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RELATIVE ALLOCATION ON CONCURRENT SCHEDULES CAN DEPEND ON SCHEDULE PARAMETERS WHEN BEHAVIORAL PARAMETERS ARE CONSTANT
Author(s) -
Houston Alasdair I.,
McNamara John M.,
Sumida Brian H.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
journal of the experimental analysis of behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1938-3711
pISSN - 0022-5002
DOI - 10.1901/jeab.1987.47-127
Subject(s) - schedule , constant (computer programming) , computer science , time allocation , measure (data warehouse) , mathematical optimization , mathematics , economics , data mining , management , programming language , operating system
We develop a simple model of switching between the initial links of a concurrent‐chain procedure. Behavior is determined by four parameters μ 1 , μ 2 , q 1 , and q 2 . The first two are the basic rates of switching from Schedule 1 and Schedule 2, respectively. The second two are the probabilities of leaving Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 after the corresponding terminal link has been completed. We show that for fixed values of these four parameters, the relative allocation on the initial links may change as a result of changes in initial‐link schedules. The effect can be quite large if the switching rates are low. An implication is that relative allocation is not necessarily a good measure of behavior.