Exchange Delays and Impulsive Choice in Adult Humans

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior

Volume

62

Issue

2

Publisher

Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior

Publication Date

1994

First Page

225

Last Page

233

Abstract

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.

Comments

Originally published by the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. Publisher's PDF available through remote link via PubMed Central. This article appeared in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.
Note: Greg Madden was affiliated with the University of North Texas at time of publication.

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