Delay discounting

Valuing a long-term goal does not mean it drives action now

From a book

In her book, Solanto uses rewards losing value with delay to explain a difficulty for adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Distant rewards, such as a degree or promotion, may struggle to sustain effort(Solanto, 2013).

In this account, difficulty persisting does not necessarily mean someone no longer wants the outcome. A goal’s importance needs to be considered separately from how long its reward takes to arrive. Reward pairing offers one way to try adding an immediate reward.

Adults with ADHD also tend to devalue delayed money

Research-backed

A meta-analysis of 3,913 people found that those with ADHD tended to devalue delayed money more. The group difference was d = 0.43. As an approximate conversion, comparing one randomly selected person from each group would show greater devaluation in the person with ADHD about 62% of the time. This group difference did not differ significantly between adults and children(Jackson & MacKillop, 2016).

Choices about waiting can vary by task

Proposed in research

A study of children aged 8–12 used a task requiring actual waiting and rewards consumed on the spot. Children with ADHD preferred smaller rewards sooner more than controls did. However, a conventional task involving choices about delayed money found no significant difference between the groups(Martinelli et al., 2016).

Performance on one monetary-choice task therefore cannot represent every waiting situation.