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INCOME AND CHOICE BETWEEN DIFFERENT GOODS
Author(s) -
Shurtleff David,
WarrenBoulton Frederick R.,
Silberberg Alan
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.1987.48-263
Subject(s) - reinforcement , saccharin , matching law , matching (statistics) , preference , schedule , statistics , psychology , range (aeronautics) , interval (graph theory) , session (web analytics) , econometrics , social psychology , mathematics , audiology , computer science , medicine , engineering , combinatorics , world wide web , aerospace engineering , operating system
In Experiment 1, 3 rats chose between two simultaneously operating variable‐interval schedules, one of which provided saccharin water and the other, food. In five conditions, the absolute (and equal) reinforcement rates provided by the pair of equal‐valued schedules were manipulated in the range of 36 to 240 per hour. Experiment 2 was identical to Experiment 1 except that these schedules operated successively, arranged by requiring the rat to stand on the side of the chamber correlated with each schedule. Food/saccharin choice ratios were inversely related to reinforcement rate in both experiments, although this effect was stronger in Experiment 2. When delivery rates were high, preference for food over saccharin often reversed as the session progressed. The results were interpretable in terms of economic accounts of choice (e.g., the minimum‐needs hypothesis), as well as in terms of traditional psychological accounts (e.g., matching theory).