Holt Daniel D, Newquist Matthew H, Smits Rochelle R, Tiry Andrew M
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Eau Claire, USA,
Psychon Bull Rev. 2014 Jun;21(3):794-802. doi: 10.3758/s13423-013-0557-2.
Discounting is a useful framework for understanding choice involving a range of delayed and probabilistic outcomes (e.g., money, food, drugs), but relatively few studies have examined how people discount other commodities (e.g., entertainment, sex). Using a novel discounting task, where the length of a line represented the value of an outcome and was adjusted using a staircase procedure, we replicated previous findings showing that individuals discount delayed and probabilistic outcomes in a manner well described by a hyperbola-like function. In addition, we found strong positive correlations between discounting rates of delayed, but not probabilistic, outcomes. This suggests that discounting of delayed outcomes may be relatively predictable across outcome types but that discounting of probabilistic outcomes may depend more on specific contexts. The generality of delay discounting and potential context dependence of probability discounting may provide important information regarding factors contributing to choice behavior.
折扣是理解涉及一系列延迟和概率性结果（如金钱、食物、毒品）的选择的有用框架，但相对较少的研究考察了人们如何对其他商品（如娱乐、性）进行折扣。使用一种新颖的折扣任务，其中一条线的长度代表一个结果的价值，并通过阶梯程序进行调整，我们重复了先前的研究结果，表明个体以类似双曲线的函数很好描述的方式对延迟和概率性结果进行折扣。此外，我们发现延迟结果（而非概率性结果）的折扣率之间存在强烈的正相关。这表明延迟结果的折扣在不同结果类型之间可能相对可预测，但概率性结果的折扣可能更多地取决于特定情境。延迟折扣的普遍性以及概率折扣潜在的情境依赖性可能为影响选择行为的因素提供重要信息。
