The temporal dynamics of self-control.

Self-control-the ability to pursue long-term goals over short-term temptations-is a critical faculty of human cognition, but the cognitive processes enabling self-control are not well understood. Traditional models have focused on impulse inhibition: effortfully inhibiting prepotent motor responses toward a temptation, yielding a stage-based evolution of choice. Other models emphasize dynamic competition between goal and temptation, yielding a more integrative evolution of choice. Although these models represent fundamentally different conceptions of self-control, current methods are inadequate for investigating real-time dynamics, leaving the question of which model best describes self-control unresolved. We investigate these models using mouse-tracking: a dynamic, real-time measure of decision-making in which we measure participants' computer mouse movements as they navigate tradeoffs between immediate and delayed gratification (e.g., $5 today vs. $20 in 3 mo). We develop a quantitative approach that integrates the rich spatial and temporal information contained in mouse trajectories, and find evidence for