Bickel, W. K., & Madden, G. J. (1999).
Similar consumption and responding across single and multiple sources of drug.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior,
72, 299-316.
Two experiments were conducted to assess whether total response
output and total consumption would be similar when drugs are
available from single and multiple sources of reinforcement, as
predicted by behavioral economics. In Experiment 1,
cigarette-deprived smokers were exposed to a concurrent-chains
schedule in which equal fixed-ratio schedules served as the
initial links, and different reinforcer magnitudes (i.e., number
of cigarette puffs) were arranged across alternatives. After the
session, obtained unit price was calculated and imposed in the
next session when a different number of puffs was available
according to a single fixed-ratio schedule. Thus, the unit price
at which cigarette puffs could be earned was yoked within
subjects across the single and concurrent-chains schedules. When
plotted as a function of unit price, similar consumption and
response rates were usually obtained across these schedules.
Experiment 2 addressed a weakness of Experiment 1, namely, that
responding was allocated exclusively to the larger reinforcer
magnitude in concurrent-chains conditions, and therefore this
schedule may have functioned as a single schedule. In Experiment
2, subjects were instructed to alternate responding between the
two alternative schedules. Instructions produced approximately
equal response allocation between the two alternatives. Again,
similar consumption and response rates were observed across the
single and instructed concurrent-chains schedules. These findings
are discussed in the context of direct effects and behavioral
economics perspectives of drug self- administration.
Key words: behavioral economics, drug self administration, direct
effects, satiation, unit price, plunger pull, humans