Temporal reward discounting in children, adolescents, and emerging adults during an experiential task

Frontiers in Psychology

Anouk Scheres¹ 

关键词: adolescence;    reward;    temporal reward discounting;    delay discounting;    impulsivity;    self-control;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00711

学科分类：心理学（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

The goal of this study was to examine age effects on the ability/willingness to wait for large rewards in a real temporal reward discounting task from childhood to adulthood. Therefore, a real temporal discounting (TD) task was administered to children aged 6–12 (n = 39), adolescents aged 13–17 (n = 28), and young adults aged 18–19 (n = 55). Findings indicated that the cross-sectional development of TD followed a quadratic pattern across age groups, with adolescents choosing more often than children and adults to wait for the large delayed reward, resulting in reward-maximization. Various interpretations of this finding were offered, including a focus on reward maximization despite an immature ability to exert self-control, and flexible self-control which was high during this task as a result of strong motivation to maximize financial gains.

【 授权许可】

CC BY