Only one study tested for functional maturation of temporal foresight in a temporal discounting task where participants have to choose between an immediate but smaller reward and a larger but delayed reward. The task measures the degree to which a reward is being subjectively discounted in proportion to the delay, thus quantifying the individual sensitivity to the timing/delay of a reward and the capacity of temporal foresight to understand the future gain of the delayed choice. They hence require inter-temporal decision-making, future reward evaluation and inter-temporal bridging. Because the task also measures reward processing and reward-related inter-temporal decision-making (even if the key dependent variable is the timing of the reward), it is often categorised a “hot” executive function. Steeper temporal discounting in the task has been associated with impulsiveness and is thought to reflect ‘myopia for the future’, i.e., problems with temporal foresight [29, 60].
