A Behavioral Economic Analysis of Different Reinforcers: Sound-Clips Versus Points Exchangeable for Money

Human operant studies frequently use points exchangeable for money as reinforcers. Some studies employ more immediately consumable reinforcers to emulate properties of food reinforcers. This study examined demand for points/money and for sound-clips to compare their economic characteristics. Across four participants, demand was often higher and less elastic for points/money than for sounds. During subsequent exposures at each response requirement, demand for sounds often decreased to a greater degree than demand for points/money. Thus, sound-clips seem less durable than points/money across prices and across repeated exposure to the same price. Response rates for points/money were often higher than for sounds, suggesting that reinforcers that generate higher response rates may be less elastic than reinforcers that generate lower response rates.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of North Texas

Year dc:date

2000

Author dc:creator

• Alvey, Debi A.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hyten, Cloyd
• Rosales Ruíz, Jesús
• Smith, Richard G.

• Operant conditioning.
• Reinforcement (Psychology)
• operant studies
• points/money
• sound-clips
• reinforcers
• human operant experiments

Statement dc:rights

• Public
• Copyright
• Alvey, Debi A.
• Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

oclc: 47651672
https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2738/
ark: ark:/67531/metadc2738

OAI identifier oai:identifier

info:ark/67531/metadc2738