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Updated: May 9, 2026

Measuring Delay Discounting in Humans Using an Adjusting Amount Task
Published on: January 9, 2016
Unexpected downshifts in reward magnitude induce variation in human behavior
Greg Jensen1, Patricia D Stokes, Anthea Paterniti
1Columbia University, New York City, NY, USA, greg.guichard.jensen@gmail.com.
Abstract:
We investigated how changes in outcome magnitude affect behavioral variation in human volunteers. Our participants entered strings of characters using a computer keyboard, receiving feedback (gaining a number of points) for any string at least ten characters long. During a "surprise" phase in which the number of points awarded was changed, participants only increased their behavioral variability when the reward value was downshifted to a lower amount, and only when such a shift was novel. Upshifts in reward did not have a systematic effect on variability.
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