How long does the Delay Discounting Task take?
About 3 to 5 minutes, as listed in the test library.
Decision Making
Delay Discounting Task
Measure how much a delay lowers the value of money, with adjusting choices, indifference points, and AUC scoring.
Useful for intertemporal choice, reward valuation, impulsive-choice, and behavioral research.
Free to start: 10 free participants per account, then $0.99 per participant for academic research, or any yearly plan. Preview any test free after you sign up.
Executive function3-5 minUntimed
$50
Today
$100
In 1 week
Indifference point
AUC scoring
Choose between sooner and later rewards
What this task measures
Measures how much a delay lowers the value of money, using adjusting choices between an amount today and $100 later.
Core constructs
- Intertemporal choice
- Reward valuation
- Impulsive choice
- Delay of gratification
Research fit
- Impulsive-choice research
- Addiction and substance-use studies
- Behavioral economics batteries
- Within-study group comparison
Paradigm overview
Delay Discounting measures how much a delay lowers the value of a reward. On each screen, participants choose between an amount of money today and $100 later. The money is hypothetical.
The task follows the adjusting-amount procedure of Du, Green and Myerson (2002) at five delays, in order: 1 week, 1 month, 6 months, 1 year and 5 years. At each delay the amount today starts at $50. After each choice it moves down if the participant took the amount today, or up if they chose to wait. The first step is $25 and each later step is half the one before. The amount that would come next is the indifference point: the amount today worth as much as $100 at that delay. The standard 30 choices give 6 per delay. The side of each option is set at random on every choice.
Scores include the indifference points, the area under the discounting curve (Myerson, Green and Warusawitharana, 2001), a hyperbolic discount rate k, the share of choices for the amount today, and a consistency flag based on the Johnson and Bickel (2008) checks.
Key scoring outputs
Area Under the Curve
proportionArea under the indifference points, with delays and amounts scaled from 0 to 1. A value of 1 means no discounting.
Higher means less discounting
Discount Rate (k)
per dayHyperbolic k fitted to the indifference points with V = A / (1 + kD), with the delay D in days.
Higher means steeper discounting
Indifference Point at 1 Month
$Amount today judged equal to $100 in 1 month. Points are also reported at 1 week, 6 months, 1 year and 5 years.
Higher means less discounting
Immediate Choice Rate
proportionShare of all choices that took the amount today.
Informational
Consistency Flag
flag1 when the indifference points pass both Johnson and Bickel (2008) checks. 0 when a point rises more than $20 above the one before it, or the last point is not at least $10 below the first.
1 supports interpretation
Task design as built
The trial sequence participants see, as the test runs in ConductCognition. Settings a researcher can change are listed below.
- Choice
- An amount today or $100 later. The money is hypothetical.
- Delays
- 1 week, 1 month, 6 months, 1 year and 5 years, in that order.
- Procedure
- Adjusting amount: the amount today starts at $50 and moves by half the previous step after each choice.
- Choices per delay
- The number of choices divided by 5; the standard 30 choices give 6 per delay.
- Sides
- The side of each option is random on every choice.
- Consistency
- Each run is checked against the two Johnson and Bickel (2008) criteria.
Running this test
Settings you can change
| Setting | Standard | Allowed |
|---|---|---|
| Number of choices | 30 | 15 to 60 |
Yearly plans can change settings within these limits. Free and pay-as-you-go studies use the standard settings.
Need a setting this test does not have?
Devices and languages
- Untimed test: runs on desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. Participant devices
- Task text: English and Italian.
- Available on: Every plan, including the free plan.
- Recruiting online? See the setup guides for Prolific, Sona Systems, CloudResearch Connect and Qualtrics.
Cite this test
ConductCognition versions: task version 2.0.0, scoring version 2.0.0. Every export records the versions each session used, for a methods section.
- Du, W., Green, L., & Myerson, J. (2002). Cross-cultural comparisons of discounting delayed and probabilistic rewards. The Psychological Record, 52(4), 479-492. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395199Adjusting-amount procedure.
- Myerson, J., Green, L., & Warusawitharana, M. (2001). Area under the curve as a measure of discounting. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 76(2), 235-243. https://doi.org/10.1901/jeab.2001.76-235Area under the curve.
- Johnson, M. W., & Bickel, W. K. (2008). An algorithm for identifying nonsystematic delay-discounting data. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 16(3), 264-274. https://doi.org/10.1037/1064-1297.16.3.264Consistency checks.
Source papers
Du, Green and Myerson (2002): adjusting-amount procedure. Myerson, Green and Warusawitharana (2001): area under the discounting curve. Johnson and Bickel (2008): checks for nonsystematic data.
Paradigm sourceAdults
Research FAQ
Common questions about this online cognitive test
What device does a participant need?
Untimed test: runs on desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. The browser must be Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari.
What scores does it produce?
Area Under the Curve, Discount Rate (k), Indifference Point at 1 Month, Immediate Choice Rate and Consistency Flag. Each session is also marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason.
Which settings can a researcher change?
Number of choices (15 to 60). Settings can be changed on yearly plans; free and pay-as-you-go studies use the standard settings.
Which languages can participants use?
The test's own text is in English and Italian. Italian participant pages come with yearly plans.
Is this a clinical test?
No. ConductCognition is for research use only. It runs, scores and exports the test; clinical interpretation is outside the platform.
Every test: the full test list.
Run this test in your next study
Start free with 10 free participants on any test, then use participant credits or a yearly plan.