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Amount and time exert independent influences on intertemporal choice

Nature Human Behaviour volume 3, pages 383–392 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Intertemporal choices involve trade-offs between the value of rewards and the delay before those rewards are experienced. Canonical intertemporal choice models such as hyperbolic discounting assume that reward amount and time until delivery are integrated within each option prior to comparison1,2. An alternative view posits that intertemporal choice reflects attribute-wise processes in which amount and time attributes are compared separately3,4,5,6. Here, we use multi-attribute drift diffusion modelling (DDM) to show that attribute-wise comparison represents the choice process better than option-wise comparison for intertemporal choice in a young adult population. We find that, while accumulation rates for amount and time information are uncorrelated, the difference between those rates predicts individual differences in patience. Moreover, patient individuals incorporate amount earlier than time into the decision process. Using eye tracking, we link these modelling results to attention, showing that patience results from a rapid, attribute-wise process that prioritizes amount over time information. Thus, we find converging evidence that distinct evaluation processes for amount and time determine intertemporal financial choices. Because intertemporal decisions in the lab have been linked to failures of patience ranging from insufficient saving to addiction7,8,9,10,11,12,13, understanding individual differences in the choice process is important for developing more effective interventions.

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Figure 1: Intertemporal choice task.
Figure 2: Attribute-wise versus option-wise DDM model comparison using the Bayesian information criterion (BIC).
Figure 3: Patience reflects the difference in drift slopes and latencies for amount and time.
Figure 4: Differences in drift slope between amount and time attributes are reflected in measures of attention.

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Code availability

Analysis code is available on the Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/2p3dj/files/ and GitHub: https://github.com/Huettel-Lab/ITC_mtDDM. Analysis code can also be found in supplementary software.

Data availability

Data that support the findings of this study are available on the Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/2p3dj/files

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a grant from the National Endowment for Financial Education. D.R.A. was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under grant no. DGE-1644868. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We thank K.Vo for help with fitting the hyperbolic discounting model. We thank C. Z. Chen and C. Chen for help with data collection. Support for computation came from resources provided by NIH S10-OD-021480.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurobiology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Dianna R. Amasino

  2. Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Dianna R. Amasino, Nicolette J. Sullivan & Scott A. Huettel

  3. Department of Economics, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Rachel E. Kranton

  4. Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Scott A. Huettel

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  1. Dianna R. Amasino
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D.R.A., R.E.K. and S.A.H. designed the experiment. D.R.A. analysed the data, with input from N.J.S. and S.A.H. N.J.S. provided code for the multi-attribute DDM analyses. D.R.A., N.J.S., R.E.K. and S.A.H. wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Scott A. Huettel.

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Supplementary Notes 1–16, Supplementary Figures 1–16, and Supplementary Tables 1 and 2.

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Amasino, D.R., Sullivan, N.J., Kranton, R.E. et al. Amount and time exert independent influences on intertemporal choice. Nat Hum Behav 3, 383–392 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0537-2

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