ABSTRACT

This chapter explains how to study choice and preference in the laboratory and discusses the relative rates of reinforcement and behavioral choice. It inquires about optimal foraging, behavioral economics, and self-control. The chapter investigates the matching relation on a single schedule of reinforcement. It focuses on behavioral neuroscience and concurrent schedules of reinforcement. Concurrent schedules of reinforcement have received considerable research attention because the two-key procedures may be used as an analytical tool for understanding choice and preference. The teacher's intervention will increase the students' on-task behavior only if the rate of reinforcement by the teacher is higher than another ratio schedule controlling inappropriate behavior. The proportional matching equation suggested to Richard Herrnstein that operant behavior on a single-response key is determined by rate of reinforcement for that response relative to all sources of reinforcement. A behavioral economic model can describe the allocation of behavior between commodities such as food and physical activity.