Abstract
Episodic Future Thinking has proven efficient in reducing impulsive behavior in several adult populations. Whether it also has a beneficial impact on decision making in adolescents is not known. Here the impact of episodic future thinking on discounting behavior was investigated in a sample of healthy adolescents (n = 44, age range 13–16 years). Discounting behavior in trials including episodic future thinking was significantly less impulsive than in control trials (t = 2.74, p = .009, dz = .44). In a subsample we controlled for executive function, alcohol use and developmental measures. Neither executive function nor alcohol use but developmental measures explained variability in the effect of episodic future thinking. These findings reveal that episodic future thinking can improve adolescent decision making while the effect is to some degree modulated by developmental measures.
Highlights
Adolescents are often described as an especially impulsive population [1]
We investigated the effect of episodic future thinking on delay discounting in healthy adolescents, by incorporating episodic future information in a delay discounting paradigm
We found that episodic tags reduced adolescent discounting behavior
Summary
Adolescents are often described as an especially impulsive population [1]. Since adolescents may not take such future consequences into account when making decisions, it is important to investigate factors that can modulate adolescent impulsive decision making, thereby attenuating potentially harmful behavior. Several previous studies both in adult and child populations have shown that Episodic Future Thinking can have a positive influence on impulsive decision making. In the delay discounting paradigm participants make a series of choices between smaller-but-sooner and larger-but-later rewards. Increased choices of smaller-sooner over larger-later rewards reflects increased impulsivity in this task.
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