AUTHOR=Scheres Anouk , Tontsch Chandra , Thoeny Allison L. , Sumiya Motofumi 

TITLE=Temporal reward discounting in children, adolescents, and emerging adults during an experiential task

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=5

YEAR=2014

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00711

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00711

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p>The goal of this study was to examine age effects on the ability/willingness to wait for large rewards in a real temporal reward discounting task from childhood to adulthood. Therefore, a real temporal discounting (TD) task was administered to children aged 6–12 (<italic>n</italic> = 39), adolescents aged 13–17 (<italic>n</italic> = 28), and young adults aged 18–19 (<italic>n</italic> = 55). Findings indicated that the cross-sectional development of TD followed a quadratic pattern across age groups, with adolescents choosing more often than children and adults to wait for the large delayed reward, resulting in reward-maximization. Various interpretations of this finding were offered, including a focus on reward maximization despite an immature ability to exert self-control, and flexible self-control which was high during this task as a result of strong motivation to maximize financial gains.</p>