Delay Discounting

Delay discounting involves the rapid decline in the value of an outcome when that outcome is delayed. Across a wide variety of assessment procedures, humans and other animals will often forgo a relatively large (i.e., “preferred”) but delayed outcome when a relatively small but immediate outcome is available. The term self-control is often used when larger but delayed outcomes are chosen over smaller but immediate outcomes, and impulsivity is used when the smaller but immediate outcomes are chosen over relatively larger but delayed outcomes. Quantitative models of delay discounting have implicated discounting as a behavior process relevant to many areas of addiction including smoking, alcohol abuse, opioid abuse, and stimulant abuse. Since the 1990s, researchers have been exploring the relevance of discounting to functioning in ...