The role of cognitive resources in the valuation of near and far future events

People's behaviors often appear short-sighted, suggesting they overvalue th e near future and undervalue the far future. In three experiments, the pres ent research focussed on the role of cognitive resources in the valuation o f near and distant future events. Experiment I tested a new discounting par adigm for use in the subsequent experiments. Experiments 2 and 3 used diffe rent manipulations (time pressure and a concurrent tone task) to restrict t he cognitive resources of participants valuing a series of future events. I n both experiments, this manipulation caused an increase in the valuation o f far future events but not in the valuations of near future events. Implic ations of these findings for the role of cognitive resources in time discou nting processes are briefly discussed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science BN. All ri ghts reserved.