The Influence Of Cognitive Style On The Effects Of Delay Discounting

When we make intertemporal decisions we often need to balance time and result value. When the time at which we obtained the result value is delayed, the subjective value of the results will be less than its objective value. Therefore, the result value is discounted in people’s minds and we call the psychological phenomenon as delay discounting. Previous studies showed that the delay discounting will be influenced by many factors, including inherent effects such as magnitude effect, framing effect and other effects. Cognitive style is the style or attitude an individual has his or her preferences and gets accustomed to in processing information. It is an important individual difference in personality variables, which may affect delay discounting.In this study, college students are tested and the matching method and the choosing method will be adopted as paradigm for delay discounting study. The study regards delay discounting rate K as measuring index. Besides, the study will explore whether individuals with different cognitive styles will show different delay discounting through three tests. Based on the three tests, the study will further study the influence of cognitive style on the quantity and framing effect of delay discounting. The study shows the following results:(1) field-independent and field-dependent cognitive style, individuals with the two different cognitive styles, they show salient differences in terms of delay discounting. Compared with individuals who have field-dependent cognitive style, individuals with field-independent cognitive style can be more focused on the long-term interests and show lower delay discounting rate.(2) The delay discounting rate in near or far future will show different features and will be affected by cognitive styles. The delay discounting rate in near future is significantly higher than that in far future. Compared with individuals with field-dependent cognitive style, the individuals with field-independent cognitive style show low delay discounting rate in both near future and far future.(3) Under field-independent and field-dependent cognitive style, there exists magnitude effect, and different cognitive styles will have different effects on magnitude effect of delay discounting. Compared with individuals who have field-independent cognitive style, the individuals with field-dependent cognitive style will be more susceptible to the magnitude effect in terms of the amount of money.Under field-independent and field-dependent cognitive style, there exists framing effect and different cognitive style will have different effects on the framing effect of delay discounting. Compared with individuals who have field-independent cognitive style, the individuals with field-dependent cognitive styles show higher discounting rate in terms of delaying framework and advancing framework and are more susceptible to the framing effect.