Item-based analysis of delayed reward discounting decision making

Abstract

Delayed reward discounting (DRD) is a behavioral economic index of time preference, referring to how much an individual devalues a reward based on its delay in time, and has been linked to a wide array of health behaviors. It is commonly assessed using a task that asks participants to make dichotomous choices between two monetary rewards, one available immediately and the other after a delay. This study sought to shorten an extended iterative DRD assessment to increase its versatility and efficiency. Data were drawn from two young adult samples, an exploratory sample (N=130) and a confirmatory sample (N=247). In the exploratory sample, eight items were identified as predicting the majority of the variance in the full task area under the curve (AUC) (R2=.821; p<.001). In the confirmatory sample, the same eight items similarly predicted the majority of variance in the full task AUC (R2=.844, p<.001). These results provide initial support for the validity of a brief 8-item assessment of DRD. Priorities for further validation and potential applications are discussed.