Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
8497345 | Behavioural Processes | 2014 | 5 Pages |
Abstract
Delayed reward discounting (DRD) is a behavioral economic index of time preference, referring to how much an individual devalues a reward based on its delay in time, and has been linked to a wide array of health behaviors. It is commonly assessed using a task that asks participants to make dichotomous choices between two monetary rewards, one available immediately and the other after a delay. This study sought to shorten an extended iterative DRD assessment to increase its versatility and efficiency. Data were drawn from two young adult samples, an exploratory sample (N = 130) and a confirmatory sample (N = 247). In the exploratory sample, eight items were identified as predicting the majority of the variance in the full task area under the curve (AUC) (R2 = .821; p < .001). In the confirmatory sample, the same eight items similarly predicted the majority of variance in the full task AUC (R2 = .844, p < .001). These results provide initial support for the validity of a brief 8-item assessment of DRD. Priorities for further validation and potential applications are discussed.
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Authors
Joshua C. Gray, Michael T. Amlung, John D. Acker, Lawrence H. Sweet, James MacKillop,