Shaping Tolerance for Delayed Rewards

NCT03457402 | Recruiting

• 2 other identifiers: 921404R03HD087091-01A1
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 50
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Deficits in self-control are of major public health relevance as they contribute to several negative outcomes for both individuals and society. For children, developing self-control is a critically important step toward success in academic settings and social relationships, yet there are few non-pharmacological approaches that have been successful in increasing self-control. We found in our earlier studies that self-control can be increased in preschool-aged children with high impulsivity by using games in which they practice gradually increasing wait-time for larger, more delayed rewards. We are performing this current study to test if this training to increase self-control can be increased using mobile app technology, with computerized game time being used as a reward.

Conditions

Impulsivity

Keywords

delay discounting; shaping

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Indifference point

  The indifference point on the tablet-task assessment is defined as the delay interval at which the child chooses 50% longer, larger rewards and 50% shorter, smaller rewards. Investigators hypothesize that the shaping group will have greater increases in their indifference points than the waitlist control group.

  Up to 6 weeks

• Percent change in preference for longer, larger (LL) rewards

  The percentage of trials in which the child selects the longer, larger (LL) reward option during the tablet-task assessment will be recorded. Investigators hypothesize that the shaping group will have greater increases in the percentage of trials for which they choose the LL rewards compared to the waitlist control group.

  Up to 6 weeks

Secondary Outcomes (6)

• ADHD-RS-IV Preschool Version and Attention and Behavior Rating Form

  Up to 6 weeks

• The Preschool Life Skills Questionnaire

  Up to 6 weeks

• The Children's Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ)

  Up to 6 weeks

• Snack Delay Task

  Up to 6 weeks

• Dinky Toy Task

  Up to 6 weeks

Study Arms (2)

Treatment

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in the Experimental arm will begin the Shaping Delay Tolerance behavioral intervention immediately after baseline, and this training will last for about 6 weeks.

Behavioral: Shaping Delay Tolerance

Wait-list Control

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

After baseline, participants in the Wait-list Control arm will wait for about 6-weeks before entering the pre-treatment phase, which is a repeat of effortful control assessments and behavior questionnaires, and then they will begin training for with the Shaping Delay Tolerance behavioral intervention.

Behavioral: Shaping Delay Tolerance

Interventions

Shaping Delay Tolerance BEHAVIORAL

Participants will be introduced to an adaptive tablet-based application that asks the child to choose between two options: 1) a shorter duration of game play that begins immediately, or 2) a longer duration of game play that begins after a delay. Depending on the child's choices, the application alters the pre-reward delay with the intent of training the child to tolerate longer delays for larger rewards (i.e., more game play). Children may participate in up to 25 approximately 30-minute training sessions over 3-6 weeks.

Treatment; Wait-list Control

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 3 Years - 6 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• Age 3-6 years
• Hyperactivity/Impulsivity subscale scores of the ADHD Rating Scale-IV Preschool Version (children 3 to 4 years of age) or the Attention and Behavior Scale (children 5 to 6 years of age) ≥ 90th percentile from either the parent or teacher's responses
• Physically and visually able to use the tablet, as determined by pre-assessment performance
• Children taking psychotropic medication will be included, but must maintain the same medication and dose over the course of the study and for each assessment and exhibit elevated levels of impulsivity based on parent or teacher ratings while medicated.

You may not qualify if:

• Children with autism spectrum disorder and/or intellectual disability (by parent or teacher report or the NIH Toolbox Picture Vocabulary Test).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of California, Davis: lead
• Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD): collaborator

Study Sites (1)

UC Davis MIND Institute

Sacramento, California, 95817, United States

RECRUITING

Related Publications (10)

• Schweitzer JB, Sulzer-Azaroff B. Self-control: teaching tolerance for delay in impulsive children. J Exp Anal Behav. 1988 Sep;50(2):173-86. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1988.50-173.

  PMID: 3193054 BACKGROUND

• Schweitzer JB, Sulzer-Azaroff B. Self-control in boys with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: effects of added stimulation and time. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1995 May;36(4):671-86. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.1995.tb02321.x.

  PMID: 7650090 BACKGROUND

• McGoey KE, DuPaul GJ, Haley E, et al. Parent and teacher ratings of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in preschool: the ADHD Rating Scale-IV Preschool Version. J Psychopathol Behav Assess. 2007;29:269.

  BACKGROUND

• Dunn LM, Dunn DM. Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test - Fourth Edition (PPVT-4). 2006. Toronto; Pearson: 2006.

  BACKGROUND

• Hanley GP, Heal NA, Tiger JH, Ingvarsson ET. Evaluation of a class wide teaching program for developing preschool life skills. J Appl Behav Anal. 2007 Summer;40(2):277-300. doi: 10.1901/jaba.2007.57-06.

  PMID: 17624068 BACKGROUND

• Rothbart MK, Ahadi SA, Hershey KL, Fisher P. Investigations of temperament at three to seven years: the Children's Behavior Questionnaire. Child Dev. 2001 Sep-Oct;72(5):1394-408. doi: 10.1111/1467-8624.00355.

  PMID: 11699677 BACKGROUND

• Putnam SP, Rothbart MK. Development of short and very short forms of the Children's Behavior Questionnaire. J Pers Assess. 2006 Aug;87(1):102-12. doi: 10.1207/s15327752jpa8701_09.

  PMID: 16856791 BACKGROUND

• Gagne JR, Van Hulle CA, Aksan N, Essex MJ, Goldsmith HH. Deriving childhood temperament measures from emotion-eliciting behavioral episodes: scale construction and initial validation. Psychol Assess. 2011 Jun;23(2):337-53. doi: 10.1037/a0021746.

  PMID: 21480723 BACKGROUND

• Laird NM, Ware JH. Random-effects models for longitudinal data. Biometrics. 1982 Dec;38(4):963-74.

  PMID: 7168798 BACKGROUND

• Liang K, Zeger S. Longitudinal data analysis using generalized linear models. Biometrika 73:13-22; 1986.

  BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Impulsive Behavior

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Behavior

Study Officials

• Julie Schweitzer, Ph.D.

  UC Davis MIND Institute

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Samantha Blair, PhD

CONTACT

916-703-0325; hs-airlab@ucdavis.edu

Shannon Hoffman, DPT

CONTACT

916-703-0258; hs-airlab@ucdavis.edu

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Masking Details: Care Providers are told about the two possible groups during the Consent and will be aware of their child's assignment in terms of whether the child begins treatment immediately after baseline or has to wait 6 weeks prior to treatment. Members of the research team who are designated as video coders for the Effortful Control tasks will be blind to the group assignment of the participants in the video recordings.
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: Participants are randomly assigned to one of two possible groups. Group 1: Treatment; this group begins 6-week training with the self-control shaping application immediately after baseline. Group 2: Wait-list Control; After baseline, this group waits for 6-weeks before completing another pre-training assessment and then starts the 6-week training with the self-control application.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: March 1, 2018
• First Posted: March 7, 2018
• Study Start: September 12, 2017
• Primary Completion: May 1, 2026
• Study Completion: May 1, 2026
• Last Updated: July 14, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-07

Locations

US (1)