An adaptive delay discounting procedure for the E-Prime programming environment

Author(s):  
Ray Norbury

Background and objective: Delayed rewards are commonly perceived as less valuable than immediate rewards, a phenomenon referred to as either delay discounting or temporal discounting. Here, an adaptive discounting procedure developed for the E-Prime programming environment and an associated analysis script implemented in Excel are described. Methods: The experimental procedure was developed in E-Prime 2.0.10.242 and an associated analysis workbook in Excel 2013. Area under the curve (AUC) and hyperbolic discounting were used to measure delay discounting.Results: Example data from a sample (n= 19, mean age 21, 14 females) are presented. There was good agreement between AUC and log k values (hyperbolic) (AUC 100 and logK 100 was r(19) = -.889, p < .001, AUC 1000 and logK 1000, r(19) = -.906, p < .001 and AUC 10000 and logK 10000, r(19) = -.872, p < .001. At the individual level, the fit of the hyperbolic discounting function to the data was generally good (R2 values ranged between .88 and .97)Conclusions: An adaptive delay discounting procedure within the E-Prime programming environment and an associated analysis script (executed in Excel) are described. This implementation, freely available to the scientific community, may be suited to laboratories with limited programming resources or experience that intend to use this software suite for developing and implementing experimental paradigms.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Thomas Vincent ◽  
Neil Stewart

While parameters are crucial components of cognitive models, relatively little importance has been given to their units. We show that this has lead to some parameters to be contaminated, introducing an artifactual correlation between them. We also show that this has led to the illegal comparison of parameters with different units of measurement – this may invalidate parameter comparisons across partic- ipants, conditions, groups, or studies. We demonstrate that this problem affects two related models: Stevens’ Power Law and Rachlin’s delay discounting model. We show that it may even affect models which superficially avoid the incompatible units problem, such as hyperbolic discounting. We present simulation results to demonstrate the extent of the issues caused by the muddled units problem. We offer solutions in order to avoid the problem in the future or to aid in re-interpreting existing datasets.


2021 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 18-26
Author(s):  
Adam Karbowski ◽  
Bartłomiej Wiśnicki

We investigate gender differences in delay discounting of monetary losses. 203 participants solved a discounting task based on the titration algorithm. The individual rates of delay discounting of losses were calculated with the use of AUC (Area Under the Curve) method. The results show that there is no statistically significant impact of gender on delay discounting of monetary losses. We briefly discuss possible biological and social explanations of the above finding.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harli Berk ◽  
Tanya Gupta ◽  
Federico Sanabria

The estimation of delay discounting rates (k) typically assumes that the relative subjective value of a reinforcer declines as a reciprocal function of its delay. Nonetheless, estimates of k based on least-squares fits of the hyperbolic discounting function to relative subjective values appear to have serious limitations. This curve-fitting method yield average discounting functions that may not accurately reflect the individual subjects’ data. The present study used the hyperbolic discounting function to derive a new dependent measure, termed immediacy premium, which is a linear function of delay. By averaging linear rather than reciprocal functions, the averaged estimates obtained from immediacy premiums are more representative of individual data, and comparisons between mean estimates across treatments or samples is more meaningful. Using published data, the similarity of k estimates based on least-square fits to relative subjective values and immediacy premiums was evaluated. The assumptions of this curve-fitting method (normally-distributed error with mean of zero, independent across delays within the same subject) were evaluated for each dependent measure. Systematic species-dependent differences in estimates of k were observed when obtained from one measure or another. Violations of curve-fitting assumptions were observed regardless of measure, but primarily in human data. These violations were simulated to determine the likelihood that they emerge from the transformation between dependent measures. Taken together, the reported analysis yields a qualified support for the adoption of immediacy premiums as the basis for the estimation of k.


2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (14) ◽  
pp. 919-928 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua D Ruddy ◽  
Christopher W Pollard ◽  
Ryan G Timmins ◽  
Morgan D Williams ◽  
Anthony J Shield ◽  
...  

BackgroundTo investigate the association between running exposure and the risk of hamstring strain injury (HSI) in elite Australian footballers.MethodsElite Australian footballers (n=220) from 5 different teams participated. Global positioning system (GPS) data were provided for every athlete for each training session and match for the entire 2015 season. The occurrences of HSIs throughout the study period were reported. Receiver operator characteristic curve analyses were performed and the relative risk (RR) of subsequent HSI was calculated for absolute and relative running exposure variables related to distance covered above 10 and 24 km/hour in the preceding week/s.Results30 prospective HSIs occurred. For the absolute running exposure variables, weekly distance covered above 24 km/hour (>653 m, RR=3.4, 95% CI 1.6 to 7.2, sensitivity=0.52, specificity=0.76, area under the curve (AUC)=0.63) had the largest influence on the risk of HSI in the following week. For the relative running exposure variables, distance covered above 24 km/hour as a percentage of distance covered above 10 km/hour (>2.5%, RR=6.3, 95% CI 1.5 to 26.7, sensitivity=0.93, specificity=0.34, AUC=0.63) had the largest influence on the risk of HSI in the following week. Despite significant increases in the RR of HSI, the predictive capacity of these variables was limited.ConclusionsAn association exists between absolute and relative running exposure variables and elite Australian footballers' risk of subsequent HSI, with the association strongest when examining data within 7–14 days. Despite this, the use of running exposure variables displayed limited clinical utility to predict HSI at the individual level.


2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 183-198
Author(s):  
Wiktor Soral ◽  
Mirosław Kofta

Abstract. The importance of various trait dimensions explaining positive global self-esteem has been the subject of numerous studies. While some have provided support for the importance of agency, others have highlighted the importance of communion. This discrepancy can be explained, if one takes into account that people define and value their self both in individual and in collective terms. Two studies ( N = 367 and N = 263) examined the extent to which competence (an aspect of agency), morality, and sociability (the aspects of communion) promote high self-esteem at the individual and the collective level. In both studies, competence was the strongest predictor of self-esteem at the individual level, whereas morality was the strongest predictor of self-esteem at the collective level.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-34
Author(s):  
Edward C. Warburton

This essay considers metonymy in dance from the perspective of cognitive science. My goal is to unpack the roles of metaphor and metonymy in dance thought and action: how do they arise, how are they understood, how are they to be explained, and in what ways do they determine a person's doing of dance? The premise of this essay is that language matters at the cultural level and can be determinative at the individual level. I contend that some figures of speech, especially metonymic labels like ‘bunhead’, can not only discourage but dehumanize young dancers, treating them not as subjects who dance but as objects to be danced. The use of metonymy to sort young dancers may undermine the development of healthy self-image, impede strong identity formation, and retard creative-artistic development. The paper concludes with a discussion of the influence of metonymy in dance and implications for dance educators.


Author(s):  
Pauline Oustric ◽  
Kristine Beaulieu ◽  
Nuno Casanova ◽  
Francois Husson ◽  
Catherine Gibbons ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher James Hopwood ◽  
Ted Schwaba ◽  
Wiebke Bleidorn

Personal concerns about climate change and the environment are a powerful motivator of sustainable behavior. People’s level of concern varies as a function of a variety of social and individual factors. Using data from 58,748 participants from a nationally representative German sample, we tested preregistered hypotheses about factors that impact concerns about the environment over time. We found that environmental concerns increased modestly from 2009-2017 in the German population. However, individuals in middle adulthood tended to be more concerned and showed more consistent increases in concern over time than younger or older people. Consistent with previous research, Big Five personality traits were correlated with environmental concerns. We present novel evidence that increases in concern were related to increases in the personality traits neuroticism and openness to experience. Indeed, changes in openness explained roughly 50% of the variance in changes in environmental concerns. These findings highlight the importance of understanding the individual level factors associated with changes in environmental concerns over time, towards the promotion of more sustainable behavior at the individual level.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Payne ◽  
Heidi A. Vuletich ◽  
Kristjen B. Lundberg

The Bias of Crowds model (Payne, Vuletich, & Lundberg, 2017) argues that implicit bias varies across individuals and across contexts. It is unreliable and weakly associated with behavior at the individual level. But when aggregated to measure context-level effects, the scores become stable and predictive of group-level outcomes. We concluded that the statistical benefits of aggregation are so powerful that researchers should reconceptualize implicit bias as a feature of contexts, and ask new questions about how implicit biases relate to systemic racism. Connor and Evers (2020) critiqued the model, but their critique simply restates the core claims of the model. They agreed that implicit bias varies across individuals and across contexts; that it is unreliable and weakly associated with behavior at the individual level; and that aggregating scores to measure context-level effects makes them more stable and predictive of group-level outcomes. Connor and Evers concluded that implicit bias should be considered to really be noisily measured individual construct because the effects of aggregation are merely statistical. We respond to their specific arguments and then discuss what it means to really be a feature of persons versus situations, and multilevel measurement and theory in psychological science more broadly.


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