Decision processes in choice overload: A product of delay and probability discounting?

• Larger rewards resulted in shallower temporal, but steeper options discounting.
• Direction of change in options discounting more closely resembles that of probability.
• Temporal discounting may not be the only process contributing to the choice overload effect.

Recent research in the behavioral decision making literature has demonstrated that humans hyperbolically discount the subjective value of options as the number of options increases (Reed et al., 2012). These findings provide a cognitive-behavioral synthesis of the “choice overload” phenomenon, also known as the “paradox of choice.” Specifically, these findings suggest that temporal discounting may serve as the underlying process contributing to this effect. As an extension, this study examined the effects of reward magnitude sizes had on rates temporal and options discounting. This manipulation was conducted to determine what role temporal discounting plays in discounting of options. The present results suggest that temporal discounting may not be the only process contributing to the choice overload effect.