Allocating your Behavior

The Response Allocation Approach There are many possible activities that you could engage in – Sleeping, eating, drinking, sex, facebook – but these need be kept in balance i.e. optimally distributed The distribution of behaviors across some time period has to be balanced to ensure survival – Eat when hungry, drink when thirsty or sleep when tired – Note that some of these are mutually exclusive behaviors Experimental approaches to response allocation – The typical instrumental conditioning procedure puts constraint on activities Push the lever to get the food Complete a writing assignment to get a grade – If no restrictions are placed on these activities it is an unconstrained baseline

The Behavioral Bliss Point Note "Bliss Point" is a concept in economics regarding optimizing consumption of a product The unconstrained, preferred, optimal distribution of behavior which varies with circumstances, but is stable across time for a given circumstance. When instrumental contingencies are imposed – behavior is moved away from the behavioral bliss point – may make it impossible to regain baseline – behavioral bliss point can motivate behavior Imposing an Instrumental Contingency See Figure 7.7 – the bliss point is 60 min facebook and 15 min studying – With 1:1 instrumental contingency imposed need to study 60 min to get 60 min of facebook – Attempting to minimize deviations from the behavioral bliss point – However it is more complicates then this because there are a number of alternative activities that can substitute for facebook Such as music, movies, sleep.etc

The Principles of Learning and Behavior, 7e by Michael Domjan Copyright © 2015 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. FIGURE 7.7 Allocation of behavior between spending time on Facebook and studying. The open circle shows the optimal allocation, or behavioral bliss point, obtained when there are no constraints on either activity. The schedule line represents a schedule of reinforcement in which the student is required to study for the same amount of time that he or she spends on Facebook. Notice that once this schedule of reinforcement is imposed, it is no longer possible for the student to achieve the behavioral bliss point. The schedule deprives the student of time on Facebook and forces or motivates an increase in studying.

Application of Behavioral Bliss Point using Behavior therapy For children whom misbehave frequently See Figure 7.8 Note: this is an unusual example – use of parental social reinforcement to increase child’s prosocial behavior usually does not work – when parents pay attention to the child it simply reinforces the bad behavior – the child wants attention from the parents Bliss point is near 40 reinforcers with very low positive behavior – make positive behaviors contingent on attention from the parents If the contingency is set at 1:1 “solid line“ – Must have 20 positive behaviors to get 20 attentional reinforcers If the contingency is set at 2:1 “dotted line” – Must have 20 positive behaviors to get 10 attentional reinforcers – Equilibrium points indicated by solid dots on each line Point along the line that balances work with reward Will shift with changes in the contingency

The Principles of Learning and Behavior, 7e by Michael Domjan Copyright © 2015 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Behavioral Economics & Response Allocation “economics is the study of the allocation of behavior within a system of constraints” Bickle (1995 p. 258) Instrumental conditioning is similar to economics – Ability to make the responses is the “income” Available time and energy – Number of responses required: “effort” “cost” is the “price” Schedule of reinforcement determines "price" of the reinforcer – Number of reinforcers earned is the “amount purchased” Consumer Demand – Relationship between price and amount purchased – The demand curve and elasticity of demand See Figure 7.9 Curve A - high sensitivity (candy) – moderate price increase greatly reduces amount purchased Curve C - low sensitivity (gasoline) – moderate price increase reduces amount purchased only a little

The Principles of Learning and Behavior, 7e by Michael Domjan Copyright © 2015 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Example of Elasticity of Demand for Cigarettes Bickel 2006 Smokers making responses “pull a plunger” – Could earn 3 puffs on a cigarette, 5 cents or 25 cents – progressive fixed ratio schedule of FR30, FR60, FR100, FR300, FR600,... eventually FR6000 Figure 7.10 left side comparing cigarettes to 5 cents – Open circles demand curve for money – Closed circles demand curve for cigarettes Figure 7.10 right side comparing cigarettes to 25 cents – Open circles demand curve for money – Closed circles demand curve for cigarettes

The Principles of Learning and Behavior, 7e by Michael Domjan Copyright © 2015 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. FIGURE 7.10 Demand curves for cigarettes (solid circles) and money (open circles) with progressively larger fixed- ratio requirements. The number of reinforcers obtained, and the fixed-ratio requirements are both presented on logarithmic scales. (Based on Johnson & Bickel, 2006.)

Determinants of the Elasticity of Demand (1) Availability of substitutes – When alternatives are available at a reasonable price – renting a DVD instead of going to a movie gives some elasticity – however for gasoline not much elasticity because of few alternatives – Methadone maintenance program See Figure 7.11 as the price of methadone increased amount of drug consumed went down when an alternative hydromorphone was available at a fixed price demand for methadone was more elastic (2) Price range – increase in price has less effect at the low end of the price range – 10 percent increase in price of candy 50 to 55 cents at the low end $5.00 to $6.00 at the high end – This is responsible for the shape of the demand curves see figure 7.10 At some point (break point or price point) the work load (price) is too high for amount of reinforcer – similar to increasing the work load for operant schedules FR1 to FR5 at the low end, a five fold increase, less effect FR40 to FR80 at the high end, a doubling, more effect

The Principles of Learning and Behavior, 7e by Michael Domjan Copyright © 2015 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Determinants of the Elasticity of Demand (3) Income level – higher income decreases the effect of price increase – Similar to time and energy available to earn a reinforcer For instrumental behavior having more time and energy available decreases the effect of higher cost of getting the food – Less likely to make choose substitutes Children with a small budget switch to healthy food when the price of unhealthy food went up children with a large budget continue to purchase the more expensive unhealthy but preferred food (4) Linked to complementary commodity – hotdog buns are complementary when you buy hotdog if the price of hot dogs goes up both the sale of hot dogs and hot dog buns go down – consumption of cigarettes and alcohol are complementary in methadone maintenance programs methadone and cigarettes are complementary – for rats eating dry food and drinking water complementary

Contributions of the Response Allocation approach and behavioral economics Thinking about the cause of reinforcement as constraints on the free flow of behavior – instead of thinking about reinforcers as special kinds of stimuli or responses instrumental conditioning produces a new distribution or allocation of responses instrumental behavior cannot be studied only in well-controlled operant chambers – to study the complex examples of choice self-control and economic behavior – requires complex models that come from response allocation approach

Contributions of Behavioral Regulation Changed the concept of a reinforcer Changed the way instrumental conditioning procedures were viewed No fundamental distinction between instrumental and reinforcer responses Optimal distribution of behaviour determined by physiological needs, ecological niche and species-specific response tendencies Emphasis on a broader behavioral context for understanding instrumental behaviour