Abstract
It is well-established that humans have a bias towards immediate, compared to delayed, rewards. Although this bias has been primarily studied using monetary or other consumable commodities, it has also been demonstrated with outcomes of caregiver-mediated behavioral interventions targeting challenging behavior, which is a prevalent concern among children with autism spectrum disorder. In particular, caregivers may discount improvements in their child’s challenging behavior following behavioral interventions when the onset of improvement is delayed (Call et al. Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders, 45, 1013–1025, 2015). The present study includes a sample of college students reading hypothetical vignettes about children with challenging behavior to evaluate the impact of child characteristics and caregiver role (parent vs. teacher) on discounting and the relationship between discounting of treatment and monetary commodities. Results suggest a discounting pattern across all groups, with no significant differences in discounting based on characteristics of the child/caregiver and steeper discounting for monetary compared to treatment outcomes. The results have implications for future research on caregiver-mediated interventions.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, K. D., & Warzak, W. J. (2000). The problem of parental nonadherence in clinical behavior analysis: Effective treatment is not enough. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 33(3), 373–391. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2000.33-373.
Bickel, W. K., Odum, A. L., & Madden, G. J. (1999). Impulsivity and cigarette smoking: Delay discounting in current, never, and ex-smokers. Psychopharmacology, 146, 447–454. https://doi.org/10.1007/PL00005490.
Brosnan, J., & Healy, O. (2011). A review of behavioral interventions for the treatment of aggression in individuals with developmental disabilities. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 32, 437–446. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2010.12.023.
Call, N. A., Reavis, A. R., McCracken, C. E., Gillespie, S. E., & Scheithauer, M. C. (2015). The impact of delays on parents’ perceptions of treatments for problem behavior. Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders, 45, 1013–1025. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2257-9.
Chapman, G. B. (1996). Temporal discounting and utility for health and money. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 22, 771–791. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.22.3.77.
Charlton, S. R., & Fantino, E. (2008). Commodity specific rates of temporal discounting: Does metabolic function underlie differences in rates of discounting? Behavioral Processes, 77(3), 334–342. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2007.08.002.
Cox, D. J., & Dallery, J. (2016). Effects of delay and probability combinations on discounting in humans. Behavioural processes, 131, 15–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2016.08.002
Dixon, M. R., Marley, J., & Jacobs, E. A. (2003). Delay discounting by pathological gamblers. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 36(4), 449–458. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2003.36-449.
Estle, S. J., Green, L., Myerson, J., & Holt, D. D. (2007). Discounting of monetary and directly consumable rewards. Psychological Science, 18, 58–63. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01849.x.
Green, L., & Myerson, J. (2004). A discounting framework for choice with delayed and probabilistic rewards. Psychological Bulletin, 130, 769–792. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.130.5.769.
Hurl, K., Wightman, J., Haynes, S. N., & Virues-Ortega, J. (2016). Does a pre-intervention functional assessment increase intervention effectiveness? A meta-analysis of within-subject interrupted time-series studies. Clinical Psychology Review, 477, 1–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2016.05.003.
Johnson, M. W., & Bickel, W. K. (2008). An algorithm for identifying nonsystematic delay-discounting data. Experimental Clinical Psychopharmacology, 16(3), 264–274. https://doi.org/10.1037/1064-1297.16.3.264.
Johnson, M. W., Bickel, W. K., Baker, F., Moore, B. A., Badger, G. J., & Budney, A. J. (2010). Delay discounting in current and former marijuana-dependent individuals. Experimental & Clinical Psychopharmacology, 18, 99–107. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018333.
Lecavalier, L., Leone, S., & Wiltz, J. (2006). The impact of behaviour problems on caregiver stress in young people with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 50(3), 172–183. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2788.2005.00732.x.
Lerman, D. C., & Iwata, B. A. (1995). Prevalence of the extinction burst and its attenuation during treatment. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 28(1), 93–94. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.1995.28-93.
Mazurek, M. O., Kanne, S. M., & Wodka, E. L. (2013). Physical aggression in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 7, 455–465. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2012.11.004.
Myerson, J., & Green, L. (1995). Discounting of delayed rewards: Models of individual choice. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 64, 263–276. https://doi.org/10.1901/jeab.1995.64-263.
Myerson, J., Green, L., & Warusawitharana, M. (2001). Area under the curve as a measure of discounting. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 76(2), 235–243. https://doi.org/10.1901/jeab.2001.76-235.
Odum, A. L. (2011). Delay discounting: Trait variable? Behavioural Processes, 87, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2011.02.007.
Odum, A. L., & Baumann, A. A. L. (2007). Cigarette smokers show steeper discounting of both food and cigarettes than money. Drug & Alcohol Dependence, 91, 293–296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2007.07.004.
Odum, A. L., Madden, G. J., & Bickel, W. K. (2002). Discounting of delayed health gains and losses by current, never-and ex-smokers of cigarettes. Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 4(3), 295-303. https://doi.org/10.1080/14622200210141257.
Odum, A. L., & Rainaud, C. P. (2003). Discounting of delayed hypothetical money, alcohol, and food. Behavioural Processes, 64, 305–313. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0376-6357(03)00145-1.
Rachlin, H., Raineri, A., & Cross, D. (1991). Subjective probability and delay. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 55, 233–244. https://doi.org/10.1901/jeab.1991.55-233.
Yi, R., Mitchell, S. H., & Bickel, W. K. (2010). Delay discounting and substance abuse-dependence. In G. J. Madden & W. K. Bickel (Eds.), Impulsivity: The behavioral and neurological science of discounting (pp. 191–211). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Availability of Data and Materials
The datasets generated are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Funding
This study was not funded.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Conflict of Interest
All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Ethical Approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional review board of the authors’ affiliated institution and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This also adheres to the APA ethical standards.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Scheithauer, M.C., Call, N.A., Simmons, C.A. et al. Delay Discounting by College Undergraduates of Hypothetical Intervention Effects for Challenging Behavior. Psychol Rec 70, 65–73 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40732-019-00367-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40732-019-00367-0