Practicing prospection promotes patience: Repeated episodic future thinking cumulatively reduces delay discounting

• Published in: Drug and alcohol dependence Vol. 204; p. 107507
• Main Authors: Mellis, Alexandra M., Snider, Sarah E., Deshpande, Harshawardhan U., LaConte, Stephen M., Bickel, Warren K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lausanne Elsevier B.V 01-11-2019; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Alcohol; Alcohol related disorders; Alcohol use; Alcohol use disorder; Alcoholism; Cues; Delay; Delay discounting; Discounting; Dose effects; Drinking behavior; Episodic future thinking; Future; Impulsivity; Patience; Practice; Problem drinkers; Reinforcement; Rewards; Scarcity; Episodic future thinking; Impulsivity; Dose effects; Alcohol use disorder; Practice; Alcohol; Delay discounting
• ISSN: 0376-8716; 1879-0046
• DOI: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2019.06.010

•Impulsive discounting rates, an addiction marker, improve with episodic prospection.•Repeated episodic prospection cumulatively improved discounting rates in drinkers.•Another manipulation, hypothetical scarcity, did not show cumulative effects.•Episodic prospection targeting discounting shows translational potential.
Delay discounting, or the preference for smaller, sooner over larger, later rewards, has been associated with alcohol use disorder and problem drinking. Episodic future thinking has been suggested as an intervention to address steep delay discounting. In the present study, we examined the effect of up to six consecutive sessions of episodic future thinking.
Repeated, within-subject data were collected from current and recent problem drinkers (n = 50) over six sessions. Linear mixed-effect models were used to estimate effects of repeated sessions and manipulations. Participants completed episodic future thinking interviews at up to six sessions, in which they generated personalized future events. Participants also engaged with cues of scarcity. At each session, participants completed three delay discounting tasks under: a no-cue baseline condition, a future cue condition, and a scarcity cue condition.
Delay discounting in the no cue condition did not change over time. Discounting rates were reduced in the future cue condition, and these effects grew larger with repeated sessions. In the scarcity condition, discounting rates were slightly higher, with no effect of repeated sessions.
Episodic future thinking reduced delay discounting rate while future cues were presented, and these effects grew larger with repeated sessions. This suggests that repeated episodic future thinking may cumulatively potentiate repair of excessive preference for immediate reward.