Episodic future thinking is related to impulsive decision making in healthy adolescents
Abstract
Delay discounting is a stable trait measure of impulsivity. Engaging in episodic future thinking (EFT) can reduce discounting, but whether individual differences in discounting are associated with differences in future thinking remains unclear. Here, this association was tested in healthy adolescents (n = 49, age range = 12-16 years, fluent German speakers, from a large German city). Data collection was between December 2011 and December 2012. Vividness of EFT (assessed via the Autobiographical Memory Interview) was negatively correlated with discounting (r = -.41, 95% CI [-.63, -.13], r(2) = .17). Regression analyses confirmed that this association was stable when controlling for additional variables, including hormonal measures of pubertal maturation and intelligence. EFT may attenuate impulsivity in young people at risk of engaging in problematic behavior.
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Pubertal stage and hormone concentrations were not significantly associated with delay discounting in either boys or girls.
“Pubertal stage and hormone concentrations were not significantly associated with delay discounting in either boys or girls, but prepubertal children were not included in these studies, so the effect of puberty onset could not be determined (Bromberg et al., 2015; de Water et al., 2014).”
From Does puberty mark a transition in sensitive periods for plasticity in the associative neocortex? (2017) · cites this paper as Bromberg et al., 2015
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Bromberg, U., Wiehler, A., & Peters, J.
- Affiliations
- University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Bromberg, Uli
- Venue
- Child Development
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2015-09-01
- Volume
- 86
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1458-1468
- ISSN
- 0009-3920 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-8624
- OpenAlex
- W1770057369
- Cited by
- 79
- References
- 64
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 4.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- Child Development (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (PE167/3-1)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Identity, Memory, and Therapy
- Keywords
- episodic future thinking, delay discounting, impulsivity, adolescents, pubertal development, individual differences, decision-making
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Child, Female, Humans, Impulsive Behavior, Male, Thinking, Adolescent Development, Memory, Episodic, Delay Discounting
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