Cognitive Load And Negative Mood Effect On Delay Discounting

Delay discounting is the process by which the value of an expected reward decreases as the delay to obtaining that reward increases. Individuals with higher discounting rates tend to prefer smaller immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards. Previous research has indicated that impulsive personality trail can influence an individual's discounting rates, with higher levels of impulsive personality predicting a preference for immediate gratification. The current study examined how situational cognitive load and mood inductions influence delay discounting in different impulsive personality trail.Three experiments were designed, adopted the Delay Discounting paradigm, to determine whether there is a discounting difference among the groups with the different impulsive personality under the different cognitive load and mood inductions conditions. In the first two experiments, participants make delay discounting judgment under different cognitive load conditions with the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11). Similar procedures were included in experiment 3, except that participants were instructed to be in different moods (e.g. positive, negative versus neutral).The main findings are as follows:(1) The higher cognitive load led greater discounting rate;(2) Negative mood led greater discounting of delayed monetary;(3) A significant interaction was also observed between impulsive personality and cognitive load. Impulsive individuals were more likely to prefer an immediate reward in the higher cognitive load, including the ones with higher non-planning impulsive, motor impulsiveness, attentional impulsiveness;(4)A significant interaction was also observed between impulsive personality and negative affect. Impulsive individuals were more likely to prefer an immediate reward in a negative mood, especially with the higher motor impulsiveness.Results in the present study revealed that there are cognitive load effect and negative mood effect on delay discounting. The individuals with high impulsiveness seem to be harder to evaluate the options and inhibit the temptation of immediate gratification while under the cognitive load. The individuals with high motor impulsiveness appear particularly sensitive to impulsive, incentive-reward-driven behavior by temperament and by situational factors heightening negative affect. In sum, results support the "hot/cool" system. Discounting behavior appears to be influenced by the situational manipulation of these "hot" and "cool" systems, as well as their dispositional status.