Exchange delays and impulsive choice in adult humans.
Choice responding by adult humans in a discrete-trial task was examined as a function of conditions that manipulated either the delay to point delivery or the delay between points and their exchange for money. In point-delay conditions, subjects chose between an "impulsive" alternative that provided a small amount of points immediately and a "self-control" alternative that provided a larger amount of points delayed by 15, 30, or 60 s. Points were exchanged for money immediately following the session. Subjects preferred the self-control alternative. In exchange-delay conditions, subjects chose between a small amount of points exchangeable for money immediately following the session and a larger amount of points exchangeable for money after 1 day, 3 weeks, or 6 weeks. A self-control preference observed for all subjects in the 1-day exchange-delay condition reversed to exclusive impulsive preference for 4 of the 6 subjects when choice conditions involved exchange delays of 3 or 6 weeks. These results show that human choice is sensitive to the manipulation of exchange delays and that impulsive preference can be obtained with exchange delays on the order of weeks.
Center for Behavior Analysis, University of North Texas, Denton 76203.
C
C
Hyten
G J
GJ
Madden
D P
DP
Field
D000328:Adult; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule