Delay Discounting Task

ATTENTION AND CONCENTRATION: Mildly impaired ability to generate and maintain sufficient attention for tasks completion with queuing and redirection. Mild impulsivity was noted during the testing.

This study examined administration and scoring errors made by graduate students when administering the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities (WJ III COG). In the past studies have been conducted on graduate student errors made on other assessment of cognitive abilities, such as the Wechsler Scales. This study's findings were similar to previous studies.

The name of the test is The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R). It was revised and developed so that it could update item content so that it could provide new standards, and so that it would still be effective as a basic tool of intelligence and an effective analytical and research tool. The purpose of this study were to determine the constructs measured by the test and the reliability of measurement across large normative and clinical models. It was intended to be a wide-ranging test of cognitive skills for adults for people over the age of sixteen. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised is an Intelligence quotient

Nisbett, R. E. (2004) Heredity, environment, and race differences in IQ: A commentary on Rushton and Jensen. Retrieved October 12, 2016 from, PsycINFO Database.

The Woodcock-Johnson III (WJIII) test is full battery of tests that when administered together provide a comprehensive, norm-referenced assessment of specific cognitive abilities, oral language, academic achievements, and general intellectual ability (Blackwell, 2001). The WJIII authors are Woodcock, McGrew and Mather (2001) and is published by Riverside. The WJIII is the third revision of the original Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery developed by Richard Woodcock and Mary E. Bonner Johnson (R. W. Woodcock & Johnson, 1977) and its revision the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery-Revised (R. W. Woodcock & Johnson, 1989). The Woodcock-Johnson is currently in its fourth revision published in 2014

Impulse Thinking- The person often acts on impulses without thinking through the consequences of such

However, Loree et al.,(2015) mentions that impulsivity also negatively influences treatment of substance use disorders. That is to say, the lack of impulsivity regulation not only is a risk factor for substance use disorder, it is also an aspect that inhibits the treatment of an individual with a substance use disorder. Abu-Shakra and Cox (2014), aim to do is say that disinhibited behaviours such as impulsivity not only influences substance abuse but, also disruptive behaviour disorders. The aim of their paper is to suggest that externalized behaviours, also known as disinhibited behaviour traits, influence the progression of disruptive behaviour disorder and substance use

In Naftali Raz 's review of research regarding cognitive decline, several interesting points are discussed. The majority of Raz 's review appears to be focused on identifying where research could be furthered. For example, while

Another study to study SES and cognitive development was done by Merete Osler1, Kirsten Avlund, and Erik Lykke Mortensen to examine the influence of social circumstances early in life on changes in cognitive function from young adulthood to middle age (2012). They looked at the impact of birth characteristics like birth weight and maternal age, childhood activities in leisure time, education and adult social class on the expected relationship. A sample of 11 532 men aged 12, 18, and 57 were assessed. To find the association of early-life characteristics with cognitive test scores, a linear regression was used. They found that the scores at age 57 years highly correlated with the scores at ages 12 and 18 years. Participants who had a father in the working class at birth were related to having lower cognitive function at all three ages. It was also found that a decline in cognitive function was present with low education, many social activities and minimum intellectual activities during childhood in leisure time and low adult social class.

The prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for the decision making, impulsive behaviour and cognitive control, is one of the slowest parts of the brain to develop, it will not be fully mature until the age of 20.

Although the association between gain discounting and substance use is well established (MacKillop et al., 2011), this does not necessarily imply a connection between cost discounting and substance use. Gain discounting and cost discounting may reflect fundamentally different processes. At least for common discounting tasks (for an exception see Shelley, 1993), gains are discounted to a larger extent than losses (Baker, Johnson, & Bickel, 2003; Thaler, 1981). When framing choices as losses instead of gains, it is

The statistical analyses used were group differences in demographic and neuropsychological data evaluated using a two-tailed independent sample t test and x^2 test. General linear models were used with regional volume as the dependent variable as well as age and ICV as co-variables. To reduce type 1 errors a Z Monte Carlo simulation with 10,000 iterations and a cluster wise correction. “To control other factors they used the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale vocabulary performance, weekly reported alcohol consumption, Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment Adult Self-Report T-scores for anxious/depressed syndrome, drug use, attention problems, and total problems were included as additional covariates”

Furthermore, greater examples of this comparison can be seen with analysis of studies performed particularly with children; in one example, it was seen that all ADHD children, which all previously showed deficiencies in executive function- and thus had problems with cognitive impulsivity, did not all show problems when it came to emotional regulation, rather only the subset with specific aggression problems did. Not only this, but it was proven that effortful control is known to be used increasingly with age, and primarily in girls rather than boys; this is due to the fact that effortful control is parallel with developmental and neurological changes in the prefrontal cortex, which girls experience quicker than boys. Another great determination of children using effortful control is regarded back to their very own personality traits. Studies show that the personality trait most associated with effortful control is consciousness; this is due to the fact that it allows one to control their short-term pleasure seeking impulses, and rather focus on attaining long-term goals; for example, when a child chooses to finish their homework, say prior to watching TV. On the other hand children who do not posses a great sense of consciousness, are rather known to have anti-social, reward-seeking, risk taking, delinquent behavior which is purely due to, as mentioned in the former, under development of prefrontal mechanisms which thus entail greater externalizing behaviors. Children with the latter personality traits are more known to show problems of antisocial personality disorder, poor behavior in not only the school setting, but home as well, overall depression, and even early drug use.

The imbalance model seeks to explain the mechanisms that influence adolescent risk taking. The prefrontal cortex, linked to decision making among other processes, and the subcortical limbic regions, linked to reward, are in an unbalanced state in the brains of adolescents. During adolescence, the limbic regions develop more quickly than the prefrontal cortical regions involved in control and decision making; therefore, there is an imbalance between the regions, with the limbic reward regions having more influence. In pre-adolescent children, these regions are not developed, which explains the difference in decision making and risk taking relative to adolescents. On the other side of that, the prefrontal cortical and subcortical limbic regions are fully developed in adults, explaining their better understanding of consequences, impulsivity control, good decision making, and less risk-taking behaviors. According to the researchers,

Hyperbolic discounting has been shown in child psychology studies with the Stanford marshmallow experiement.1 In this study, a child was offered a choice between one marshmallow immediately or two marshmallows after a short period of time, usually around 15 minutes. Follow up studies have shown the children who were able to wait longer for the two marshmallows tended to have better life outcomes, as measured by SAT scores, educational attainment, body mass index, and other life