The Economics of the Law of Effect

Collier, George; Johnson, Deanne F.; Hill, Wendy L.; Kaufman, Lynn W.

doi:10.1901/jeab.1986.46-113

Cited by 189 publications

(84 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Thus, using a lever press operant, Bauman (1991) reported that demand decreased only slightly up to about FR100 in rats; at higher ratios, demand showed greater individual differences. Similar data were found by Collier et al (1986) and Hursh et al (1988). Bauman (1991) showed that an imposed delay equivalent to the time for FR produced similar effects, suggesting that time rather than effort was the currency of demand, a conclusion also reached by Collier et al (2002).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

“…Under continuous access conditions, total intake is distributed in discrete meals of variable sizes (Smith, 2004). Collier and his colleagues (Collier, 2005;Collier, Hirsch, & Hamlin, 1972;Collier, Johnson, Hill, & Kaufman, 1986;Collier, Johnson, & Mathis, 2002;Collier & Rovee-Collier, 1981) have shown that manipulation of consummatory cost (equivalent to unit cost) does not produce large changes in the size and number of meals taken per day. In contrast, they found that very modest increases in effort that emulate travel to a food patch (procurement cost) led to large declines in number of feeding episodes and an inverse increase in average meal size, while total intake was relatively conserved.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Food demand functions in mice

Chaney

Rowland

2008

Appetite

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Male mice (mus musculus) of a mixed B6/129 background were used to establish food demand functions in a closed economy. The mice lived continuously in operant chambers and worked for 20-mg nutritionally complete food pellets. First, a series of incrementing fixed ratio (FR) costs per pellet were imposed, and the results showed that demand declined as unit price increased. The number of meals taken per day was dependent on the temporal criterion used to define a meal, but the number of meals did not change across the FR series. Next, a series of incrementing progressive ratio (PR) schedules were used, and a meal was defined by a programmed schedule reset interval. Total food intake declined slightly, and the mean meal size also decreased, across the series. Lastly, a nose poke response requirement was imposed as the procurement cost to activate a lever press device for food; under these conditions the meal number changed dramatically as the procurement cost was increased, whereas total intake declined only modestly. These data show in mice that large changes in unit price or consummatory cost have relatively small effects on demand and meal patterns, but small amounts of foraging (procurement) cost have very large effects.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food demand functions in mice

Chaney

Rowland

2008

Appetite

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“…He found that animals are in fact quite flexible with regard to specifics of the parameters of food taking, readily adjusting their daily pattern of meal size and meal number to accommodate environmental constraints, yet always attaining a schedule that allows maintenance (i.e., regulation) of body weight (Collier 1986;Collier et al 1986;Collier et al 1999). Collier viewed animals as economists that constantly balance the procurement of food with numerous other behavioral activities, yet still defending body weight.…”

Section: Regulation Vs Control: Body Adiposity Vs Food Intakementioning

confidence: 99%

Homeostasis: Beyond Curt Richter

Woods

Ramsay

2007

Appetite

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Curt Richter introduced behavioral control into the concept of homeostasis, thereby opening entire fields of research. The prevailing dogma, and the techniques he used, conspired to lead Richter and others to interpret regulation in strict negative feedback terms. Although this point of view continues to be embraced by many contemporary biologists, we believe that prevailing sentiment favors a broader view in which organisms integrate anticipatory pre-emptive control over regulated variables whenever possible.

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“…When rats live continuously in experimental chambers with no food other than that produced by responding, their daily response rates increase as the value of a fixed ratio (FR) schedule is increased from CRF to FR240, so that roughly constant food intake is maintained (Collier, Hirsch, & Hamlin, 1972; see also Collier, Johnson, Hill, & Kaufman, 1986). This situation is referred to as a closed economy (see, e.g., Collier, 1983;Hursh, 1984).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term contrafreeloading in rats during continuous sessions

Rutter

Nevin

1990

Bull. Psychon. Soc.

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Two rats lived in experimental chambers with continuous access to free food. Leverpressing was reinforced with food on various ratio schedules. Both rats maintained leverpressing under these conditions for several months; however, leverpressing was not an increasing function of the ratio, as previously found for rats in continuous sessions without alternative food. Instead, the function was nonmonotonic or decreasing, and the proportion offood obtained by leverpressing decreased continuously as the ratio increased. These findings are consistent with an economic analysis of the elasticity of demand.In this study, we explored two apparently unrelated problems: contrafreeloading, defined as the establishment and maintenance of operant behavior by food reinforcement despite the simultaneous availability of free food; and performance on ratio schedules in closed economies.Contrafreeloading was first demonstrated in rats by Jensen (1963), who studied food-deprived rats in single 40-min test sessions and showed that leverpressing on a continuous reinforcement (CRF) schedule in the presence of free food was an increasing function of the number of reinforcers before the free food was introduced. Similar procedures have generally been employed in subsequent research, but it is not necessary for rats to have experience with response-contingent reinforcement or to be tested in discrete sessions with controlled deprivation in order for them to exhibit contrafreeloading. When naive rats were continuously housed in operant chambers with both free and response-contingent food available on CRF, leverpressing was acquired and maintained for 30 or 100 days (Coburn & Tarte, 1976;Kopp, Bourland, Tarte, & Vernon, 1976).When rats live continuously in experimental chambers with no food other than that produced by responding, their daily response rates increase as the value of a fixed ratio (FR) schedule is increased from CRF to FR240, so that roughly constant food intake is maintained (Collier, Hirsch, & Hamlin, 1972; see also Collier, Johnson, Hill, & Kaufman, 1986). This situation is referred to as a closed economy (see, e.g., Collier, 1983;Hursh, 1984). The hallmark of a closed economy is that the experimenter does not arrange extraexperimental feeding, so that the subject regulates its own deprivation level. This aspect of a closed economy is maintained even if free food is continuously available within the experimental environment. We therefore examined performance in a closed Correspondence should be addressed to Sandra Rutter, Department of Psychology, Conant Hall, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824-3567.Copyright 1990 Psychonomic Society, Inc. 556 economy with free food available, and asked whether rats would adjust their response rates to obtain a constant number of response-contingent food reinforcers when ratio schedules were varied, as they do when there is no other source of food. METHOD Subjects and ApparatusTwo male Harvard-strain brown rats served. They each lived continuously in a standard Lehigh Valley op...

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The Economics of the Law of Effect

Cited by 189 publications

References 52 publications

Food demand functions in mice

Food demand functions in mice

Homeostasis: Beyond Curt Richter

Long-term contrafreeloading in rats during continuous sessions

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