These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Tests of an indifference rule in variable-delay and double-reward choice procedures with humans.
    Author: McKerchar TL, Mazur JE.
    Journal: J Exp Anal Behav; 2019 May; 111(3):387-404. PubMed ID: 31038743.
    Abstract:
    Four hundred and fifty participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk across 3 experiments to test the predictions of a hyperbolic discounting equation in accounting for human choices involving variable delays or multiple rewards (Mazur, 1984, 1986). In Experiment 1, participants made hypothetical choices between 2 monetary alternatives, 1 consisting of a fixed delay and another consisting of 2 delays of equal probability (i.e., a variable-delay procedure). In Experiment 2, participants made hypothetical monetary choices between a single, immediate reward and 2 rewards, 1 immediate and 1 delayed (i.e., a double-reward procedure). Experiment 3 also used a double-reward procedure, but with 2 delayed rewards. Participants in all 3 experiments also completed a standard delay-discounting task. Finally, 3 reward amounts were tested in each type of task ($100, $1000, and $5000). In the double-reward conditions (Experiments 2 and 3), the results were in good qualitative and quantitative agreement with Mazur's model (1984, 1986). In contrast, when participants made choices involving variable delays (Experiment 1), there was relatively poor qualitative and quantitative agreement with this model. These results, along with our previous findings, suggest the structure of questions in hypothetical tasks with humans can be a strong determinant of the choice pattern.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]