delay

Question 1

principle 2.3

Answer 1

we devalue rewards that have longer delays
influenced by sensitivity to delay (imp)

Question 2

2.4 principle

Answer 2

procrastination is what happens when one activity has a higher value than another at a current moment

Question 3

appliances study

Answer 3

RQ: does temporal discounting influence our purchasing decisions?
M: researchers examined the purchasing decisions of people as they bought air conditioners and fridge units
C:
1. higher initial cost - lower monthly fees - energy efficiency
2. lower initial cost - higher monthly fees - less energy efficient
r: despite better long-term savings people are more likely to prefer the cheaper initial cost
Ranging from 25% to 300% savings
People with lower incomes are more likely to initially spend more

Question 4

pigeon study 1 - postponing work

Answer 4

RQ: how much extra work will pigeons be okay with if they can delay that work to a later time?
M:
1. had pigeons trained to press buttons to get food in exchange for work
2. the red button requires them to do a bit of work after a 6-second delay - 6 pecks
3. the green button requires them to do some work after a 20-second delay - 6 pecks (food now and work in 20 seconds )
4. pigeons prefer to press the green button first
5. the amount of work required for the green button increases until pigeons choose it 50% of the time …. 7 pecks, 8 pecks, etc…
R: pigeons will choose to do 6 times more work (30 pecks) if they can delay it by 14 seconds
A: the delay makes the negative cost less impacting

Question 5

pigeon study 2 - preference reversal

Answer 5

RQ: how do delays influence the reward that pigeons will take?
M: pigeons love food - more food = better
Objectively the button with more food is the better option
red button gives 2 seconds of food
the green button gives 4 seconds of food
Condition A : red - 2 sec delay green 4 sec delay
Condition B : red wait 30 s green wait 32 seconds
Both version had only a 2 second take away
when the delays were proportionally shorter a less rational decision is made

Question 6

delay and problem solving through the value equation

Answer 6

although intuition is often incorrect… instant gratification of having “an answer” has higher value than slower more deliberate thinking

Question 7

Impulsiveness and adhd

Answer 7

people with adhd make decisions that prioritize instant gratification over long term rewards,

Question 8

old brain vs younger brain

Answer 8

• children have higher impulsiveness
• even imp between adults and elderly
• dementia and cognitive decline can cause IMP to go up

Question 9

the marshmallow test

Answer 9

children are told they can eat marshmallow now or wait and get two, experimenter leaves and children are followed as they grow to see success in life
r: higher control do better in school
- children trained in relaxation techniques and attention control are able to overcome their temporal discounting

Question 10

the advantage of impulsiveness

Answer 10

allows for fast responses to unexpected changes in environment
eg: pigeons food may be eaten if not prioritized or predator may appear

Question 11

income and impulsiveness

Answer 11

Environmental factors are strongly linked to stable income
- IMP may be amplified by environmental factors like economic, systemic etc…
- adults have baseline IMP but environment impacts it
- temporal discounting does not lead to long term thriving

Question 12

throughout history

Answer 12

• procrastination has bee a human problem since the beginning of time
• getting worse in recent years
• Steel 2012 - 1970s - 4-5% of people struggle with procrastination
• 2012 - 15-20% of people

Question 13

relationship to reward

Answer 13

students give 26 options rank why they may procrastinate on a paper
- R: the best description of the types of answers chosen was “aversiveness of task”
- most popular choice was really dislike writing term papers 45%

Question 14

chronic procrastinators

Answer 14

“trait procrastination” = chronic procrastinators
- there is a strong and stable correlation between trait procrastination and finding tasks aversive in general

Question 15

relationship to pS

Answer 15

links between poor self esteem, self efficacy, and measures of procrastination
-self handicapping associated with procrastination tendencies - principle 2.2
“prone to give up their efforts when they encounter problems in their performance and are at risk of becoming occupied by behaviours that are self-defeating “

Question 16

ambient rewards

Answer 16

even tho small, ambient rewards are always present and so create a threshold that must be reached in order to do work
- rise of distractions of social media explain observed rise in reports of procrastination by increasing the average “ambient reward threshold”
- studying with rises = less value but more cumulative knowledge and studying with value equation is oppositie

Question 17

precommitment hack

Answer 17

odysseus crew vs designated driver
- a hack that forces us to stick to our previously committed course of action even in the middle of the window of stupidity we are locked in to the earlier choice

Question 18

hacking the value equation

Answer 18

Hacking the Value Equation
▪ Hacking R?
▪ Hacking pS? ▪ Hacking D?
▪ Hacking Imp?