Delay Discounting - hypothetical

The Delay Discounting task is the most widely used paradigm to measure the capacity to wait for a hypothetical monetary reward in children between 8-18 years old. A child is given a series of option between a variable immediate monetary reward and 10 Euros after a certain delay. The delay of the 10 Euro reward varies between 2, 30, 180, or 365 days. Each trail starts with the question if the child would rather have a specific immediate reward now, or 10 Euros after a specific delay. Based on the choices of the child, the task determines an indifference point per delay. That is, when the immediate reward has the same subjective value as the 10 Euros at that delay. The different delays are presented in random order, as are the immediate rewards. Based on the decision of the child, the immediate reward is adapted on the next trial of that specific delay following a mathematical model until the indifference point is reached (Richards et al., 1999). The total number of trials depends on the behavior of the child. The task lasts 5 minutes on average.