Pavlovian Approaches to Preventing Impulsive Choice: Envisioning an Ideal School-Based Prevention Program

Abstract Impulsive choice—preference for a smaller-sooner over a larger-later reward—is a transdiagnostic risk factor for behaviors that harm human health. Preventing a temporally extended pattern of impulsive choice should be a translational research priority. No existing intervention meets all the criteria outlined in this article of an ideal school-based prevention program: low cost, low teacher effort, fast-acting, and capable of producing lasting, generalizable reductions in impulsive choice. Here, we evaluate Pavlovian conditioning as a candidate approach. Our review is informed by evidence from nonhuman laboratory experiments and kindergarten classroom studies examining whether appetitive Pavlovian conditioning protocols can reduce impulsive choice and related behaviors. Laboratory experiments demonstrate that a brief Pavlovian conditioning protocol establishes a conditioned stimulus (CS) that may then be strategically used to reduce impulsive choice in rats by serving as an attractive antecedent and/or an appetitive delay-bridging stimulus. Studies conducted in kindergarten classrooms show that a class-wide protocol can establish an appetitive CS with minimal teacher training and classroom disruption. Presenting the CS during an in-situ waiting task reduced children's challenging behaviors and presenting it during academic-choice tasks increased children's willingness to work for larger rewards. This preliminary evidence supports the continued exploration of Pavlovian conditioning approaches to efficiently prevent patterns of impulsive choice that cumulate over time to negatively affect human health and wellbeing.