THE APPLICATION OF THE MATCHING LAW TO SIMPLE RATIO SCHEDULES

Abstract

To account for performance under simple ratio sched- ules, Pear (1975) derived the following equation from the matching law (Herrnstein, 1970):where P is number of responses, k is a constant, n is the average number of responses required for one reinforcement, and R. is the reinforcement for other alternatives.2This paper considers briefly the empirical adequacy of this equation in predicting responding un- der ratio schedules.Equation 1 predicts two effects of questionable generality: (a) responding should decrease as the average value of the ratio increases until (b) at some value of the ratio, responding goes to zero.The prediction of an inverse relation between number of responses and ratio size appears contradicted by considerable data.