Resource-rational adaptations to different intertemporal choice environments affect evidence accumulation and encoding-related processes

Resource-rational adaptations to different intertemporal choice environments affect evidence accumulation and encoding-related processes | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Resource-rational adaptations to different intertemporal choice environments affect evidence accumulation and encoding-related processes Benjamín Garzón, Rafael Polania, Todd A. Hare This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8387640/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Revision Version 1 posted 23 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Biological organisms must adaptively allocate their limited cognitive resources to maximize performance in different environments. Recent work has shown that resource-rational adaptation to the reward statistics of an environment can influence human decision making. Here, we examine resource-rational adaptation during binary intertemporal decisions within contexts that contain different levels of volatility in delayed reward magnitudes, while jointly considering both choices and decision times. We found that the choice sensitivity along the relevant decision dimension was higher in the low reward-volatility condition. This effect was accompanied by higher non-decision times, which are thought to be partially determined by initial encoding of the decision options. We also tested whether adaptation during the binary choice phase would carry over to a second type of intertemporal decision task, in which participants expressed their willingness-to-pay (WTP) to forgo having to wait to receive an offered amount. We found that participants reported their WTP to forgo delays faster following the low reward-volatility binary choice context. Taken together, our results indicate that resource-rational adaptations to reward volatility contexts affect stimulus encoding and evidence accumulation processes, and that these adaptations show near-transfer across decision formats. Biological sciences/Neuroscience Biological sciences/Psychology Social science/Psychology Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files SupplementaryInformation.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Revision Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 19 Mar, 2026 Reviews received at journal 05 Mar, 2026 Reviews received at journal 04 Mar, 2026 Reviews received at journal 27 Feb, 2026 Reviews received at journal 19 Feb, 2026 Reviews received at journal 19 Feb, 2026 Reviews received at journal 17 Feb, 2026 Reviews received at journal 14 Feb, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 10 Feb, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 09 Feb, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 09 Feb, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 09 Feb, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 08 Feb, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 06 Feb, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 06 Feb, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 04 Feb, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 04 Feb, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 04 Feb, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 04 Feb, 2026 Editor invited by journal 22 Dec, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 19 Dec, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 19 Dec, 2025 First submitted to journal 17 Dec, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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