These results show that manipulating economy type can affect cocaine and non-drug reinforcers differently. Opening the saccharin economy decreased saccharin's value. Opening the cocaine economy did not decrease cocaine's value, but instead led to a devaluation of saccharin. These results suggest that cocaine choice may be determined not only by the reinforcers immediately available, but also by those reinforcers' broader contexts of availability.
According to behavioral economics, reinforcer value should be lower in an open economy than in a closed economy. An animal model was used to determine how economy type affected the value of heroin and saccharin. In a first phase, separate groups of rats worked for heroin or saccharin. The price of these reinforcers increased over sessions. For rats in the open heroin or open saccharin economies, the work period of each session was followed by a postwork period where a cheaper source of heroin or saccharin was available for three hours. For rats in the closed economies, the work period was their only opportunity to obtain the reinforcer. Rats in the open saccharin economy worked less hard to defend consumption of saccharin as price increased than rats in the closed saccharin economy. That is, opening the saccharin economy reduced its essential value. In contrast, economy type had no effect on heroin’s essential value. In a second phase, rats were allowed to choose between heroin and saccharin. The majority of rats strongly preferred saccharin over heroin regardless of economy type. The finding that economy type changed the essential value of saccharin, but not heroin, adds to previous findings suggesting that the value of drug reinforcers is unaffected by future drug availability. The difference in effect of economy type on drug versus nondrug reinforcers could be relevant to addiction.
Rationale:In a previous study investigating choice between heroin and a non-drug alternative in animals, reductions in income (i.e., choices/day) caused the percentage of income spent on heroin to progressively decrease. In contrast, another study found that humans with opioid use disorder spent the majority of their income on heroin even though they had little income. Comparison of these two studies suggests that the seemingly conflicting results could be explained by differences in the underlying economy types of the choice alternatives. Objective: The present experiment tested the hypothesis that the effect of income changes on choice between heroin and a non-drug alternative depends on economy type. Methods: Rats chose between heroin and saccharin under three income levels. For the Closed group, the choice session was the only opportunity to obtain these reinforcers. For the Heroin Open group and the Saccharin Open group, choice sessions were followed by 3-h periods of unlimited access to heroin or saccharin, respectively. Results: As income decreased, the Closed and Heroin Open groups, but not the Saccharin Open group, spent an increasingly greater percentage of income on saccharin than on heroin. The Saccharin Open group, compared to the other groups, spent a greater percentage of income on heroin as income decreased. Conclusions: Results confirm that the effects of income and economy type can interact and this may explain the apparently discrepant results of earlier studies.More generally, findings suggest that situations where heroin choice has little consequence for consumption of non-drug alternatives may promote heroin use.
Kinect merupakan perangkat sensor motion capture yang mulanya dipakai untuk video game controller, tapi kini digunakan untuk berbagai macam keperluan yang membutuhkan sensor gerak. Kinect relatif murah dan mudah untuk didapatkan dan dipakai sebagai motion capture untuk menggerakkan karakter digital 3D. Dalam penelitian ini, uji coba dilakukan terhadap kemampuan Kinect dalam set-up sistem motion capture yang sesederhana mungkin dan mudah untuk dapat diakses oleh awam. Dari hasil uji coba didapatkan hasil dan saran atau anjuran pemakaian dan set-up yang paling efektif untuk dapat menggerakkan sebuah karakter digital 3D. Diharapkan hasil ini dapat mendorong penggunaan potensi Kinect lebih maksimal.
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