ABSTRACT
Given the crucial theoretical role of the concept of reinforcement in psychology, it is surprising how little has been learned until recently about how the mental representation of rewards and outcomes affects the individual's pursuit of them. I have been interested in the problem of reward representation especially when people are attempting to delay immediate smaller gratification for the sake of more desirable but deferred goals. The research I report here focuses on the studies my associates and I have been conducting to understand more deeply how the mental representation of the relevant rewards in a contingency might influence voluntary delay for those outcomes.
