Associations between delay discounting and unhealthy behaviors in substance use recovery

BACKGROUND

Research on delay discounting (DD) is mixed on whether DD is a domain-specific component related to specific behaviors or a domain-general process that cuts across various behaviors. A pivotal group to test the associations between DD and unhealthy behaviors is individuals in recovery from substance use disorders (SUD), as they are moving away from a disorder toward a healthier state.

METHODS

Individuals in SUD recovery (n = 317) completed the Temptation Scale, the Health Behaviors Questionnaire, and an Adjusting Delay Discounting Task. An exhaustive model space search was performed using linear regression to examine associations between DD with temptation, engagement in unhealthy behaviors, and the total number of unhealthy behaviors participants engage in. We also tested whether remission status is associated with the total number of unhealthy behaviors participants engage in.

RESULTS

Results revealed that DD was positively associated with poor eating (p<.001), physical inactivity (p=.003), financial irresponsibility (p<.001), risky behaviors (p<.001), lack of personal development goals (p<.001), lack of household savings (p=.004), and lack of health behaviors (p=.003). DD was also positively associated with the total number of unhealthy behaviors participants engage in (p<.001). Participants who were not in remission engaged in more unhealthy behaviors compared to those who were in remission (p<.001).

CONCLUSION

In a sample of individuals in recovery from SUD, DD is not domain-specific and undergirds engagement in several maladaptive health behaviors that can negatively impact recovery. Thus, DD can be a target for interventions aiming to reduce other maladaptive behaviors in SUD recovery.

Real, potentially real, and hypothetical monetary rewards in probability discounting

Although hypothetical rewards have been used almost exclusively in human discounting studies, investigations of their validity are limited. The present experiment compared the discounting of monetary reward value by probability across conditions in which the rewards were real, potentially real, and hypothetical. Twenty-four undergraduates choose between an uncertain large reward and a certain small reward 60 times (trials). In the real and hypothetical reward conditions, the participants made choices with real and hypothetical money, respectively, in every trial. In the potentially real condition, they did so with real money in randomly selected three of the 60 trials and with hypothetical money in the remainder. The log10 -transformed h values of a hyperbolic probability-discount function and the values of the area under the curve with an ordinal transformation of odds against were higher and lower, respectively, in the potentially real and in the hypothetical reward conditions than in the real reward condition, demonstrating that the probability discounting of hypothetical monetary rewards was larger than that of real rewards. These results suggest that future studies are required to identify why the hypothetical reward procedure overestimates the discounting rates of real rewards.

A Rapid Assessment of Sensitivity to Reward Delays and Classwide Token Economy Savings for School-Aged Children

Delay discounting tasks measure the relation between reinforcer delay and efficacy. The present study established the association between delay discounting and classroom behavior and introduced a brief measure quantifying sensitivity to reward delays for school-aged children. Study 1 reanalyzed data collected by Reed and Martens (J Appl Behav Anal 44(1):1-18, https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2011.44-1, 2011) and found that 1-month delay choices predicted student classroom behavior. Study 2 examined the utility of the 1-month delay indifference point in predicting saving and spending behavior of second-grade students using token economies with two different token production schedules. Collectively, results showed (a) the 1-month delay indifference point predicted classroom behavior, (b) children who discounted less and had greater self-regulation, accrued and saved more tokens, and (c) a variable token production schedule better correlated with discounting than a fixed schedule. Implications are discussed regarding utility of a rapid discounting assessment for applied use.

Impulsivity and self-control in elementary school children and adult females: Using identical task and procedural parameters

Results of studies examining the relationship between impulsivity and age are limited because different tasks, procedural parameters, and different reinforcers have been used with different aged participants. Thus, the current study sought to rectify these differences in two experiments with children (42, ages 5-12) and adults (69 college-aged females) using the same task with identical procedural parameters. In the Self-Control Video Software Task (SCVST; Forzano and Schunk, 2008; Forzano et al., 2014) participants repeatedly choose between larger, more delayed and smaller, less delayed access to viewing video cartoons. No differences in impulsivity were found between adults and children. No age or gender differences were found among children. Differences in task and procedural parameters are identified as important in their implications for research on impulsivity.