| Across a variety of decisions in daily life,Intertemporal choices describe that outcomes appearing at different points in time,which are proved to affect both individual performance and social economy profoundly.Despite the growing interest in intertemporal choices,the mechanism under tradeoffs for a smaller sooner outcome and a larger later outcome is still lack a good understanding.The present study is supposed to uncover the confusing decision process by comparing alternative-wise strategy of time discounting models(e.g.,Hyperbolic Discounting Model)and attribute-wise strategy of attribute comparison models(e.g.,Trade-ff Model),for the purpose of exploring mechanism under intertemporal choices.Three experiments were implemented following comparative paradigm,and conclusions were drawn from analysis of both process data and drift diffusion model(DDM).Based on comparative paradigm,Experiment 1(31 participants,16 female)and Experiment 2(32 participants,18 female)found that intertemporal choices were more likely to be made in a time-discounting process for the following evidence:(1)information search pattern of participants in intertemporal choices was similar to that presumed by time discounting but not attribute comparison models;(2)the degree of impatience(percentage of choosing smaller sooner outcomes)occurred in free choosing was similar to that presumed by time discounting models,while higher than attribute comparison models;(3)according to analysis of DDM,the drift rate in free choosing was similar to was similar to that presumed by time discounting but not attribute comparison models as well.Although a more likely time discounting process was determined in intertemporal choice,it was nonoptimal as resulting in more impatient behaviors than an attribute comparison process.Experiment 3(30 participants,18 female)aimed to obtain an ingenious way shifting decision mechanism from alternative-wise strategy to attributewise and showed that calendar description for intervals made it.Participants under a calendar framework chose less smaller-sooner outcomes than delay framework(standard description in previous experiments).Analysis of eye-tracking data and driftdiffusion model proved that calendar description made participants search for information in a more attribute-wise strategy and increase drift rate in decision making.In the end,this study summarized all the results of three experiments and discussed some limitations.Future directions were put forward accordingly. |
