CONTENTS
Preface = xi
Chapter 1 Introduction = 1
1.1 On using animal experiments to understand human behavior = 3
1.2 Summary of chapter contents = 5
Chapter 2 Commodity-choice behavior I: Some initial tests of the theory = 8
2.1 Commodity-choice theory: Some basic concepts = 9
2.1a Consumer preferences: Indifference curves and substitutability = 9
2.1b The budget constraint and optimal choice = 11
2.1c Income-compensated price changes = 11
2.1d Income effects = 14
2.1e Income-constant price changes = 14
2.2 Experimental procedures = 17
2.3 Income-compensated price changes: Tests of the fundamental law of demand = 19
2.3a Essential-commodity experiments = 20
2.3b Nonessential-commodity experiments = 21
2.3c Substitutability and variability over time = 22
2.4 Ordinary (uncompensated) price changes = 24
2.4a Normal goods = 24
2.4b Inferior／Giffen goods = 25
2.5 The relationship of economic demand theory to optimal foraging theory = 28
2.5a Predator's choice with food preferences = 30
2.5b Predator's choice without food preferences: The marginal value theorem = 32
2.5c Predator's choices without food preferences: Choosing between ratio schedules of reinforcement = 34
2.6 Summing up = 35
Appendix: The marginal value theorem with a time constraint = 37
Chapter 3 Commodity-choice behavior II: Tests of competing motivational processes and the representative consumer hypothesis = 47
3.1 Random behavior models = 48
3.1a Model specification = 48
3.1b Initial test results = 51
3.2 Matching law = 51
3.2a Model specification = 51
3.2b Successful applications of the matching law and related predictions from consumer-demand theory = 54
3.2c Extensions of matching to qualitatively different reinforcers = 57
3.3 Bliss points versus minimum needs = 61
3.3a The generalized minimum-distance hypothesis = 61
3.3b The generalized minimum-needs hypothesis = 63
3.3c Test procedures = 65
3.3d Test results = 66
3.3e Summary and evaluation of competing motivational hypotheses = 68
3.4 The representative consumer hypothesis = 71
3.5 Incentive mechanisms: The case of brain stimulation = 73
Chapter 4 Labor-supply behavior I: Initial tests of the theory with some public policy implications = 79
4.1 Labor-supply theory: Extending consumer-choice theory = 80
4.1a The budget constraint = 80
4.1b Indifference curves and optimal choice = 82
4.1c Income-compensated wage changes = 82
4.1d Income-constant wage changes = 83
4.2 Behavior in the laboratory: Results from prior studies = 86
4.2a Backward-bendingr labor supply curves = 86
4.2b Demand for income as a function of effort price = 87
4.2c Responses to nominal wage-rate cnanges holding real wages constant = 87
4.2d Choice between alternative-jobs with differing wage rates = 90
4.2e Effects of unearned income on labor supply = 90
4.3 Income-compensated wage-changes: Procedures = 90
4.3a Open versus closed economies = 91
4.3b Income-compensated wage decreases with pigeon workers = 91
4.3c Income-compensated wage decreases with rat workers = 92
4.4 Income-compensated wage changes: Results = 93
4.4a Income-compensated wage decreases = 93
4.4b Income-compensated wage increases = 95
4.5 Animal labor supply and the incentive effects of public welfare programs = 101
4.5a Static considerations: Effects of a negative income tax = 101
4.5b Dynamic considerations: The welfare trap hypothesis = 103
4.6 Animal labor and supply-side economics = 106
4.7 Summing up = 106
Chapter 5 Labor-supply behavior II: Tests of competing motivational processes and earnings distributions for animal workers = 109
5.1 Random behavior models = 109
5.2 The matching law = 110
5.2a Matching and the shape of the labor-supply curve = 110
5.2b Differential response rates on interval and ratio schedules of reinforcement = 112
5.2c Concurrent VI-VR schedules = 114
5.2d Progressive ratio schedules = 120
5.3 Bliss points versus minimum needs = 121
5.3a Some initial test results = 123
5.3b Evidence for the possibility that both hypotheses work well = 124
5.3c Further observations on the MN hypothesis = 124
5.3d Postscript on the representative consumer hypothesis = 127
5.4 Earnings distributions for animal workers = 128
Chapter 6 Choices over uncertain outcomes = 134
6.1 Decisions under uncertainty: Some basic concepts = 135
6.1a First-degree stochastic dominance = 136
6.1b Probability learning experiments: Tests of stochastic dominance = 136
6.1c Test of stochastic dominance using our discrete-trials choice procedures = 137
6.2 Risk preferences over positive payoffs: Response to reward variability = 139
6.2a Large variability payoffs = 141
6.2b Low variability in payoffs and skewed distributions = 143
6.3 Risk preferences under varying levels of resource availability = 145
6.3a Responses to varying resource levels = 146
6.3b Tests of competing motivational hypotheses = 150
6.4 Tests of expected utility theory and the fanning-out hypothesis = 152
6.4a Testing for Allais-type violations of expected utility theory = 152
6.4b Tests of the fanning-out hypothesis = 156
6.5 Risk preference in the face of aversive outcomes = 162
6.5a Relationship to human's risk loving in the face of losses = 166
6.6 Search and information acquisition in stochastic environments = 167
Chapter 7 Intertemporal choice = 173
7.1 Intertemporal choice theory: Basic economic concepts and their relationship to reinforcement theory = 174
7.1a The standard economic model and its relationship to the matching law = 176
7.2 Reward size, delay, and choice = 177
7.2a Experimental procedures = 177
7.2b Experimental results and discussion = 178
7.2c Implications of rejecting the standard economic model = 180
7.2d Implications of positive discounting for optimal foraging: Constraint or adaptation? = 181
7.3 Time bias under varying income levels: The cycle-of-poverty hypothesis = 182
7.3a Experimental treatment conditions = 183
7.3b Experimental results and discussion = 184
7.4 Toward a more molecular theory: Multiperiod models of consumer choice = 188
7.4a Structure of the model = 188
7.4b Static behavioral relationships = 190
7.4c Dynamic aspects of behavior = 191
7.5 Time discounting in schedules of reinforcement: Responding on VI versus VR schedules and on progressive ratio schedules = 192
7.6 Time discounting in applied behavioral research = 195
7.6a The effects of time on self-administered drug consumption = 197
Chapter 8 Summing up = 200
8.1 Tests of individual choice theory = 200
8.2 Alternative explanations = 203
8.3 Social policy implications = 205
Bibliography = 207
Index = 221
