The Matching Law

Papers in Psychology and Economics

Richard J. Herrnstein

Edited by Howard Rachlin

Edited by David I. Laibson

    Preface

    Editors' Note

    Introduction

    Part I. The Matching Law: Against Reflexology

    1. Relative and Absolute Strength of Response as a Function of Frequency of Reinforcement

    2. Toward a Law of Response Strength

    3. Derivatives of Matching

    4. Melioration as Behavioral Dynamism

    Part II. Self-Control

    5. Choice and Delay of Reinforcement

    6. Self-Control as Response Strength

    7. On the Functions Relating Delay, Reinforcer Value, and Behavior

    8. Lost and Found: One Self

    9. A Theory of Addiction

    Part III. Against Optimization

    10. Stability, Melioration, and Natural Selection

    11. Rational Choice Theory: Necessary but Not Sufficient

    12. Behavior, Reinforcement, and Utility

    13. Experiments on Stable Suboptimality in Individual Behavior

    14. Melioration: A Theory of Distributed Choice

    15. Preferences or Principles: Alternative Guidelines for Choice

    References

    Index

  • Cover: The Matching Law
  • A photo of the author

Richard J. Herrnstein was Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University.

Howard Rachlin is Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

David I. Laibson is Assistant Professor of Economics at Harvard University.