Figure 1.
(A) Diagrammatic representation of a single trial of the DReaM-Choice Task. It was designed to determine (1) the number of choices for each reward, which indexes “relative preference” and (2) the average number of button-presses for each reward, which indexes motivation. During the “choice stage”, the cues were presented and a choice was made with button F (left option) or J (right option; unlimited time); during the “anticipate stage 1”, the word of the reward, for example, “cigarette,” was shown (0.5s); during the “anticipate stage 2,” a small version of the cue was shown (4s); during the “respond stage,” the spacebar was pressed as many times as desired with the nondominant little finger in 7s,32 in order to win points for the chosen reward; during the “feedback stage,” feedback concerning the amount of points won was provided for 1s. Each of the 6 possible choices were presented 4 times in three blocks, making a total of 72 trials, with trial order pseudo-randomized and left/right cue position counterbalanced. (B) The cues used in the DReaM-Choice task to represent each reward. From left to right: cigarette, chocolate, music, and paper. The “delivered rewards” which were actually given to participants to consume after the DReaM-Choice task finished were Malboro Gold cigarettes (tar 6 mg and nicotine 0.5 mg), Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate, individually chosen music,33 and pieces (~2cm2) of lined paper. Paper was included as a control commodity to demonstrate that the rewards were motivating relative to a control commodity.14,34