Odum Amy L, Baumann Ana A L, Rimington Delores D
Department of Psychology, 2810 Old Main Hill, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, United States.
Behav Processes. 2006 Nov 1;73(3):278-84. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2006.06.008. Epub 2006 Jul 8.
Delay discounting research determines how the value of an outcome is affected by delay to its receipt. Research so far shows that consumable outcomes are discounted more steeply by delay than money. Prior studies, however, have used large amounts of the outcomes (e.g. 100 dollars worth) that would not typically be consumed in one bout, unlike the corresponding amount of money (e.g. 100 dollars ). This experiment examined whether small amounts of food would be discounted more steeply than money, as occurs with larger amounts. One hundred and two adults indicated their preferences in a series of choices for two hypothetical outcome types: immediate versus delayed food and immediate versus delayed money. Participants made choices involving either relatively small maximum amounts of food (10 dollars worth) and money (10 dollars) or for relatively large maximum amounts of food (100 dollars worth) and money (100 dollars ). In the within-subject comparisons, food was discounted more steeply by delay than money for both groups. In the between-subject comparisons, different amounts of the commodities were affected similarly by delay. Overall, these results suggest that steeper discounting of consumable outcomes than money is a fairly robust phenomenon, occurring with relatively small amounts of outcomes as well as with larger amounts.
延迟折扣研究确定了结果的价值如何受到获得该结果的延迟的影响。迄今为止的研究表明，与金钱相比，可消费结果因延迟而被折扣的幅度更大。然而，先前的研究使用了大量的结果（例如价值100美元），这些结果通常不会在一次消费中全部用完，这与相应数量的金钱（例如100美元）不同。本实验研究了少量食物是否会像大量食物那样，比金钱被更急剧地折扣。102名成年人在一系列选择中表明了他们对两种假设结果类型的偏好：即时与延迟的食物以及即时与延迟的金钱。参与者做出的选择涉及相对少量的最大食物量（价值10美元）和金钱（10美元），或者相对大量的最大食物量（价值100美元）和金钱（100美元）。在受试者内比较中，两组的食物因延迟而被折扣的幅度都比金钱更大。在受试者间比较中，不同数量的商品因延迟受到的影响相似。总体而言，这些结果表明，与金钱相比，可消费结果被更急剧地折扣是一个相当稳健的现象，在相对少量的结果以及大量结果的情况下都会出现。
