Analysis of choice behavior on several types of concurrent scheduling paradigms has demonstrated that relative response rate is a reliable assay of the relative reinforcing value of choice alternatives. Despite the lawfulness of the relative rate measure, which frequently varies in a one-to-one fashion with relative reinforcement frequency, little is known about the dynamics of choice allocation. The first section of this proposal presents four experiments designed to determine, on a variety of choice paradigms, the appropriate level of analysis for choice performance: at the molar level of relative response rate, or at the more molecular level of the component response sequences. The second section of the proposed research presents a means of analyzing the relationship between responding on concurrent versus multiple scheduling procedures. An anticipated byproduct of this effort is an experimental evaluation of Herrnstein's (1970) important, new theory of response strength.
NIH ExPorter
NIH ExPorter