Written or drawn episodic future thinking cues improves delay discounting in adults

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Behavioral Economics
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Delay discounting (DD) reflects a preference for immediate over delayed rewards, linked to detrimental health behaviors like poor diet and smoking.
• Episodic future thinking (EFT) is an intervention that reduces DD by engaging individuals in imagining positive future events.
• Previous EFT interventions utilized written or auditory cues; the impact of personal visual cues, specifically drawn images, remained untested.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the efficacy of drawn versus written episodic future or recent cues in modulating delay discounting.
• To investigate whether the sensory modality of episodic cues influences their impact on delay discounting behavior.

Main Methods:

• Sixty-nine adults were randomly assigned to three groups: written EFT cues, drawn EFT cues, or written episodic recent thinking (ERT) cues.
• Participants completed a computerized adjusting amount delay discounting task, cued with personalized episodic events.
• The study compared the reduction in delay discounting across the different cue conditions.

Main Results:

• Both written and drawn episodic future thinking (EFT) cues significantly reduced delay discounting compared to episodic recent thinking (ERT) cues.
• The effectiveness of EFT cues was moderated by individual differences in immediate time perspective.
• Drawn cues showed a potential advantage for individuals with a pronounced immediate time perspective.

Conclusions:

• Both drawn and written episodic cues are effective in reducing delay discounting, offering flexibility for clinical interventions.
• The findings support the use of visual, drawn cues as a viable alternative to written cues in EFT interventions.
• Personalized visual cues, particularly drawn ones, may enhance DD reduction for individuals prone to immediate gratification.