Desvalorização pelo atraso (DA) se refere à preferência por gratificações menores e disponíveis imediatamente, em detrimento de gratificações maiores, disponíveis depois de algum tempo. Altos índices de DA se associam positivamente à impulsividade e estão presentes em dependentes químicos e em outros transtornos que envolvem impulsividade. Com o objetivo de conhecer melhor a DA no contexto do tabagismo na gestação, foram elaborados quatro estudos. Os dois primeiros, Desvalorização temporal: conceitos e medidas e Desvalorização pelo atraso, dependência química e impulsividade são estudos de revisão que descrevem a DA e suas características, suposições, conseqüências, relação com as dependências químicas e formas de intervenção. O estudo Atitudes de gestantes e da população geral quanto ao uso de substâncias durante a gestação mostra como gestantes e população geral pensam o uso de álcool, de cigarros e de outras substâncias durante os períodos de gestação e de amamentação, investigados através de uma enquete com cenários hipotéticos, sendo a maioria dos participantes restritiva ao uso de álcool, de cigarros e de substâncias nos dois momentos, e os permissivos condicionaram à redução de freqüência e doses. No estudo Uso de cigarros, DA e características sociodemográficas em gestantes, gestantes fumantes foram comparadas a ex-fumantes e a não fumantes com o objetivo de identificar as características do tabagismo na gestação e a DA, através de uma tarefa computadorizada, sendo controladas variáveis sóciodemográficas, estresse, transtornos mentais e uso de substâncias. Entre as fumantes, foram controlados nível de dependência do cigarro, urgência em fumar e crenças associadas ao tabagismo. Foram identificados fatores associados ao tabagismo na gestação tais como baixa escolaridade, multiparidade e parceiro fumante, sem relação entre tabagismo na gestação e estresse ou transtornos mentais. Gestantes fumantes foram as que apresentaram maior DA na situação de ganhos, demonstrando maior impulsividade. Não houve diferenças entre os grupos na situação de perdas. Os artigos são discutidos ao final da tese. / Delay discounting (DD) refers to choosing smaller and immediately available rewards, instead of larger rewards available after some time. DD relates positively to impulsivity and is present in patients with various types of addictions and other disorders involving impulsivity. Four articles were drafted aiming the understanding of DD in the context of smoking during pregnancy. The first two articles, DD, concepts and measures and DD, drug addiction and impulsivity are review studies that describe DD and its characteristics, assumptions, consequences, relation to drug addictions and intervention. The article Attitudes of pregnant women and other adults toward the use of psychoactive substances during pregnancy draws, through a survey made of hypothetical scenarios, the ideas of pregnant women and the general population on the use of alcohol, cigarettes and other substances during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Most participants showed restrictions to the use of alcohol, cigarettes and substances on both occasions, with the more permissive ones conditioning the use to less frequency of use and smaller doses. In the study Pregnant women: cigarette use, DD and socioemographic variables, aiming to identify the characteristics of smoking in pregnancy and DD, pregnant women were compared to both former smokers and non-smokers. A computer task was devised were sociodemographic variables, stress, mental disorders and substance use were taken into account. Low education (incomplete high school), having more than one children and a partner who smokes were social demographic variables significantly related to smoking during pregnancy. Stress and TMCs were not related to smoking during pregnancy. Those who smoked showed a steeper DD curve in gains but not in losses. Articles are discussed at the end of the thesis.

Preference for smaller-sooner over larger-later rewards characterizes one type of impulsivity—impulsive choice. Impulsive choice is related to a number of maladaptive behaviors including substance abuse, pathological gambling, and poor health behaviors. As such, interventions designed to reduce impulsive choice may have therapeutic benefits. The purpose of this dissertation was to explore two methods to change nonhuman impulsive choice. In doing so, we hope to provide a baseline that future research can use to assess variables that are less amenable to human research (e.g., drug self-administration following reductions in impulsive choice). In Chapter 2, we failed to reduce nonhuman impulsive choice using working-memory training, a finding both inconsistent and consistent with the extant human literature. Chapters 3-5 sought to better understand a training regimen that generates large between-group differences in nonhuman impulsive choice—delay- and immediacy-exposure training. The results from Chapters 3 and 4 suggest that prolonged exposure to delayed food rewards produces large and long-lasting reductions in impulsive choice. Chapter 5 showed that the delay-exposure training effect can be obtained in fewer sessions than has previously been employed. A better understanding of the effects of delay-exposure training on nonhuman impulsive choice may have implications for the design and implementation of a human analog.

Impulsivity takes many forms, one of which is termed impulsive choice. Impulsive choice entails preference for an outcome due to its immediacy relative to more optimal outcomes that take longer to come to fruition. For example, one may wish to have another serving of a decadent dessert after dinner—but doing so may undermine a longer-term goal of improved health and nutrition. If having the extra serving becomes a habit, the consequences of that choice compound and may lead to, for example, obesity. A high degree of impulsive choice such as this is indeed related to issues such as obesity, drug addictions (e.g., alcohol, opiates), and more; it may also cause these conditions. Because impulsive choice may lead to the development of poor health conditions, being able to reduce impulsive choice may reduce the occurrence of these conditions and/or help treat them. To date, a variety of studies have been conducted to examine ways to reduce impulsive choice, but it was unclear what methods may be most useful for clinical use in humans. Thus, the first portion of the enclosed research was a literature review in which successful methods for reducing impulsive choice were identified. A particular intervention called Episodic Future Thinking (EFT), which entails vivid imagination of one’s future, was one of the most promising found. However, it was unclear if its positive effects on impulsive choice were due to EFT itself or a placebo-like effect, which can arise from being able to guess the purpose of the intervention. The remaining portions of this dissertation focused on determining whether people are able to identify the purpose of EFT, and subsequently, if this awareness accounts for the positive effects of EFT on impulsive choice. Across three experiments, we demonstrated that naïve individuals are able to figure out the purpose of EFT (Experiments 1a and 1b), but that being aware of its purpose is unrelated to its positive effects (Experiment 3). These findings give hope that this intervention could be clinically useful, but it did appear that its benefits did not generalize well to novel settings (Experiment 2). Overall, the results of the research showed that EFT produces genuine changes in impulsive choice, but that further research will need to be conducted to understand why it works, and ultimately, how its generalizability can be increased.

Delay discounting is a measure of impulsive decision making that is associated with different forms of problem behavior. This study examined the transdiagnostic effect of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on delay discounting in a community sample. Forty adults were randomized into eight individual sessions of ACT or an inactive control. Participants completed pre-, mid-, and post-assessments for delay discounting, psychological flexibility, distress tolerance, overall psychological symptoms, behavior change, and valued living. Data were analyzed with multilevel modeling of growth curves. Significant interaction effects of time and condition were present for psychological flexibility, distress tolerance, psychological symptoms, and the obstruction subscale of valued living. No significant interaction effect was found for two delay discounting tasks nor the progression subscale of valued living. The ACT condition had a significantly larger reduction of problem behavior at post-, but not mid-assessment. Treatment was provided in a competent and ACT-consistent manner and was rated as highly satisfactory by treatment completers. The results support use of ACT as a transdiagnostic treatment. The lack of changes in delay discounting are in contrast to previous research. The clinical implications of delay discounting need to be explored further.

The present study aimed to evaluate (a) the extent to which different impulsivity measures would be related to each other and to a risk taking measure, (b) the extent to which impulsivity, risk taking, time perception and time perspective are related to each other, and (c) the extent to which these processes differ in Latino and White American students. Experiment I was conducted at Utah State University. One hundred and fortythree participants were exposed to the delay discounting, probability discounting and temporal bisection procedures, and answered the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) and the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI). Results showed that (a) the AUC for delay discounting was related to the scores on the BIS-11 scale, (b) the AUCs for delay and probability discounting were positively and significantly correlated, (c) the mean of the temporal bisection procedure was correlated with the AUC of the delaydiscounting procedure, (d) the scores on the ZTPI were correlated with the impulsivity measures, and (e) the scores on the ZTPI subscales were also correlated with the risk taking measure. These results suggest that different impulsivity measures may be evaluating similar decision-making processes, that impulsivity and risk taking may be different decision- making processes, and that time perception and time perspective are related to impulsivity and risk taking. Experiment II was conducted at Washington University in St. Louis, with 18 Latinos and 16 White Americans. Results show that while Latinos were more impulsive in the delay discounting procedure, their scores did not differ from the White Americans on the BIS-11. Interestingly, Latinos and White Americans did not differ on time perception, but they did differ on time perspective: Latinos scored higher on fatalism compared to White Americans.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Human Ecology-Personal Financial Planning / Maurice MacDonald / Clifford Robb / Americans seem to be financially vulnerable and lack sufficient net worth to overcome financial obstacles such as unforeseen medical issues, temporary job loss, or changing economic conditions. Americans aren’t saving enough, have too much debt, and tend to have a short-sighted view on their finances. Wealth is a primary indicator of financial and economic security and maintaining and improving standard of living are two important financial goals. Aggregate net worth can be used to gauge the financial well-being of Americans because it includes both assets and liabilities. It is hypothesized that part of the instability which results in the lack of accumulating adequate wealth, is time preference. Time preference is an important psychological construct which examines the ability to defer gratification. Time preference represents the intertemporal choice between immediate versus delayed utility. A low rate of time preference implies a low rate of intertemporal discounting. Individuals with low discounting do not heavily discount the future and are able to defer gratification. A high rate of time preference or a high rate of intertemporal discounting, suggests that individuals are more present oriented, heavily discount the future, prefer immediate gratification. This research study takes a unique approach to examining time preference since the experimental community lacks a clear consensus on how to best measure this construct. Standard risk and time preferences measures are typically achieved through responses to financially incentivized choice questions. Researchers have argued that incentivized choice questions may be common but they lack precision. Therefore, combining behaviors that involve intertemporal tradeoffs into a scale to measure time preference is believed to be a more accurate indicator of time preference. However, there is little research that has reliably developed and tested its use. This research examines time preference by comparing incentive choice questions as a proxy for time preference as well as an additive scale of intertemporal behaviors using a national representative sample. Regression analysis revealed that that time preference measured using an additive scale of intertemporal behaviors was significantly associated with net worth. The incentive choice questions as a measure of time preference were not significantly associated with net worth. The respondents with a high rate of intertemporal discounting as measured by the time preference scale accumulated less net-worth than respondents with a lower rate of intertemporal discounting. In addition, in the regression model when individual behaviors involving intertemporal tradeoffs such as smoking, drinking, and not taking physical exams were added as individual behaviors, the model was the preferred predictor of net worth.

The present study used a delay discounting procedure to characterize choice behaviors in behavioral impulsivity regarding hypothetical monetary outcomes in relation to political, religious and sexual attitudes. Participants were presented with three separate metrics to measure their political, religious and sexual attitudes and then with delay discounting choices, regarding hypothetical monetary outcomes. In the delay discounting measure, participants were presented with a hypothetical scenario, a preference for a certain monetary amount now, or $1,000 at a later specified time. The survey was administered with 26 participants; however, four of the participants’ data were removed due to errors. Results indicated there was no significant relationship between AUC values and political attitudes - r (22) = .14, r2 = .02, p > .05, p = .26. Results indicated there was no significant relationship between AUC values and religious attitudes - r (22) = .27, r2 = .07, p > .05, p = .11. A significant relationship was found between AUC and sexual attitudes - r (22) = -.39, r2 = .15, p < .05, p = .048. Furthermore, the results indicated there was a significant relationship between AUC values and the communion subscale of sexual attitudes – r (22) = -.48, r2 = .23, p < .05, p = .01. The current investigation has implications for further understanding of choice and decision-making behavior and how to predict and influence the respective choices and decisions to improve the quality of life of all individuals.

Desvalorização pelo atraso (DA) se refere à preferência por gratificações menores e disponíveis imediatamente, em detrimento de gratificações maiores, disponíveis depois de algum tempo. Altos índices de DA se associam positivamente à impulsividade e estão presentes em dependentes químicos e em outros transtornos que envolvem impulsividade. Com o objetivo de conhecer melhor a DA no contexto do tabagismo na gestação, foram elaborados quatro estudos. Os dois primeiros, Desvalorização temporal: conceitos e medidas e Desvalorização pelo atraso, dependência química e impulsividade são estudos de revisão que descrevem a DA e suas características, suposições, conseqüências, relação com as dependências químicas e formas de intervenção. O estudo Atitudes de gestantes e da população geral quanto ao uso de substâncias durante a gestação mostra como gestantes e população geral pensam o uso de álcool, de cigarros e de outras substâncias durante os períodos de gestação e de amamentação, investigados através de uma enquete com cenários hipotéticos, sendo a maioria dos participantes restritiva ao uso de álcool, de cigarros e de substâncias nos dois momentos, e os permissivos condicionaram à redução de freqüência e doses. No estudo Uso de cigarros, DA e características sociodemográficas em gestantes, gestantes fumantes foram comparadas a ex-fumantes e a não fumantes com o objetivo de identificar as características do tabagismo na gestação e a DA, através de uma tarefa computadorizada, sendo controladas variáveis sóciodemográficas, estresse, transtornos mentais e uso de substâncias. Entre as fumantes, foram controlados nível de dependência do cigarro, urgência em fumar e crenças associadas ao tabagismo. Foram identificados fatores associados ao tabagismo na gestação tais como baixa escolaridade, multiparidade e parceiro fumante, sem relação entre tabagismo na gestação e estresse ou transtornos mentais. Gestantes fumantes foram as que apresentaram maior DA na situação de ganhos, demonstrando maior impulsividade. Não houve diferenças entre os grupos na situação de perdas. Os artigos são discutidos ao final da tese. / Delay discounting (DD) refers to choosing smaller and immediately available rewards, instead of larger rewards available after some time. DD relates positively to impulsivity and is present in patients with various types of addictions and other disorders involving impulsivity. Four articles were drafted aiming the understanding of DD in the context of smoking during pregnancy. The first two articles, DD, concepts and measures and DD, drug addiction and impulsivity are review studies that describe DD and its characteristics, assumptions, consequences, relation to drug addictions and intervention. The article Attitudes of pregnant women and other adults toward the use of psychoactive substances during pregnancy draws, through a survey made of hypothetical scenarios, the ideas of pregnant women and the general population on the use of alcohol, cigarettes and other substances during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Most participants showed restrictions to the use of alcohol, cigarettes and substances on both occasions, with the more permissive ones conditioning the use to less frequency of use and smaller doses. In the study Pregnant women: cigarette use, DD and socioemographic variables, aiming to identify the characteristics of smoking in pregnancy and DD, pregnant women were compared to both former smokers and non-smokers. A computer task was devised were sociodemographic variables, stress, mental disorders and substance use were taken into account. Low education (incomplete high school), having more than one children and a partner who smokes were social demographic variables significantly related to smoking during pregnancy. Stress and TMCs were not related to smoking during pregnancy. Those who smoked showed a steeper DD curve in gains but not in losses. Articles are discussed at the end of the thesis.

abstract: The attractiveness of a reward depends in part on the delay to its receipt, with more distant rewards generally being valued less than more proximate ones. The rate at which people discount the value of delayed rewards has been associated with a variety of clinically and socially relevant human behaviors. Thus, the accurate measurement of delay discounting rates is crucial to the study of mechanisms underlying behaviors such as risky sex, addiction, and gambling. In delay discounting tasks, participants make choices between two alternatives: one small amount of money delivered immediately versus a large amount of money delivered after a delay. After many choices, the experimental task will converge on an indifference point: the value of the delayed reward that approximates the value of the immediate one. It has been shown that these indifference points are systematically biased by the direction in which one of the alternatives adjusts. This bias is termed a sequencing effect. The present research proposed a reference-dependent model of choice drawn from Prospect Theory to account for the presence of sequencing effects in a delay discounting task. Sensitivity to reference frames and sequencing effects were measured in two computer tasks. Bayesian and frequentist analyses indicated that the reference-dependent model of choice cannot account for sequencing effects. Thus, an alternative, perceptual account of sequencing effects that draws on a Bayesian framework of magnitude estimation is proposed and furnished with some preliminary evidence. Implications for future research in the measurement of delay discounting and sensitivity to reference frames are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2018

Desvalorização pelo atraso (DA) se refere à preferência por gratificações menores e disponíveis imediatamente, em detrimento de gratificações maiores, disponíveis depois de algum tempo. Altos índices de DA se associam positivamente à impulsividade e estão presentes em dependentes químicos e em outros transtornos que envolvem impulsividade. Com o objetivo de conhecer melhor a DA no contexto do tabagismo na gestação, foram elaborados quatro estudos. Os dois primeiros, Desvalorização temporal: conceitos e medidas e Desvalorização pelo atraso, dependência química e impulsividade são estudos de revisão que descrevem a DA e suas características, suposições, conseqüências, relação com as dependências químicas e formas de intervenção. O estudo Atitudes de gestantes e da população geral quanto ao uso de substâncias durante a gestação mostra como gestantes e população geral pensam o uso de álcool, de cigarros e de outras substâncias durante os períodos de gestação e de amamentação, investigados através de uma enquete com cenários hipotéticos, sendo a maioria dos participantes restritiva ao uso de álcool, de cigarros e de substâncias nos dois momentos, e os permissivos condicionaram à redução de freqüência e doses. No estudo Uso de cigarros, DA e características sociodemográficas em gestantes, gestantes fumantes foram comparadas a ex-fumantes e a não fumantes com o objetivo de identificar as características do tabagismo na gestação e a DA, através de uma tarefa computadorizada, sendo controladas variáveis sóciodemográficas, estresse, transtornos mentais e uso de substâncias. Entre as fumantes, foram controlados nível de dependência do cigarro, urgência em fumar e crenças associadas ao tabagismo. Foram identificados fatores associados ao tabagismo na gestação tais como baixa escolaridade, multiparidade e parceiro fumante, sem relação entre tabagismo na gestação e estresse ou transtornos mentais. Gestantes fumantes foram as que apresentaram maior DA na situação de ganhos, demonstrando maior impulsividade. Não houve diferenças entre os grupos na situação de perdas. Os artigos são discutidos ao final da tese. / Delay discounting (DD) refers to choosing smaller and immediately available rewards, instead of larger rewards available after some time. DD relates positively to impulsivity and is present in patients with various types of addictions and other disorders involving impulsivity. Four articles were drafted aiming the understanding of DD in the context of smoking during pregnancy. The first two articles, DD, concepts and measures and DD, drug addiction and impulsivity are review studies that describe DD and its characteristics, assumptions, consequences, relation to drug addictions and intervention. The article Attitudes of pregnant women and other adults toward the use of psychoactive substances during pregnancy draws, through a survey made of hypothetical scenarios, the ideas of pregnant women and the general population on the use of alcohol, cigarettes and other substances during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Most participants showed restrictions to the use of alcohol, cigarettes and substances on both occasions, with the more permissive ones conditioning the use to less frequency of use and smaller doses. In the study Pregnant women: cigarette use, DD and socioemographic variables, aiming to identify the characteristics of smoking in pregnancy and DD, pregnant women were compared to both former smokers and non-smokers. A computer task was devised were sociodemographic variables, stress, mental disorders and substance use were taken into account. Low education (incomplete high school), having more than one children and a partner who smokes were social demographic variables significantly related to smoking during pregnancy. Stress and TMCs were not related to smoking during pregnancy. Those who smoked showed a steeper DD curve in gains but not in losses. Articles are discussed at the end of the thesis.