How are the impulsive choices of children affected by the extent of delay?

Neef et al., (2005) found that the choices of students with ADHD were most influenced by the delay to reinforcement (reflecting impulsivity) and by the quality of the reinforcer. We extended that study by examining discounting at different delays to reinforcement. A concurrent choice arrangement was first used to measure the relative influence of the dimensions of reinforcement for completing math problems. Quality and immediacy of reinforcement were shown to be the most influential, while the effort of work was determined to be less influential. During a subsequent condition, students were provided a concurrent choice between difficult math problems with reinforcers available now and easy math problems with reinforcers available 24 hours later. Once a clear pattern of selecting the difficult problems with immediate reinforcement was established, the delay to reinforcement was systematically manipulated to examine the extent of delay discounting. Results support those of Neef et al., that immediacy is an influential reinforcer dimension regardless of the point of delay.