Self-control in adult humans: variation in positive reinforcer amount and delay.
Typical adults already pick bigger later rewards, so the basic lab test hides, not reveals, impulsivity.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers asked adult women to pick between two rewards. One was small and came right away. The other was bigger but came after a wait. The team changed the size of the big reward and the length of the wait across five small tests. All choices happened alone in a quiet lab room.
What they found
Every adult chose the bigger later reward almost every time. Even when the wait grew longer, they still waited. The data showed strong self-control and a clear 'maximizing' plan. These women did not look impulsive at all.
How this fits with other research
Reed et al. (1988) ran the same setup with teens who had severe intellectual disability. Those teens flipped to the small quick reward as soon as delays grew. The adults in Logue et al. (1986) never flipped, so the adult pattern does not hold for every group.
Hansen et al. (1989) tested kids aged 4 to 12. Six- to nine-year-olds acted like the adults, but both younger and older kids flipped toward small-quick rewards. The adult 'always wait' pattern peaks only in mid-childhood.
Dunkel-Jackson et al. (2016) later showed that adults with autism can learn to wait if you fade the delay in steps. That study adds training, while the 1986 paper simply shows what adults already do.
Why it matters
If you test self-control in typical adults, do not expect to see impulsive choices. Their baseline is already 'wait for the big one.' To study impulsivity, use kids, individuals with ID, or add strong rewards that compete with waiting. When you design delay-tolerance programs, start by knowing your client's baseline. Typical adults do not need shaping to wait; other populations do.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
In five experiments, choice responding of female human adults was examined, as a function of variations in reinforcer amount and reinforcer delay. Experiment 1 used a discrete-trials procedure, and Experiments 2, 3, 4, and 5 used a concurrent variable-interval variable-interval schedule. Reinforcer amount and reinforcer delay were varied both separately and together. In contrast to results previously reported with pigeons, the subjects in the present experiments usually chose the larger reinforcers even when those reinforcers were delayed. Together, the results from all the experiments suggest that the subjects followed a maximization strategy in choosing reinforcers. Such behavior makes it easy to observe self-control and difficult to observe impulsiveness in traditional laboratory experiments that use adult human subjects.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1986 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1986.46-159