Behavioral and neural evidence of incentive bias for immediate rewards relative to preference-matched delayed rewards

There are two classes of self-control models in behavioral science: "synchronic multiple selves" and "diachronic multiple selves". The former class conceptualizes self-control struggle as competition between distinct motivation systems (economists call these "subagents" within the person.). The latter conceives self-control struggle as based on systematic inconsistency in preference over time (retaining the self as a unitary agent at any point in time). My master thesis comprises two papers. The first one reviews recent functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) work in the domain of intertemporal choice, specifically considering "synchronic multiple selves" hypothesis that delay discounting is determined by the competition between an evolutionarily older system that discounts precipitously with delay (System 1) and a newer system that exhibits very little discounting (System 2). I argue that neuroimaging evidences do not support this separate and competing valuation systems. Rather than acting as a competing value system, I argue that sophisticated cognitive capacities instantiated in the neocortex affect intertemporal choice through mediation of a single valuation system, instantiated within the extended limbic system.;The second paper is an empirical investigation of a prediction that is common to any theory of self-control that posits that one or more processes engaged specifically during decision-making results in increased attention to more far-sighted consequences. Specifically, I tested (and found support for) the hypothesis that intertemporal decisions are more farsighted than would be predicted by the incentive associated with immediate and delayed rewards encountered outside a decision context (that is, outside a context where self-control is engaged).