Temporal discounting, effort-based choice, and self-control

How do we weigh the tradeoff between rewards that are available now relative to in the future? What are the neurocomputational mechanisms that allow us to arrive at the most valued option? And how does individual variability in memory, motivation, and self-regulation shape these processes? This section bridges recent advances in the neuroeconomics of temporal discounting, effort based-choice and self-control, offering a multifaceted view of how people navigate tradeoffs between immediacy, effort and value in their decision calculus. While self-control and executive function have long been considered central mechanisms governing discounting behavior, more recent work supports a more nuanced understanding of these kinds of choices in one in which memory and motivational processes may be similarly important.