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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2022 Nov 14.
Published in final edited form as: Eat Behav. 2018 Apr 3;29:120–127. doi: 10.1016/j.eatbeh.2018.03.008

Table 1.

Measures of demand for food and reinforcing value

Measure Definition
Demand for food
 Intensity Number of purchases made when food was free or minimal price (e.g. $0.01)
 Pmax Price point for maximal expenditure
 Omax Maximal expenditure (maximum purchases * price)
 Breakpoint First price where no purchases were made
 Demand Elasticity Quantitative non-linear relationship (decaying slope) between purchasing and price
 Relative Demand DemandHED / (DemandHED + DemandLED)
Reinforcing value of food
 Breakpoint Final reinforcement schedule completed
 Relative Reinforcing value BreakpointHED / (BreakpointHED + BreakpointLED)