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Updated: Jun 13, 2026

Measuring Delay Discounting in Humans Using an Adjusting Amount Task
Published on: January 9, 2016
Performance in temporal discounting tasks by people with intellectual disabilities reveals difficulties in
Paul Willner1, Rebecca Bailey, Rhonwen Parry
1Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board, Wales, United Kingdom. p.willner@swansea.ac.uk
Abstract:
The subjective value of rewards declines as a function of the delay to receive them (temporal discounting). Three temporal discounting tasks that assessed preferences between small amounts of money (10 pence) over short delays (60 s), moderate amounts of money (10 pound) over moderate delays (2 weeks), and large amounts of money (1000 pound) over long delays (12 months) were presented to people with intellectual disabilities (Full-Scale IQ < 70) and to a comparison group (ns = 20 for each group). Measures of IQ, financial knowledge, memory, and executive functioning were also obtained. Only a third of the service users were able to perform the temporal discounting tasks consistently, and they tended to respond impulsively. The proportion of participants responding consistently increased following training. Both the initial performance and the effect of training were related to executive functioning but not IQ.
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