Attentional Mechanisms of the Date/Delay Effect in Intertemporal Choice: An Eye-Tracking Study

Abstract

Temporal discounting refers to the tendency to discount future rewards as a function of time until receipt of rewards. The discount rate can be reduced by experimentally manipulating time framing, an example being the date/delay effect: Specifically, if time until receipt of the reward is presented as a date (e.g., August 21, 2022) rather than as a delay (e.g., 136 days), temporal discounting is reduced. While this effect has been replicated several times, its underlying cognitive mechanisms are not well understood. Therefore, we used eye tracking to examine the role of attention in the date/delay effect. Participants completed both a delay and date condition of the Monetary Choice Questionn..