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. 1977 Mar;27(2):371–380. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1977.27-371

Demand for food on fixed-ratio schedules as a function of the quality of concurrently available reinforcement1

S E G Lea, T J Roper
PMCID: PMC1333601  PMID: 16811999

Abstract

Six rats lever pressed for food on concurrent fixed-ratio schedules, in a two-compartment chamber. In one compartment, mixed diet pellets were delivered on fixed-ratio schedules of 1, 6, 11, and 16; in the other, either no food was delivered, or sucrose or mixed diet pellets were delivered on fixed-ratio 8. The number of pellets obtained in the first compartment declined as a function of fixed-ratio size in that compartment in all three conditions, but the decline was greatest overall with mixed diet pellets concurrently available in the other compartment, and least with no food concurrently available. The result is discussed in terms of economic demand theory, and is consistent with the prediction that elasticity of demand for a commodity (defined in operant terms as the ratio of the proportionate change in number of reinforcements per session to the proportionate change in fixed-ratio size) is greater the more substitutable for that commodity are any concurrently available commodities.

Keywords: demand function, substitution effect, concurrent schedules, quantitatively different reinforcers, fixed ratio, postreinforcement pause, behavioral contrast, lever press, rats

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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