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AN APPLICATION OF THE MATCHING LAW TO SOCIAL DYNAMICS
Author(s) -
Borrero John C.,
Crisolo Stephany S.,
Tu Qiuchen,
Rieland Weston A.,
Ross Noël A.,
Francisco Monica T.,
Yamamoto Kenny Y.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of applied behavior analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1938-3703
pISSN - 0021-8855
DOI - 10.1901/jaba.2007.589-601
Subject(s) - matching (statistics) , matching law , psychology , juvenile delinquency , social psychology , statistics , developmental psychology , mathematics
Using a procedure similar to the one described by Conger and Killeen (1974), we evaluated levels of attending for 25 college students who participated in either a 20‐min ( n = 12) or 30‐ min ( n = 13) discussion on juvenile delinquency. Confederates delivered statements of agreement (e.g., “I agree with that point”) according to independent variable‐interval schedules. Pooled results were evaluated using three generalized formulations of the matching law, and showed that matching was more likely during the first 5 min of the discussion than during the last 5 min. Individual data for 7 of 9 participants were better described by the generalized response‐rate matching equation than by the generalized time‐allocation matching equation when response allocation was characterized in terms of frequency rather than duration.