Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Discounting tasks were used to determine the degree to which college undergraduates discounted delayed and probabilistic alcoholic beverages. Tasks were framed in terms of gains (i.e.,obtaining a hypothetical amount of alcohol) and losses (i.e., losing a hypothetical amount of alcohol). In all gain and loss conditions, discounting was evident and was generally well described by a hyperboloid function. Gains were discounted more steeply then losses. There were no correlations between the median delay gain discounting rates and the median delay loss discounting rates. Likewise, there were no correlations between the median probabilistic gain discounting rates and the median probabilistic loss discounting rates. This pattern of results suggests that each condition is independent from one another, operating under a separate set of mental processes. Future studies with a larger sample size are necessary to validate these findings.
Author: Frank L. Galante
Language: English
Subfield: General Decision Sciences
Field: Decision Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2414903125