Adaptación de una tarea de descuento temporal con estímulos alimentarios Translated title: Adaptation of a Delay-Discounting Task with food stimuli

Abstract

Resumen Objetivo: probar la utilidad de la tarea de descuento temporal de Koffarnus y Bickel (2014) al sustituir los estímulos neutros por alimentarios. Diseño metodológico: se trata de un estudio instrumental de corte transversal y alcance descriptivo. Se realizó una traducción y retraducción de los reactivos, se integró la imagen de dos barras de chocolate, se modificó la consigna de “preferirías tener” a “preferirías comer” y se realizó una prueba piloto. Posteriormente se aplicó a una muestra de 191 participantes de entre 18 y 30 años (M= 22.33, DE= 4.02) residentes de la Ciudad de México, 121 mujeres y 70 hombres. Resultados: se encontró una tendencia de los participantes a descontar más las recompensas retardadas. La tasa de descuento mostró un comportamiento similar al reportado en la literatura (k = .25, s= .24, R2 = .62; k = .014, s= .87, R2 = .90), lo que indica que la tarea sí permite identificar la tendencia a descontar las recompensas. Limitaciones de la investigación: la utilización de un solo estímulo alimentario es limitante, así como la presencia de sensación de hambre y la no diferenciación de estímulos dulce y salado. Sin embargo, esto no impide que se obtenga una medida de descuento temporal acorde con el reportado en la literatura. Hallazgos: la tarea sí es capaz de identificar la tendencia a descontar las recompensas retardadas, además se pudieron obtener los valores de área bajo la curva para ambas condiciones lo cual permite establecer que la tarea es adecuada para obtener una medida del DT.

Translated abstract

Abstract Purpose: To test the usefulness of the delay-discounting task of Koffarnus and Bickel (2014) when substituting neutral stimuli for food. Methodological design: It is a cross-section instrumental study with a descriptive scope. The items were translated and back-translated, the image of two chocolate bars was produced, with a slogan that was changed from "would you rather have" to "would you rather eat" and a pilot test was carried out. Subsequently, it was applied to a sample of 191 participants of ages among 18 and 30 (M= 22.33, DE= 4.02) residents of Mexico City, of which 121 were women and 70 were men. Results: It was found that the participants had a tendency to discount more the delayed rewards . The discount rate showed a behavior similar to that proposed in the literature (k = .25, s= .24, R2 = .62; k = .014, s= .87, R2 = .90), which indicates that the task does allow identifying the tendency to discount rewards. Research limitations: The use of a single food stimulus was a limitation. So was the presence of a feeling of hunger among the participants, and the non-differentiation of sweet and salty stimuli as well. However, these did not prevent from obtaining a temporary discount measure according to the reports in the literature related. Findings: The task is capable of identifying the tendency to discount delayed rewards, in addition, it was possible to obtain the area under the curve values for both conditions, which makes it possible to establish that the task is adequate in order to obtain a measure of dd (delay discounting).