Kristof Keidel (Bonn)

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Elizabeth Bowman

bmm-lab@unimelb.edu.au

  • Seminar series

Bonn-Melbourne Seminar Series in Decision Making and Computational Psychiatry

Intertemporal Choice, Impulsivity and Schizotypy

Kristof Keidel

Section of Cognitive Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Germany

Abstract

Impulsivity is typically used as an umbrella term for several related constructs. One of them is choice impulsivity (i.e., impulsive decision making), which is commonly assessed with intertemporal choice tasks. Those tasks measure the degree of temporal (or delay) discounting, which is the phenomenon of devaluing future rewards as a function of the delay to the receipt of the reward. Temporal discounting is ubiquitous in human and non-human animals. In human participants, substantial interindividual variation has been documented as well as intraindividual malleability. Moreover, temporal discounting is elevated in almost all psychiatric disorders. Due its relatively high degree of temporal stability and evidence of a degree of heritability, temporal discounting has also been proposed as a candidate endophenotype. In this talk, I will discuss new evidence on interindividual differences in intertemporal choice as well as the role of context effects, in particular, the date/delay effect. First, I will present findings based on an online study (N = 1,000) in which we used network modelling techniques to investigate the associations between intertemporal choice and various constructs of trait impulsivity. Second, using data from another online study (N = 1,000), I will demonstrate that the date/delay effect – a time framing effect which lowers temporal discounting by displaying time until receipt of rewards as dates rather than delays – replicates with medium effect size. Further results of this study suggest that the date manipulation may reduce temporal discounting especially in vulnerable groups within the general population, such as persons who score highly on the positive schizotypy dimension. Finally, I will briefly discuss preliminary findings from a combined eye-tracking and fMRI study investigating the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying the date/delay effect. I will conclude by highlighting (a) the importance to differentiate between different constructs referred to as impulsivity and (b) the ease with which intertemporal choices can be influenced by time framing. The latter suggests that framing may be considered as a potential intervention in areas concerned with lowering temporal discounting (e.g., psychotherapy, marketing, consumer protection).

Thursday, 5 May 2022, 9:00 am CEST / 5:00 pm AEST

About the series:
The Bonn-Melbourne Seminar Series in Decision Making and Computational Psychiatry is part of the joint doctoral training and research collaboration at the intersection of decision neuroscience and computational psychiatry between the University of Bonn (spokesperson: Ulrich Ettinger) and the University of Melbourne (spokesperson: Carsten Murawski).

The online seminars take place on Thursdays at 9:00 am (CEST). Talks are 45 minutes long plus 15 minutes for questions and discussion. The target audience consists of students, PhD students, postdocs and researchers from both Bonn and Melbourne who have an interest in decision-making and computational psychiatry research.

More information about the seminar series is available here: https://www.psychologie.uni-bonn.de/de-en/about-us/sections/cognitive-psychology/bonn-melbourne-seminar?set_language=en

If you wish to take part, please feel free to contact us!