Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 29, 2025
07:47
Measuring Delay Discounting in Humans Using an Adjusting Amount Task
Published on: January 9, 2016
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Waiting for it: Anorexia Risk, Future Orientation, and Intertemporal Discounting
Isabel Schuman1, Jingyi Wang1, Ian C Ballard2
1Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Research Square
|April 8, 2024
Summary
Individuals at risk for anorexia nervosa show more farsighted decision-making and future-oriented thinking. This future-oriented cognition helps explain altered decision-making in those with anorexia nervosa risk.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Eating Disorders
Background:
- Anorexia nervosa involves food restriction for thinness, with prior research indicating abnormal intertemporal decision-making.
- Altered temporal orientation and delay discounting are noted in acute anorexia nervosa, but their role in at-risk individuals is unclear.
Approach:
- Assessed delay discounting behavior and temporal orientation in a large sample of individuals at risk for anorexia nervosa.
- Examined the relationship between future-oriented cognition, delay discounting, and anorexia nervosa risk.
- Investigated whether future-oriented cognition mediates altered decision-making in at-risk groups.
Key Points:
- Farsighted delay discounting was linked to elevated anorexia nervosa risk.
- Increased future-oriented cognition was also associated with anorexia nervosa risk.
- Future-oriented cognition mediated the decision-making differences between high and low-risk groups, independent of mood or anxiety.
Conclusions:
- Future-oriented cognition is a cognitive mechanism underlying altered intertemporal decision-making in individuals at risk for anorexia nervosa.
- Findings suggest that enhanced future thinking contributes to the decision-making patterns observed in anorexia nervosa risk.
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