The present study investigated delay discounting and probability discounting-behavioral economic indices of impulsivity and risk proneness, respectively-in 39 healthy older adults and 25 older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Relative to the healthy group, it was hypothesized that older adults with MCI would display greater levels of impulsivity, risk proneness, and response inconsi...

Anhedonia (lack of reactivity to pleasurable stimuli) and a negatively skewed view of the future are important components of depression that could affect economic decisions in depressed individuals. Delay discounting paradigms might be useful for probing putative affective and cognitive underpinnings of such decisions. As a first step to evaluate whether difficulties experiencing pleasure might...

The outcomes of intertemporal choices indicate that people discount rewards by their delay. These outcomes are well described by discounting functions. However, to fully understand the decision process one needs models describing how the process of decision-making unfolds dynamically over time. Here, we validate a recently published attractor model that extends discounting functions through a d...

Internet pornography is a multi-billion-dollar industry that has grown increasingly accessible. Delay discounting involves devaluing larger, later rewards in favor of smaller, more immediate rewards. The constant novelty and primacy of sexual stimuli as particularly strong natural rewards make Internet pornography a unique activator of the brain's reward system, thereby having implications for ...

OBJECTIVES Discounting of costs in health-related economic evaluation is generally regarded as uncontroversial, but there is disagreement about discounting health benefits. We sought to explore the current recommendations and practice in health economic evaluations with regard to discounting of costs and benefits. METHODS Recommendations for best practice on discounting for health effects as ...

Increased discounting of delayed rewards may reflect a decision bias that contributes to excessive use of alcohol and more generally, to an impulsive, disinhibitory predisposition that is characterized by a preference for immediate over long-term rewards. The current study examined the association between delay discounting of rewards and the covariation among several types of disinhibitory prob...

The Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma (IPD) is a central paradigm in the study of animal cooperation. According to the IPD framework, repeated play (repetition) and reciprocity combine to maintain a cooperative equilibrium. However, experimental studies with animals suggest that cooperative behavior in IPDs is unstable, and some have suggested that strong preferences for immediate benefits (that is, ...

Myopia for the future, especially in relation to economic decisions, has long been associated with low socioeconomic status (SES). Indeed, the use of theword “myopic” to describe the poor in this context dates back over a hundred years in economics (1). Although we all tend to discount future rewards to some degree, for example preferring $100 today to a slightly larger sum in the future, highe...

Temporal discounting assessments measure the reduction in the subjective value of a reward as a function of the delay to that reward, and are correlated with behavior in social dilemma. Among the solutions proposed for defection in social dilemmas is a single individual making the decisions for the group. The present study examined the influence of group context on temporal discounting. Partici...

Decision makers generally feel disconnected from their future selves, an experience that leads them to prefer smaller immediate gains to larger future gains. This pervasive tendency is known as temporal discounting, and researchers across disciplines are interested in understanding how to overcome it. Following recent advances in the power literature, we suggest that the experience of power enh...