Preference for small instant reward over large delayed one?

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Fructose, Tryptophan, Serotonin, Mood and Cognition.

1 ) Do you tend to prefer/prioritise small immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards?

2 ) Do you tend to discount or undervalue longer-term rewards?

3 ) Do you often have trouble connecting negative consequences to actions taken more than a few hours or days beforehand?

4 ) Do you often have trouble understanding or imagining or correctly evaluating the consequences and implications of your actions?

I just found some interesting information about the effect of low tryptophan on mood and cognitive function, especially likely in those with fructose malabsorption, ( because unabsorbed fructose binds to tryptophan in the gut making it unavailable ), and apparently as many as 40% of people have low to very-low fructose absorption capacity, and/or in those on vegan/casein-free vegetarian diets, ( because the best sources of tryptophan are meat, cheese, fish and eggs ):

Tryptophan is a necessary/essential requirement for the production of serotonin in the brain.

From the Yahoo Fructose-Malabsorption and FODMAP intolerance chat list I recently joined:

It's taken me years to understand and accept that I have this problem.

I used to think my parents were simply being unkind or intolerant or hostile when they said that I seemed to have no imagination! Me!? No imagination, who wrote stories, drew made-up faces, daydreamed for hours etc!! ! ??? ! !! But I have realised, many years later that they were right.

They also said I was greedy, impatient, and had eyes bigger than my belly, and bewailed my ( disastrous, self-sabotaging ) inability to stick to anything, to value or even remember anything, which didn't bring me nearly instant positive results, of some kind or other.

It has been a major blight, most of all when I didn't realise it about myself, and thought that I was making good decisions, having already forgotten the negative results of many of my other choices, and I thought that the reason I was so often disappointed by the results/consequences of things I chose to do was because life itself was disappointing, and ended up depressed, when in fact it was just that I kept making bad decisions.

I have so chronically repeatedly failed to learn lessons from bad experiences, and so chronically felt optimistic about new starts, new endeavours, only to find that they don't work out, again.

And been so unable to do anything at all, ( apart from brush my teeth ), if it didn't reward me almost immediately in some way, within the next 24-48 hours. Long-term training or work-projects totally out of my reach, even if intellectually I *should* have been able to do them.

Exams passed on pure "off the top of my head" logical capacities and exceptional memory and wide reading, not study. And studying only that which interested me in the moment, diet, for instance! :lol But making even a nutritionist's diploma seem unappealing because so much on the course didn't interest me *then*.

It has affected everything. And it is only in the last 7 years or so since I have begun to recognise and accept and understand this problem that I have begun to be able to avoid the sort of traps this "blindness"/poor judgement kept leading me into ... ... ... mainly by doing very little, by being very very careful, by staying put, and when attempting anything out of the ordinary/humdrum/daily routine making sure I have support structures and a solid framework in place to sustain my effort.
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The thing is that for a very very long time I didn't even realise that I was "discounting" or "undervaluing" "delayed/future rewards ( or possible negative consequences )", etc.

I didn't realise that my judgement was off, that instead of seeing the whole forest/wood clearly/relatively accurately I was only seeing the trees in front of me at their right size.

I didn't seem to be able to factor in that it was simply distance/time that made the other "trees"/delayed rewards look smaller; to me they were literally smaller, as if time was "flat" like a canvas and I a person who had never learned the rules of "perspective".

PS. Like I've had astigmatism all my life, and only found out why I kept bumping into things a few years ago.
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I think my reward system is broken. I can't seem to even wrap my brain around the question. There seems to be some inherent contradictions in my behavior. When hyper-focused on something, there is no thought of reward and I can go for hours in an almost trance. When my attention is diffused (like in social environments) is seems to be involved in navigating the situation, almost like survival mode. I also don't think of reward in any normal context. I look for resolution of internal states, not some external measure (money, things, awards). My rewards are geared towards the reduction of cognitive dissonance caused by conflicting information.

I perfer larger delayed rewards. in two years i'll be able to make a custom made fire agate ring but first i have to save up my moneys.
its a good thing i know nothing is gained without sacrifice!!

I voted really only 1 ) and 2 ) to some extent.

Is it the food though?

I rarely get motivated by rewards these days and quick gratification became a turn-off...

But I have no merit in this, especially with food. I have very high standards about the quality of my food, but don't eat that much, never really liked sweets and don't get cravings...

I only notice #4-- that I have difficulty determining what the consequences of my actions will be. And then, only when those consequences are things other people do. That is to say, I don't have trouble determining what's likely to happen if I have all of the information (big if), EXCEPT that people tend to react to me with offense or worse regardless of what I say or do, and I generally fail to predict when or how that will happen (though I've learned to expect that it will).

I have been taking omega three fatties and it has helped me with everything overall. Especially confidence, anxiety, depression and focus.

I tend to undervalue small, instant rewards.

I think long-term to the extent that I ignore the present. I pretty much ignore the time interval until I get something; if I'm getting it, then that's really all that matters to me. I don't really have much of a concept of time or delay.

For example, I will easily forget to eat if I happen to be doing something else; the immediate reward of food isn't nearly enticing enough to get me to switch tasks until I've missed two or more meals. (Though this is generally a bad idea; if I don't schedule meals, and forget to eat, then I will eat too much at the next meal, which is not healthy.)

I also have no problem waiting for several months to read a book from a favorite series, until the book is available in the library; and I don't play computer games the year they come out--in fact, my average wait tends to be more like four or five years after they come out, when they are generally quite inexpensive and within my budget to buy. (I recently purchased Baldur's Gate for $5.)

My problem with task-switching isn't a reward issue; it's simply inertia. If I'm doing something, I keep doing it, whether it's pleasant or not. The other day I got a sore arm because I started off scrubbing dirt off the walls and just kept on scrubbing until all the walls were clean. Yeahhh... somebody get me the Advil!

My inability to make impulsive decisions often leads to choice overload and "lockup" when I have to try to choose between a lot of different options without a mental flowchart to sort them. I think I'd be better off if I were more impulsive. Oddly enough I am classic ADHD-I, with all the daydreaming and disorganization that involves; but it's not like I can't pay attention--I just can't control where my attention goes.

Very interesting results, and posts.

I could have sworn that a lot of people on the spectrum had this problem, like you describe, Callista, of ignoring the long-term rewards, ( of eating, for example, with its effect on ones health, etc ), in favour of present gratification, ( like you describe ), the moment that one is in, whatever is immediate and present, to hand or already in one's hand.

I expected a lot of people to vote for the first few options, because I have got the impression, in the three odd years I've been on WP, that a great many people here have trouble moving from something that they are already doing, something with which they are already involved, to something else even if that thing is important to their health, finances, or job prospects, etc. ie. they will stick with the reward of the familiar the already understood and mastered etc over something with deferred rewards, something which will be difficult to do to begin with but which promises greater rewards over time.

The number of people on WP who have trouble leaving the computer to do anything else, for instance.

Rewards don't need to be money, things, etc, as wavefreak58 seemed to think, but also the "resolution of internal states" for instance that you mentioned, wavefreak58. ie. I have got the impression that a great many people on WP will put the resolution of immediate states of discomfort over any possible future reward, however big, eg. an even more permanent, and at the same time productive, way to resolve internal discomfort, which some temporary discomfort now could lead to.

Am definitely puzzled that so few people here voted for the first few options, except when I think how totally invisible this tendency was to me, for so many years. In other words if someone had asked me to vote in this poll twenty years ago I too would have thought that it did not apply to me.
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I like larger delayed rewards myself.

Small rewards are nice, but the satisfaction only last for a short while.

I much prefer smaller, more frequent rewards. I don't have much patience, and I can't stand the suspense of waiting - even waiting for something small to ship is hard. I'd rather get a $5 item every week or so, than get a $100 item once every couple of months.