Effects of price, ‘openness’ of the economy and magnitude of the alternative reinforcer on responding for caffeinated coffee

Abstract

ZACNYConsumption of a commodity is influenced by various factors. This experiment examined three factors: unit price, 'openness' of the economy, and magnitude of an alternative reinforcer. Subjects earned caffeinated coffee and money by responding on concurrent random-ratio (RR) schedules. Coffee price was varied by changing the coffee schedule from RR1.3 to RR16, while holding the money schedule constant (RR4). Openness of the economy was varied by changing the amount of unearned coffee provided during a 2-h post-task period (0, 1.5 or 3 free cups). The magnitude of the alternative reinforcer was varied by allowing subjects to earn an average of $2.00 or $6.00 for responding on the money schedule. Number of responses for coffee and amount of coffee earned varied inversely with the openness of the economy, but were unaffected by the amount of money available. Analysing the demand for coffee as a function of coffee price revealed that coffee was a less elastic commodity when the economy was closed than when it was more open. Within the range of parameters tested here, price of caffeinated coffee and openness of the economy strongly affected responding in humans, whereas the magnitude of an alternative monetary reinforcer had only limited effects.

Reductions in ethanol, phencyclidine, and food-maintained behavior by naltrexone pretreatment in monkeys is enhanced by open economic conditions

“…Each point represents a mean of five (PCP and ethanol) or seven (food) monkeys over 5 days of stable behavior nificantly reduced ETOH-and food-but not PCP-maintained (break points and deliveries) performance. These results were consistent with reports of the effects of opening the economy for food in monkeys (Nader and Woolverton 1992) and coffee in human subjects (Mitchell et al 1995). The present results indicate that the effects of naltrexone pretreatment on ETOH-, PCP-, or food-reinforced responding were enhanced by providing supplemental access to the earned reinforcing substance (i.e., an open economy).…”

The effect of economy type on demand and preference for cocaine and saccharin in rats

“…In humans, post-session provision of cigarettes made demand for cigarettes more elastic during a work session where subjects mouse-clicked on ratio schedules for cigarettes (Mitchell et al, 1994, 1998). The same effect was observed in a similar study where coffee was the reinforcer instead of cigarettes (Mitchell et al, 1995). To date, no study has investigated the effect of manipulating the economy type of cocaine.…”

The effect of economy type on reinforcer value

“…Mitchell et al (1998) replicated this result with cigarettes in a later study. They also found, using a similar design, that demand for coffee was more elastic in an open coffee economy than in a closed economy (Mitchell et al, 1995).…”

“…Indeed, it is not hard to imagine a person in the Mitchell et al studies thinking "why work for cigarettes now and forgo money when I'll get free cigarettes after the session?" Perhaps the ability to reason in this way is what accounts for the clear and consistent effects of economy type in studies using human subjects (Mitchell, et al, 1994(Mitchell, et al, , 1995(Mitchell, et al, , 1998Roane et al, 2005).…”