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Online shopping has rapidly expanded in the last decade. Online shopping necessarily imposes delays on all transactions. Behavior analysis has long studied the effects of delay on choice. Additionally, a number of researchers are beginning to study consumer behavior using a behavior-analytic approach. The current study attempted to extend research focusing on consumer behavior in online contexts. The experimenters attempted to evaluate whether goods acquire functional properties and whether these properties influence consumer choice. The researchers were specifically interested in studying acquisition costs and durability and in simulating a natural online shopping environment. Results from the current study extend the findings showing that delay and price influence choice. The data from the current study provide mixed evidence for control by item durability.

The present study showed the impact of discounting across multiple populations that were obese to that of matched controls. The experiment used one decreasing hypothetical temporal procedure and three probabilistic health discounting procedures in which, of 38 participants interviewed, 20 were obese. It appears that age and obesity alter the subjective values of the delayed rewards within both temporal and probabilistic paradigms. The current data showed a significant difference between populations that were obese to that of the matched controls. In addition, statistically significance was found between the two obese populations within the study. Implications of the future of delay discounting are addressed, in addition to the stigma of delay discounting within behavior analysis.

Temporal discounting can be used to evaluate impulsivity in various populations. One assessment measure that can be used is a monetary choice questionnaire in which individuals are provided with an option to select a specified amount of money now, or a different amount following a temporal delay. This study examines the convergent validity of a long monetary choice questionnaire consisting of 189 questions and a brief monetary choice questionnaire consisting of 7 questions, in which participants can select all of the amounts they would prefer to acquire. The results of this study suggested that there is convergent validity between the two surveys through the use of Pearson’s correlation (r=.648, p< .001) and a paired samples t- test that demonstrated that the difference between the AUC scores was not significant (p=.287). Keywords: discounting, convergent validity, impulsivity, self- control, temporal discounting

A self-control procedure that involved a later onset of a stimulus signalling a small reinforcer within the waiting time for a larger reinforcer was investigated to determine a point of shifting preference and a discounting function as the delay varied. The results from Experiment 1 to Experiment 3 showed exclusive impulsive choices regardless of the delay. In order to examine if the results were due to the procedure and the parameters, or the species used, Experiment 4 attempted to obtain shifts in preference using simultaneous onset of stimuli with the same species. The results demonstrated no changes in preference but an increase in proportion of self-control choices was shown. Due to the limited information from the replicated studies, the accounts for the results could not be concluded. The explanations derived from choice models seemed most plausible, but limitations of the choice models were discussed.

De exekutiva förmågorna möjliggör avancerade kognitiva processer. Prokrastination är vår benägenhet att fördröja en planerad handling trots att fördröjningen förvärrar situationen. Denna uppsats har utforskat om det finns ett konceptuellt samband mellan konstrukten. Orsaken till prokrastinaton tros hänga samman med bristande självreglering som är sammanlänkat med de exekutiva förmågorna. Det finns ett glapp mellan intentionen och handlandet hos de som prokrastinerar. Impulsivitet tycks ligga bakom denna skillnad. Prokrastinerande individer väljer det njutningsfulla i stunden framför långsiktiga fördelar. Indikationer tyder på att de hämmande mekanismerna inom de exekutiva förmågorna inverkar i reglerandet av impulsiviteten. Individer med högre förmåga att hämma impulser är bättre på att följa sina intentioner. Direkta studier mellan de exekutiva förmågorna och prokrastination behövs för att stärka kausala samband.

The study compared delay discounting in adult humans using two different methods of adjustments. Both methods used hypothetical choices of monetary outcomes. One involved adjustments using a fixed sequence of ascending or descending amounts, the other used a bisection algorithm in which the changes in amounts varied as a function of the subjects' choices. Two magnitudes of delayed outcomes were used: $1,000 and $10,000. A within subject design was used to compare indifference curves and discounting measures across the two adjusting procedures. Twenty four subjects were divided in two groups and exposed to the procedures in opposite order, to account for sequence effects. Results from within subject comparisons showed no systematic differences between procedures.

Previous research on college students has found that cooperation in iterated prisoner's dilemma game is correlated with preference for delayed rewards in studies of temporal discounting. The present study attempted to replicate this finding in a drug-dependent population. Thirty-one individuals who intranasally abuse prescription opioids participated in temporal discounting and iterated prisoner's dilemma game procedures during intake for a treatment study. Rate of temporal discounting was determined for each participant at two hypothetical reward magnitudes, as well as proportion of cooperation in a 60-trial iterated prisoner's dilemma game versus a tit-for-tat strategy. Cooperation in the prisoner's dilemma game and temporal discounting rates were significantly correlated in the predicted direction: individuals who preferred delayed rewards in the temporal discounting task were more likely to cooperate in the prisoner's dilemma game.

During decision-making, an individual must weigh the value of the outcomes involved while also considering the amount of time until the outcomes will occur. Discounting occurs when a smaller, immediately available reward is chosen over a larger, more delayed reward. Discounting rates are likely related to working memory capacity, because working memory stores and processes the value of the outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between working memory, temporal discounting, and the decision to engage in physical activity. The results showed that working memory capacity was related to the physical activity rates. Discounting rates from a money task and a health task were not related to activity rates. However, in the subsample of individuals who reported that their primary motive to exercise was health, working memory and discounting rates from the money task were both statistically significant predictors of physical activity.

Matching relations identified by Herrnstein (1961) demonstrate behavior rates as a function of the ratio of reinforcement rates for alternative behaviors. The mathematical relationship identified by Herrnstein and modified by Baum (1974) was later applied to foraging animals, given the option of two patches (Kennedy & Gray, 1993). This application lead to the demonstration that animals (Baum & Kraft, 1998) and humans (Kraft & Baum, 2001) will engage in emergent group behavior that is distinct from individual matching relations. To more completely understand group matching in humans, group relations beyond foraging must be investigated. This study expands on the findings of Kraft and Baum (2001) and subsequent studies by introducing a group contingency for point earnings. Using an ABAB/BABA experimental design, interdependent group contingency was compared to individual contingency in two experimental sessions with different sets of participants. To better understand individual performance in matching rations, a temporal discounting measure was administered to participants (Beck & Triplett, 2009). Scores were transformed into area-under-the-curve values and correlated with total points earned. Participants were divided into teams based on their scores on a measure of temporal discounting with which they earned points during the group contingency conditions. An effect for group contingency was found for Experiment 2 but not Experiment 1. Order effects apparent in the data from both experiments are attributed to the BABA design used in Experiment 2. Results across the two experiments show a relationship between temporal discounting scores and total points earned for participants with valid temporal discounting scores (n = 13). Future research should expand upon these findings in applied contexts. / Educational Psychology