Date Approved

2025

Degree Type

Open Access Senior Honors Thesis

Department or School

Psychology

First Advisor

Sydney Batchelder, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Heather Janiesse, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Natalie Dove, Ph.D.

Abstract

Individuals with intellectual (NDD) and neurodevelopmental (NDD) conditions experience disproportionately higher rates of obesity (Hsieh et al., 2014; Ptomey et al., 2020). Yet their diet decision-making process has been left out of the current literature. Delay discounting, which reflects the decrease in the subjective value of a reward as the delay to its receipt increases, has been linked to obesity and unhealthy food intake in typically developing adults. However, most existing tasks rely on hypothetical rewards and verbal reasoning, which limit their use with individuals who have cognitive or communication differences. The present pilot study developed and evaluated a novel in vivo food delay discounting task that uses real food rewards and concrete procedures. This pilot was used to establish (1) how well the task determines indifference points and (2) the fit of the choices to the hyperbolic discounting function. Four (N = 4) adults with IDD and NDD completed a series of choices between smaller, sooner food rewards and larger, later food rewards across increasing delays. All participants produced identifiable indifference points, and three demonstrated a strong fit to the hyperbolic discounting model, indicating that the task effectively captured systematic discounting behavior. One participant showed minimal discounting and poor model fit, which may reflect atypical choice patterns or limits of the task. Preliminary comparisons by weight status were inconclusive due to the small sample size but suggested meaningful variability in discounting across individuals. These findings support the feasibility of using an in vivo food discounting task with IDD and NDD populations and highlight its potential for improving research on impulsive decision making and obesity in underserved groups.

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