improved translational approach to studying persistence-strengthening effects of differential reinforcement of alternative behavior.

Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior·2026
Same journal

Interactions between the effects of food and water motivating operations on concurrent food- and water-reinforced responding in mice.

Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior·2026
Same journal

Odor-visual and visual-visual matching to sample with dogs.

Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior·2026
See all related articles

Human decision-making for rewards shows hyperbolic discounting for both delayed and probabilistic monetary rewards. This pattern mirrors findings in animal behavior, suggesting conserved principles in value assessment across species.

Area of Science:

  • Behavioral Economics
  • Neuroscience
  • Psychology

Background:

  • Individuals often face choices involving immediate versus delayed or certain versus probabilistic rewards.
  • Understanding how subjective value changes with delay and probability is crucial for behavioral modeling.
  • Previous research (Mazur, 1987) identified hyperbolic discounting in pigeons for delayed rewards.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate human subjective valuation of monetary rewards under conditions of delay and probability.
  • To compare human delay discounting functions with those observed in animal models.
  • To examine the relationship between subjective equivalence and objective parameters like probability and delay.

Main Methods:

  • Experiment 1: Human participants chose between a hypothetical $1,000 reward (with varying probabilities or delays) and a certain immediate reward of variable amount.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Experiment 2: Participants chose between a delayed $1,000 reward and a probabilistic $1,000 reward.
  • Analysis involved determining subjective equivalences and fitting hyperbolic functions to the data.

    • Main Results:

    • Subjective value decreased hyperbolically with reward delay, similar to pigeons' delay discounting.
    • Subjective value decreased hyperbolically with decreasing probability of reward, when probability was transformed to odds against winning.
    • In choices between delayed and probabilistic rewards, delay was proportional to the odds-against transformation of probability.

    Conclusions:

    • Human valuation of delayed and probabilistic rewards follows a hyperbolic discounting pattern.
    • The findings suggest a conserved mechanism for subjective value assessment across species (humans and pigeons).
    • The odds-against transformation provides a unified way to model both delay and probability discounting.