Domain-general and domain-specific aspects of temporal discounting in children with ADHD and autism spectrum disorders (ASD): a proof of concept study.
Kids with ASD drop edible and social rewards faster than money or toys, so pick your reinforcers wisely.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Hanson et al. (2013) asked 8- to young learners kids to pick between a small prize now or a bigger prize later.
They tested three groups: autism, ADHD, and typical kids.
Prizes were snacks, small toys, praise, or money.
Each child played the game twice, once with edible rewards and once with non-edible rewards.
What they found
All groups took the smaller-sooner option more often as the wait grew.
Kids with ASD gave up edible and social rewards faster than money or toys.
ADHD kids discounted everything steeply, but the reward type did not matter.
Typical kids waited longest for money and shortest for snacks.
How this fits with other research
McCormick et al. (2025) scanned brains and found weaker frontostriatal signals when kids with ASD earned social rewards.
This neural ‘blunt’ response helps explain why Ellen’s ASD group traded away praise and snacks so quickly.
Ganz et al. (2009) showed ASD kids gain less from tiny quiet gaps in noise.
Together the papers paint a picture: autistic timing problems appear in both hearing and reward systems, but each uses its own brain route.
Why it matters
When you write a token board or delayed reinforcement plan, match the reward to the child’s discount pattern.
For ASD, pick money or high-interest items and deliver praise right away.
For ADHD, shorten all delays regardless of reward type.
Test one change next session: swap edible tokens for a preferred toy and watch wait-time grow.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
It has been shown that delayed consumable rewards are discounted to a higher degree than money, which has been referred to as the "domain effect". Until now the effects of reward type on temporal discounting (TD) have mainly been studied in adults. Although there is evidence that children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) tend to show steeper TD of money than typically developing peers or children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), it remains untested whether the domain effect is also seen in children with ADHD and ASD. To explore this we compared TD of children (8-16 year) with ADHD, ASD and typically developing controls with five different reward types. Seventy-two participants with ADHD, 69 with ASD and 130 controls performed two hypothetical TD-tasks: a monetary TD-task and a TD-task with one of four alternative rewards (material rewards, rewarding activities, food, social rewards). TD was seen for all reward types, but the rate of discounting was steeper for food, praise and rewarding activities compared to money, and for food and praise compared to material rewards. For the ADHD and control groups, but not the ASD group, money and material rewards were equally highly discounted. High correlations between TD of money and of activities, food and material rewards were found. In conclusion, a domain effect was observed in typically developing children, as well as in children with ADHD or ASD, although the pattern was somewhat different for ASD children. Despite this domain effect, there is also evidence for a domain-general aspect in TD.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2013 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2013.03.011