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THE BEHAVIORAL MECHANISMS OF DELAY AND PROBABILITY DISCOUNTING
Stancato, Stefanie S
Stancato, Stefanie S
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Abstract
Delay and probability discounting have long been treated as the same facet of behavior, while this equivalence is inconsistently shown in the literature. To inform the goals of this dissertation, a systematic review was conducted reviewing the probability discounting literature, where the results are first presented, followed by a discussion of a new analytic technique (i.e., multilevel modeling) proposed as an alternative analysis to separate the behavioral mechanisms thought to influence choice. Also discussed are the two factors that were selected for this study (i.e., magnitude of the reward and framing effects). In the set of experimental studies, participants were asked to complete delay and probability discounting tasks across 4 conditions: $100 larger, later/probabilistic magnitude, $1000 larger, later/probabilistic magnitude, concrete vs. period of time delay, and the percentage vs. frequency probability, to evaluate individual sensitivities to reward magnitude, delay, and probability across multiple magnitudes and framing of the delays and probabilities. Results for experiment 1 showed differences in delay discounting rates between $100 and $1000, while the multilevel logistic regression showed increased sensitivity to the magnitude of $1000 than $100. Participants also showed increased sensitivity to both magnitude and probability in the probability discounting task, suggesting an interaction, while showing no differences in probability discounting rates. Results for Experiment 2 showed no differences in delay or probability discounting rates between the two framing conditions. The multilevel logistic regression showed increased participant sensitivity to reward delay when presented as a temporal delay (i.e., 1 week, etc.) than a calendar date, while there were no differences in probability. Limitations, implications, and future directions are discussed.
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Date
2022-08-31
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University of Kansas
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Keywords
Behavioral psychology, Delay discounting, Impulsive choice, Mechanisms of behavior, Multilevel modeling, Probability discounting, Risky Choice