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RESPONSE DEPRIVATION, REINFORCEMENT, AND ECONOMICS
Author(s) -
Allison James
Publication year - 1993
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.1993.60-129
Subject(s) - reinforcement , schedule , psychology , conditioned response , response inhibition , property (philosophy) , operant conditioning , social psychology , economics , neuroscience , statistics , cognition , mathematics , conditioning , management , philosophy , epistemology , classical conditioning
Reinforcement of an instrumental response results not from a special kind of response consequence known as a reinforcer, but from a special kind of schedule known as a response‐deprivation schedule. Under the requirements of a response‐deprivation schedule, the baseline rate of the instrumental response permits less than the baseline rate of the contingent response. Because reinforcement occurs only if the schedule deprives the organism of the contingent response, reinforcement cannot result from any intrinsic property of the contingent response or any property relative to the instrumental response. Two typical effects of response‐deprivation schedules—facilitation of the instrumental response and suppression of the contingent response—are discussed in terms of economic concepts and models of instrumental performance. It is suggested that response deprivation makes the contingent response function as an economic good, the instrumental response as currency.