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Testing the Reliability of Delay Discounting of Ten Commodities Using the Fill-in-the-Blank Method

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Abstract

Several measures of delay discounting have been shown to be reliable over periods of up to 3 months. In the present study, 115 participants completed a fill-in-the-blank (FITB) delay-discounting task on sets of 5 different commodities, 12 weeks apart. Results showed that discounting rates were not well described by a hyperbolic function but were significantly correlated across the 12 weeks for all 10 commodities. Discounting, when measured by area under the curve, was significantly correlated across the 12 weeks for 9 of the 10 commodities. Absolute values of both measures of discounting sometimes differed across the two administrations of the task. These results support the reliability of the FITB method but raise a number of issues to consider when choosing a method to study delay discounting.

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Correspondence to Jeffrey N. Weatherly.

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Weatherly, J.N., Derenne, A. & Terrell, H.K. Testing the Reliability of Delay Discounting of Ten Commodities Using the Fill-in-the-Blank Method. Psychol Rec 61, 113–126 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395749

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