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

Delay discounting (DD) describes choices between small, immediate rewards and larger, delayed rewards. Individuals who are high in DD favor small, immediate rewards, and this preference is related to health behaviors including higher energy intake, smoking and less physical activity. Episodic future thinking (EFT) is an intervention in which one thinks about personal positive future events and this decreases DD in adults and children. In previous studies episodic events have been presented as written or auditory cues. Episodic future images are also imagined visually, but the impact of personal visual cues has not been tested. Research examining sensory modality and semantic memory has shown drawn items are associated with better recall than writing or viewing provided images. This study compared drawn versus written episodic future or recent cues on DD. Sixty-nine adults were randomized to one of three groups; EFT-written, EFT-drawn or Episodic recent thinking (ERT)-written cues, and completed a computerized adjusting amount DD task cued with episodic events. Results showed both written and drawn EFT cues had a larger effect on DD than ERT-written cues and individual differences in immediate time perspective moderated this effect. This suggests that drawn and written cues can have similar effects on DD, providing future clinical work flexibility in how to present cues in the field. In addition, presenting drawn cues may improve DD for individuals who have an immediate time perspective.