Off-campus UMass Amherst users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your UMass Amherst user name and password.
Non-UMass Amherst users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
Dissertations that have an embargo placed on them will not be available to anyone until the embargo expires.
Author ORCID Identifier
N/A
AccessType
Open Access Dissertation
Document Type
dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Program
Neuroscience and Behavior
Year Degree Awarded
2015
Month Degree Awarded
September
First Advisor
Heather N. Richardson
Second Advisor
Jeffrey Podos
Subject Categories
Applied Behavior Analysis | Behavioral Neurobiology | Behavior and Ethology | Cognitive Neuroscience | Developmental Biology | Developmental Neuroscience
Abstract
Impulsive choice is defined as the preference for a small immediate reward over a larger delayed reward. Individual variablity in impulsive choice correlates with many socially relevant behaviors. Although forms of impulsive choice have been studied in both behavioral ecology and psychology, the exchange of knowledge between these fields is just beginning. Drawing from both of these fields will improve our research methods allowing for a more detailed understanding of this complex behavior. Existing tasks to measure impulsive choice conflate the delay and quantity of the reward. To address this, I have drawn from foraging research to establish a method to isolate each single parameter: either the delay, or quantity of the reward. The isolation of one of these parameters at a time is a central theme in this thesis. I have applied these new methods to explore the behavioral components of impulsive choice. Contrary to an assumption in the existing literature, I find that impulsive choice and delay discounting are distinct behaviors; quantity may in fact be a larger contributer to impulsive choice than delay. Next, I assess the relationship between the delay component of impulsive choice and alcohol addiction. The data suggest that the delay component of impulsive choice is associated with alcohol consumption, but causal hypotheses are not supported. Instead the data suggest that this component of impulsive choice and acohol consumption may share a common mechanism. Lastly, I propose a novel neural circuitry that could underly impulsive choice behaviors. I conduct a preliminary test of a prediction of the model. The results suggest the present model may be incorrect. This, however, highlights the usefulness of the novel methods presented in this dissertation as they allow for more detailed testing of specific models of this complex behavior.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/7145539.0
Recommended Citation
McClure, Jesse, "Behavioral and Neural Mechanisms of Impulsive Choice" (2015). Doctoral Dissertations. 428.
https://doi.org/10.7275/7145539.0
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/428
Included in
Applied Behavior Analysis Commons, Behavioral Neurobiology Commons, Behavior and Ethology Commons, Cognitive Neuroscience Commons, Developmental Biology Commons, Developmental Neuroscience Commons