Regret now, take it now: On the role of experienced regret on intertemporal choice

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 634-642 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Raeva ◽  
Luigi Mittone ◽  
Jens Schwarzbach
Keyword(s):  
Intertemporal Choice

scholarly journals The role of ventromedial prefrontal cortex in reward valuation and future thinking during intertemporal choice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Ciaramelli ◽  
Flavia De Luca ◽  
Donna Kwan ◽  
Jenkin N. Y. Mok ◽  
Francesca Bianconi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Reward Magnitude ◽  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Future Thinking ◽  
Long Term Outcomes ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Reward Valuation

Intertemporal choices require trade-offs between short-term and long-term outcomes. Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) damage causes steep discounting of future rewards (delay discounting; DD) and impoverished episodic future thinking (EFT). The role of vmPFC in reward valuation, EFT, and their interaction during intertemporal choice is still unclear. Here, twelve patients with lesions to vmPFC and forty-one healthy controls chose between smallerimmediate and larger-delayed rewards while we manipulated reward magnitude and the availability of EFT cues. In the EFT condition, participants imagined personal events to occur at the delays associated with the larger-delayed rewards. We found that DD was steeper in vmPFC patients compared to controls, and not modulated by reward magnitude. However, EFT cues downregulated DD in vmPFC patients as well as controls. These findings indicate that vmPFC integrity is critical for the valuation of (future) rewards, but not to instill EFT in intertemporal choice.

scholarly journals THE ROLE OF NUMERACY AND IMPULSIVITY IN INTERTEMPORAL CHOICE AND DECISION MAKING

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 254-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiuqing Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Choice Preference ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Intertemporal Choices

A growing body of research has indicated a relationship between numeracy and decision making and that lower numerate people display more disadvantageous decisions. In the domain of intertemporal choice, researchers have long been using impulsivity to address choice preference. To further illuminate the psychological mechanisms of making intertemporal choices, the present study examined the role of impulsivity and numeracy in intertemporal choice, in the presence of each other. The study adopted both subjective and numeracy scales. These scales correlated with each other and with intertemporal choice preference. Moreover, it was found that after controlling for impulsivity, the object numeracy was significantly associated with choice preference, with higher numerate participants showing a stronger preference toward the later larger gains over the sooner smaller gains. Thus, the study indicated that intertemporal choice preference could be attributed to both impulsivity and numeracy.

How do lesion studies elucidate the role of the hippocampus in intertemporal choice?

Hippocampus ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela J. Palombo ◽  
Margaret M. Keane ◽  
Mieke Verfaellie
Keyword(s):  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Lesion Studies

scholarly journals Decision making: effects of methylphenidate on temporal discounting in nonhuman primates

2015 ◽  
Vol 114 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abigail Z. Rajala ◽  
Rick L. Jenison ◽  
Luis C. Populin
Keyword(s):  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Dopaminergic System ◽  
Temporal Discounting ◽  
Primary Treatment ◽  
Reward Processing ◽  
Low Doses ◽  
Impulsive Behavior ◽  
Hyperactivity Disorder ◽  
Delayed Reward

Decisions are often made based on which option will result in the largest reward. When given a choice between a smaller but immediate reward and a larger delayed reward, however, humans and animals often choose the smaller, an effect known as temporal discounting. Dopamine (DA) neurotransmission is central to reward processing and encodes delayed reward value. Impulsivity, the tendency to act without forethought, is associated with excessive discounting of rewards, which has been documented in patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Both impulsivity and temporal discounting are linked to the dopaminergic system. Methylphenidate (MPH), which blocks the DA transporter and increases extracellular levels of DA in the basal ganglia and prefrontal cortex, is a primary treatment for ADHD and, at low doses, ameliorates impulsivity in both humans and animals. This study tested the hypothesis that low doses of MPH would decrease the discounting rate of rhesus monkeys performing an intertemporal choice task, suggesting a reduction in impulsivity. The results support this hypothesis and provide further evidence for the role of DA in temporal discounting and impulsive behavior.

scholarly journals Optogenetic dissection of basolateral amygdala contributions to intertemporal choice in young and aged rats

eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caesar M Hernandez ◽  
Caitlin A Orsini ◽  
Chase C Labiste ◽  
Alexa-Rae Wheeler ◽  
Tyler W Ten Eyck ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Choice Behavior ◽  
Food Reward ◽  
Basolateral Amygdala ◽  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Intertrial Interval ◽  
Behavior Changes ◽  
Impulsive Choice ◽  
Aged Rats ◽  
Time Points

Across species, aging is associated with an increased ability to choose delayed over immediate gratification. These experiments used young and aged rats to test the role of the basolateral amygdala (BLA) in intertemporal decision making. An optogenetic approach was used to inactivate the BLA in young and aged rats at discrete time points during choices between levers that yielded a small, immediate vs. a large, delayed food reward. BLA inactivation just prior to decisions attenuated impulsive choice in both young and aged rats. In contrast, inactivation during receipt of the small, immediate reward increased impulsive choice in young rats but had no effect in aged rats. BLA inactivation during the delay or intertrial interval had no effect at either age. These data demonstrate that the BLA plays multiple, temporally distinct roles during intertemporal choice, and show that the contribution of BLA to choice behavior changes across the lifespan.

scholarly journals “Carpe Diem?”: Disjunction Effect of Incidental Affect on Intertemporal Choice

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Zhou ◽  
Tong Zou ◽  
Lei Zhang ◽  
Jiao-Min Lin ◽  
Yang-Yang Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Time Perception ◽  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Choice Preference ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
Disjunction Effect ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Carpe Diem

Incidental affect has an important impact on intertemporal choice (IC). This research aimed to test how positive incidental affect influences IC and its underlying mechanisms. We assumed that positive incidental affect may have a disjunction effect on IC that includes or excludes immediate time. Moreover, we examined the role of time perception for the effect of affect on IC. In Study 1, after undergoing affect priming by video clips, participants completed the IC task using a multiple staircase paradigm. Using Hierarchical Bayesian Modeling, we estimated the discount rate parameter by distinguishing “immediate” and “non-immediate” conditions of IC. The participants’ time perception was also measured. In Study 2, apart from the choice preference of IC, we additionally investigated the differences in the participants’ attention to delay and reward attributes before decision making. The results of the two studies indicated that positive incidental affect leads to longer time perception (Study 1) and prior and more attention to the delay attribute of IC (Study 2), which leads individuals to prefer immediate options in the IC (Studies 1 and 2). Moreover, there is a disjunction effect of affect; in other words, the incidental affect did not influence IC excluding immediate time (Studies 1 and 2). This study improves our understanding of the disjunctive effect and its mechanism of inducing a positive incidental affect on IC and thus provides a new perspective on how related decision making can be improved.

scholarly journals Individual differences in the delay-reward heuristic: An exploratory study of socioeconomic status, subjective status, and personal relative deprivation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dea Begaj ◽  
William John Skylark
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Multiple Regression ◽  
Household Income ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Relative Deprivation ◽  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Annual Household Income ◽  
Missing Value

Recent research has examined the role of inference in intertemporal choice: when a future financial reward is ambiguous, people's inferences about its value depend upon the delay until its delivery, and inferences about ambiguous delays depend upon the size of the stated reward. Here we report an exploratory study of individual differences in this \textit{delay-reward heuristic} by examining whether people's inferences about ambiguous future rewards correlate with objective and subjective indicators of socio-economic status: annual household income, education, self-placement in a national hierarchy of social status (SSS), and self-reported personal relative deprivation (PRD). Participants were presented with a hypothetical choice between receiving £10 now and an ambiguous reward in 1 year's time, and had to infer the missing value. In multiple regression analyses, age and household income emerged as unique predictors that were negatively associated with (log-transformed) estimates, although the effect of income became unreliable when this variable was log-transformed; the effects of SSS and PRD were not reliably different from zero. When participants were subsequently asked to assume that their inferences of the missing value were correct and choose between the immediate and delayed option, larger estimates were positively associated with greater willingness to wait; choices were also predicted by age, income and SSS although the latter two effects were not unambiguously non-zero, and in multiple regression analysis only participants' estimates of the reward emerged as a reliable predictor of preference. Taken together, these results support previous work suggesting that age is a meaningful predictor of inferences about ambiguous rewards and delays, and provide initial evidence that such inferences may also be associated with income.

scholarly journals The role of ventromedial prefrontal cortex in reward valuation and future thinking during intertemporal choice

eLife ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Ciaramelli ◽  
Flavia De Luca ◽  
Donna Kwan ◽  
Jenkin Mok ◽  
Francesca Bianconi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Reward Magnitude ◽  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Future Thinking ◽  
Long Term Outcomes ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Reward Valuation

Intertemporal choices require trade-offs between short-term and long-term outcomes. Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) damage causes steep discounting of future rewards (delay discounting [DD]) and impoverished episodic future thinking (EFT). The role of vmPFC in reward valuation, EFT, and their interaction during intertemporal choice is still unclear. Here, 12 patients with lesions to vmPFC and 41 healthy controls chose between smaller-immediate and larger-delayed hypothetical monetary rewards while we manipulated reward magnitude and the availability of EFT cues. In the EFT condition, participants imagined personal events to occur at the delays associated with the larger-delayed rewards. We found that DD was steeper in vmPFC patients compared to controls, and not modulated by reward magnitude. However, EFT cues downregulated DD in vmPFC patients as well as controls. These findings indicate that vmPFC integrity is critical for the valuation of (future) rewards, but not to instill EFT in intertemporal choice.

scholarly journals Age Differences in Intertemporal Choice: The Role of Task Type, Outcome Characteristics, and Covariates

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corinna E Löckenhoff ◽  
Gregory R Samanez-Larkin
Keyword(s):  
Age Differences ◽  
Time Perspective ◽  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Temporal Discounting ◽  
Subjective Health ◽  
Task Type ◽  
Age Effects ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Outcome Valence

Abstract Objectives Prior research has revealed age differences in the preferred timing of monetary outcomes, but results are inconsistent across studies. The present study examined the role of task type, outcome characteristics, and a range of theoretically implicated covariates that may contribute to variations in age effects. Method Two types of intertemporal choice paradigms (temporal discounting and sequence construction) were administered to a diverse life-span sample (n = 287, aged 18–87). The design experimentally manipulated outcome delay (months vs years), amount (hundreds vs thousands), and valence (gain vs loss) while statistically controlling for a range of potential covariates including demographics, affect, personality, time perspective, subjective health, and numeracy. Results In the temporal discounting task, no significant age differences were observed and this pattern did not differ by outcome delay, amount, or valence. In the sequence-construction task, age was associated with a preference for sequences of decreasing impact in the gain condition but not in the loss condition, whereas outcome delay and amount did not moderate age effects. Age patterns in discounting and sequences preferences remained unchanged after controlling for covariates. Discussion These findings converge with prior studies reporting weak or null effects of age in temporal discounting tasks and suggest that inconsistent results are not due to variations in outcome valence, delay, or amount across studies. Findings also add to the scarce evidence for age differences sequence-preferences. After discussing methodological limitations, we consider implications for future research and practice.

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