now we run into the matching law the
kryptonite to behavior analysts because
it involves an equation really the rule
is if Excel doesn't do it we don't do it
and I don't know how to set up a formula
for matching law in Excel but the gist
of the equation really says that you'll
get a proportional number of responses
allocated to different discriminative
stimuli different signals in the
environment based on the perspective
rates of reinforcement so your big R's
are your responses your little arms or
your rates of reinforcement so if you
have a student in a classroom and the
student screams really loud frequently
throughout the day one of the staff
members in the room a hundred percent of
the time provides attention to that
screaming another staff member when
they're working with that student
provides attention let's say 50 percent
of the time you're gonna see with you
know and I'll talk about bias in a
second and generalize matching law
you're gonna see more allocated
responses to the higher rate of
reinforcement proportionally to the two
rates meaning twice as often they're
going to allocate responses towards one
individual that individual at one
hundred percent then they do with the
individual for 50% matching law is all
about different choices and signals in
the environment Herrnstein did an
amazing article back in 1961 about two
keys with concur and offering schedules
meaning that each key was paired with a
different schedule of reinforcement but
they ran simultaneously he discovered
that a pigeon would allocate its key
pecking responses proportionally to the
rate of reinforcement provided for each
schedule how do we apply that today how
do we see these things really all life
is is a whole bunch of simultaneously
functioning even though it's redundant
current operand schedules that's what we
have to do every single day we have a
million concurrent operand schedules
running each person can be a different
SD or discriminative stimulus for a
different schedule of reinforcement I've
got an example here with three doors
different colors hopefully you're not
colorblind how many people would pick
the blue door that's on the left here
how many people pick the blue door and
Ivan told you what's behind the doors
myself I picked the purple door but
that's got to do with my history of
reinforcement with my wife I know she
loves purple
I say purple door she's happy I'm happy
GPS is another really good application
of the matching law in everyday life
Google Maps is like changed how we do
things I know as a consultant being on
the road a lot I am totally dependent on
Google Maps and when it doesn't work for
five seconds or I lose my signal I'm
done I'm totally finished forget about
it but it wasn't always this way with
GPS I don't know if some of you remember
some of the initial GPS systems they
were garbage they were really really bad
I remember it was about six or seven
years ago my wife would that my
then-girlfriend but now my wife we were
driving up the the Florida coast and it
kept on telling me to turn right into
the ocean
kids you know I'm just like I can't I'm
not gonna drive into the ocean the early
GPS systems got real confused around
water I didn't know what was going on so
I just had to kind of wing it and we're
going I'm like I don't know what to do
so now they're even more specific I love
how it tells me this routes five minutes
faster and I have learned to trust
Google Maps with my life if I think I
know better I'm wrong but you'll see
there's certain circumstances and times
throughout the day or places that you're
going that you might rely or use or
allocate your responses to Google Maps
going home from work almost every day
especially if it's around rush hour I'm
gonna use Google Maps I know I need
every edge I can get to get home a
little bit faster in the morning not so
much I know my way to work I know the
traffic patterns from my learning
history I know that I'm not gonna
usually encounter a ton of traffic on my
way I might pull it up once I encounter
traffic but that's another SD so you're
gonna see that
we allocate our responses based on our
learning history and and the level and
rate of reinforcement
