Meredith S. Berry

Within-subject comparison of degree of delay discounting using titrating and fixed sequence procedures.

Different procedures are often used across experiments to estimate the degree of delay discounting, a common measure of impulsivity. In all procedures, participants indicate their choice between a reward available immediately and one available after a delay. The present experiment determined whether there are differences in the degree of discounting for a hypothetical

The nature of impulsivity: visual exposure to natural environments decreases impulsive decision-making in a delay discounting task.

100 produced by a procedure that titrates the immediate amount (titrating sequence procedure) versus a procedure that presents a fixed sequence of immediate amounts (fixed sequence procedure) using a within-subject design. The adult human participants showed no significant differences in degree of discounting between procedures as assessed by a hyperboloid model and the Area Under the Curve. Furthermore, the Area Under the Curve values from the two procedures showed a strong positive correlation. These findings suggest there may be no systematic difference between the degree of delay discounting as estimated by the titrating sequence and fixed sequence procedures. Given the apparent similarities in the results, it appears researchers may be justified in basing their choice of which procedure to use on convenience.

Effects of baseline reinforcement rate on operant ABA and ABC renewal.

The benefits of visual exposure to natural environments for human well-being in areas of stress reduction, mood improvement, and attention restoration are well documented, but the effects of natural environments on impulsive decision-making remain unknown. Impulsive decision-making in delay discounting offers generality, predictive validity, and insight into decision-making related to unhealthy behaviors. The present experiment evaluated differences in such decision-making in humans experiencing visual exposure to one of the following conditions: natural (e.g., mountains), built (e.g., buildings), or control (e.g., triangles) using a delay discounting task that required participants to choose between immediate and delayed hypothetical monetary outcomes. Participants viewed the images before and during the delay discounting task. Participants were less impulsive in the condition providing visual exposure to natural scenes compared to built and geometric scenes. Results suggest that exposure to natural environments results in decreased impulsive decision-making relative to built environments.

Reinforcer magnitude and resistance to disruption of forgetting functions and response rates.

Renewal is a relapse phenomenon that occurs when the contextual stimuli present during extinction change, and consequently, an extinguished response increases in rate. Two experiments assessed extinction and renewal of key-pecking in pigeons in a two-component multiple schedule wherein baseline reinforcer rates were delivered at relatively rich or lean rates. In Experiment 1, an ABA design was used in which baseline stimuli were steady key lights (Context A). Food was then removed during extinction, and simultaneously, the context was changed by flashing the key lights (Context B). Following extinction, steady key lights were reintroduced, but food remained unavailable. Key-pecking was more resistant to extinction and recovered to a greater degree in the rich relative to the lean component. In Experiment 2, we introduced novel stimuli following extinction (ABC renewal) rather than reintroducing baseline stimuli. Similar to Experiment 1, in Experiment 2 resistance to change and renewal remained greater in the component associated with higher reinforcer rates during baseline. These findings provide additional support for the context-specificity of operant extinction, and support the prediction of behavioral momentum theory that stimuli associated with higher rates of reinforcement engender greater persistence and relapse than those associated with lower rates of reinforcement.

How does nature exposure make people healthier?: Evidence for the role of impulsivity and expanded space perception

The present experiment investigated the effects of reinforcer magnitude on resistance to disruption of remembering and response rates. Pigeons were exposed to a variable-interval (VI), delayed-matching-to-sample (DMTS) procedure with two components (rich and lean, distinguished by differing discriminative stimuli and hopper presentation duration). Completion of a VI 20 s schedule resulted in DMTS trials. In a DMTS trial, a choice of one of two comparison stimuli resulted in food if the choice matched the color of the previously presented sample stimulus. Separable aspects of the forgetting functions (initial discrimination and rate of forgetting) were examined by determining accuracy across a range of delays. Response rates and accuracy were higher in the rich relative to the lean component during baseline, and were more persistent during disruptors (extinction and prefeeding). During DMTS trials, extinction decreased initial discrimination more in the lean than the rich component, but had no systematic effect on rate of forgetting. During prefeeding, the rate of forgetting increased more in the lean than the rich component, but initial discrimination was not systematically affected. These results show persistence of response rates and remembering are positively related to reinforcer magnitude. The type of disruptor also influences the way in which remembering is disrupted.

Obsessive–compulsive symptoms are associated with increased delay discounting in a novel hand-washing task.

Nature exposure has been linked to a plethora of health benefits, but the mechanism for this effect is not well understood. We conducted two studies to test a new model linking the health benefits of nature exposure to reduced impulsivity in decision-making (as measured by delay discounting) via psychologically expanding space perception. In study 1 we collected a nationwide U.S. sample (n = 609) to determine whether nature exposure was predictive of health outcomes and whether impulsive decision-making mediated the effect. Results indicated that Nature Accessibility and Nature Exposure From Home significantly predicted reduced scores on the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scales (DASS) (p < .001, p = .03, respectively) and improved general health and wellbeing (p < .001, p < .01, respectively). Nature Accessibility also predicted reduced impulsive decision-making (p < .01), and Nature Accessibility showed significant indirect effects through impulsive decision-making on both the DASS (p = .02) and general health and wellbeing (p = .04). In Study 2, a lab-based paradigm found that nature exposure expanded space perception (p < .001), and while the indirect effect of nature exposure through space perception on impulsive decision-making did not meet conventional standards of significance (p < .10), the pattern was consistent with hypotheses. This combination of ecologically-valid and experimental methods offers promising support for an impulsivity-focused model explaining the nature-health relationship.

Delay Discounting as an Index of Sustainable Behavior: Devaluation of Future Air Quality and Implications for Public Health

Delay discounting is a theoretical framework for assessing impulsivity characterized by a tendency to choose SSRs over LLRs. Despite the potential therapeutic value of targeting impulsive choice in the context of obsessive–compulsive (OC) symptoms, little research has been done to examine the link between the 2. In the present study, we examined the role of impulsivity in OC symptoms using a monetary and novel hand-washing delay-discounting task. Participants completed both delay-discounting procedures, as well as the Obsessive–Compulsive Inventory—Revised (OCI-R; Foa et al.,2002). Participants who showed steeper delay discounting in the monetary discounting task also tended to discount steeply in the washing task. In addition, participants showed significantly more delay discounting in the washing than in the monetary task, suggesting contextual control over impulsive behavior. Further, participants with washing compulsions demonstrated greater delay discounting on the washing task than those without washing compulsions. Higher scores on the Washing subscale of the OCI-R uniquely predicted delay discounting in the washing task at a level of marginal significance. Our findings suggest that impulsivity may be implicated in OC symptoms, and indicate the need for a more precise conceptualization of the relationship between impulsivity and compulsivity.

Making Time for Nature: Visual Exposure to Natural Environments Lengthens Subjective Time Perception and Reduces Impulsivity

Poor air quality and resulting annual deaths represent significant public health concerns. Recently, rapid delay discounting (the devaluation of future outcomes) of air quality has been considered a potential barrier for engaging in long term, sustainable behaviors that might help to reduce emissions (e.g., reducing private car use, societal support for clean air initiatives). Delay discounting has been shown to be predictive of real world behavior outside of laboratory settings, and therefore may offer an important framework beyond traditional variables thought to measure sustainable behavior such as importance of an environmental issue, or environmental attitudes/values, although more research is needed in this area. We examined relations between discounting of air quality, respiratory health, and monetary gains and losses. We also examined, relations between discounting and self-reported importance of air quality and respiratory health, and nature relatedness. Results showed rapid delay discounting of all outcomes across the time frames assessed, and significant positive correlations between delay discounting of air quality, respiratory health, and monetary outcomes. Steeper discounting of monetary outcomes relative to air quality and respiratory health outcomes was observed in the context of gains; however, no differences in discounting were observed across losses of monetary, air quality, and respiratory health. Replicating the sign effect, monetary outcomes were discounted more steeply than monetary losses. Importance of air quality, respiratory health and nature relatedness were significantly and positively correlated with one another, but not with degree of delay discounting of any outcome, demonstrating the need for more comprehensive measures that predict pro-environmental behaviors that might benefit individuals and public health over time. These results add to our understanding of decision-making, and demonstrate alarming rates of delay discounting of air quality and health. These results implicate a major public health concern and potential barriers to individual and societal behavior that reduce pollution and emissions for conservation of clean air.