Time preferences are reliable across time-horizons and verbal versus experiential tasks
Individual differences in delay-discounting correlate with important real world outcomes, for example education, income, drug use, and criminality. As such, delay-discounting has been extensively studied by economists, psychologists and neuroscientists to reveal its behavioral and biological mechani...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
eLife Sciences Publications Ltd
2019-02-01
|
| Series: | eLife |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://elifesciences.org/articles/39656 |
| _version_ | 1811253176342413312 |
|---|---|
| author | Evgeniya Lukinova Yuyue Wang Steven F Lehrer Jeffrey C Erlich |
| author_facet | Evgeniya Lukinova Yuyue Wang Steven F Lehrer Jeffrey C Erlich |
| author_sort | Evgeniya Lukinova |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Individual differences in delay-discounting correlate with important real world outcomes, for example education, income, drug use, and criminality. As such, delay-discounting has been extensively studied by economists, psychologists and neuroscientists to reveal its behavioral and biological mechanisms in both human and non-human animal models. However, two major methodological differences hinder comparing results across species. Human studies present long time-horizon options verbally, whereas animal studies employ experiential cues and short delays. To bridge these divides, we developed a novel language-free experiential task inspired by animal decision-making studies. We found that the ranks of subjects’ time-preferences were reliable across both verbal/experiential and second/day differences. Yet, discount factors scaled dramatically across the tasks, indicating a strong effect of temporal context. Taken together, this indicates that individuals have a stable, but context-dependent, time-preference that can be reliably assessed using different methods, providing a foundation to bridge studies of time-preferences across species.Editorial note: This article has been through an editorial process in which the authors decide how to respond to the issues raised during peer review. The Reviewing Editor's assessment is that all the issues have been addressed (see decision letter). |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T16:47:00Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5684dfe561f942f49a8f471fb60ad7fa |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2050-084X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T16:47:00Z |
| publishDate | 2019-02-01 |
| publisher | eLife Sciences Publications Ltd |
| record_format | Article |
| series | eLife |
| spelling | doaj.art-5684dfe561f942f49a8f471fb60ad7fa2022-12-22T03:24:33ZengeLife Sciences Publications LtdeLife2050-084X2019-02-01810.7554/eLife.39656Time preferences are reliable across time-horizons and verbal versus experiential tasksEvgeniya Lukinova0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8357-9307Yuyue Wang1Steven F Lehrer2Jeffrey C Erlich3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9073-7986NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science at NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China; NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, ChinaNYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science at NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China; NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, ChinaNYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science at NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China; NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China; School of Policy Studies and Department of Economics, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada; The National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, United StatesNYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science at NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China; NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China; Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics (Ministry of Education), East China Normal University, Shanghai, ChinaIndividual differences in delay-discounting correlate with important real world outcomes, for example education, income, drug use, and criminality. As such, delay-discounting has been extensively studied by economists, psychologists and neuroscientists to reveal its behavioral and biological mechanisms in both human and non-human animal models. However, two major methodological differences hinder comparing results across species. Human studies present long time-horizon options verbally, whereas animal studies employ experiential cues and short delays. To bridge these divides, we developed a novel language-free experiential task inspired by animal decision-making studies. We found that the ranks of subjects’ time-preferences were reliable across both verbal/experiential and second/day differences. Yet, discount factors scaled dramatically across the tasks, indicating a strong effect of temporal context. Taken together, this indicates that individuals have a stable, but context-dependent, time-preference that can be reliably assessed using different methods, providing a foundation to bridge studies of time-preferences across species.Editorial note: This article has been through an editorial process in which the authors decide how to respond to the issues raised during peer review. The Reviewing Editor's assessment is that all the issues have been addressed (see decision letter).https://elifesciences.org/articles/39656delay-discountingperceptualexperientialdecision-makingintertemporal |
| spellingShingle | Evgeniya Lukinova Yuyue Wang Steven F Lehrer Jeffrey C Erlich Time preferences are reliable across time-horizons and verbal versus experiential tasks eLife delay-discounting perceptual experiential decision-making intertemporal |
| title | Time preferences are reliable across time-horizons and verbal versus experiential tasks |
| title_full | Time preferences are reliable across time-horizons and verbal versus experiential tasks |
| title_fullStr | Time preferences are reliable across time-horizons and verbal versus experiential tasks |
| title_full_unstemmed | Time preferences are reliable across time-horizons and verbal versus experiential tasks |
| title_short | Time preferences are reliable across time-horizons and verbal versus experiential tasks |
| title_sort | time preferences are reliable across time horizons and verbal versus experiential tasks |
| topic | delay-discounting perceptual experiential decision-making intertemporal |
| url | https://elifesciences.org/articles/39656 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT evgeniyalukinova timepreferencesarereliableacrosstimehorizonsandverbalversusexperientialtasks AT yuyuewang timepreferencesarereliableacrosstimehorizonsandverbalversusexperientialtasks AT stevenflehrer timepreferencesarereliableacrosstimehorizonsandverbalversusexperientialtasks AT jeffreycerlich timepreferencesarereliableacrosstimehorizonsandverbalversusexperientialtasks |