Translating episodic future thinking manipulations for clinical use: Development of a clinical control

Abstract

Many studies support that Episodic Future Thinking (EFT) reduces maladaptive health behaviors and how much individuals devalue the future (steepness of delay discounting). In order to understand the clinical utility of EFT, a control procedure that equates groups in non-specific treatment factors (e.g., expectancy of change, perceived connection of content to health behavior) is needed. The present research evaluated the effects of EFT relative to a novel control (health information thinking; HIT), which was designed to be structurally similar to EFT while incorporating elements from existing clinical controls. In a sample of Amazon Mechanical Turk workers (N = 254), we found that EFT reduced discounting relative to the HIT procedure and a standard EFT control. There were some affective differences across groups and differences in adherence to the intervention content, but these were unrelated to discounting. Delay discounting was not equivalent across the control groups, but this may not be a necessary condition to fulfill for a clinical control. Future research will need to identify whether the HIT procedure serves as a good control for other dependent variables when studying EFT and develop controls analogous to usual care or a "wait-list" in clinical contexts.

Cognitive mechanisms underlying subjective value of past and future events: Modeling systematic reversals of temporal value asymmetry

“…Payoffs or rewards other than money are commonly employed to understand disordered intertemporal decisions in eating disorders (Amlung et al, 2016), alcohol and drug abuse (Locey & Dallery, 2009), or sexual activity related to STIs (Wongsomboon & Robles, 2017). Interventions to reduce impulsivity in these domains could leverage assessments of discounting rates and payoff sensitivity to design decision strategies or choice architectures that reduce discounting or re-frame the available options (Peters & Büchel, 2010;Rung & Epstein, 2020). For instance, a variant of episodic future thinking interventions might ask participants to re-consider the question "Would you rather have a drink now, or remain sober for the rest of the week?"…”

Putting prospection into practice: Methodological considerations in the use of episodic future thinking to reduce delay discounting and maladaptive health behaviors

“…Below, we consider the specific procedures used in both the interview and survey-guided methods. For clarity, we refer to the single phrase or sentence beginning the event description as tags , and the full narrative text, including the details of the event, as cues ( 46 ).…”

“…Participants then answer questions about valence (excitement, enjoyment, importance, and vividness) regarding the event. Afterwards, the interviewer probes for further episodic details to complete the cue and reviews a checklist of requirements [e.g., did the participant use the correct format, choose a vivid event they were looking forward to, and describe the event in the present tense; ( 21 , 28 , 30 , 46 )].…”

Imagining the Future to Reshape the Past: A Path to Combine Cue Extinction and Memory Reconsolidation With Episodic Foresight for Addiction Treatment

“…Figure 1 illustrates the conceptual process of the proposed framework and the implications of each stage of this approach in real-life settings. CIREF benefits from EFT enhancement as a translatable approach in clinical settings (68) that is also necessitated by pieces of evidence showing that individuals with addictive behaviors have difficulties imagining future events and implementing intentions based on them (69)(70)(71)(72). Moreover, the suggested framework could fill in the gaps of CET and memory reconsolidation interventions by taking a step further from classical conditioning and updating past drug-related memories by implementing goal-based strategies.…”