QUANTITATIVE HEDONISM^*

Publisher Summary

This chapter describes the different aspects of quantitative hedonism. In an experiment, hungry pigeons were trained to peck at either of 2 disks side-by-side on the wall of an experimental chamber measuring a foot cubed. Pecking at the disks produced some pigeon feed. The actual inter-reinforcement times depend on how soon the subject responds after an interval in the series times out. It is found that because the pigeons almost always pecked rapidly as compared to the scheduled intervals of reinforcement, the difference between the minimum and the actual intervals was negligible. The schedules for the two disks were mutually independent so that reinforcement for pecking one disk had no effect on the schedule for the other. At any given moment, there might be reinforcement due for pecking at neither, either, or both disks. Once an interval timed out for one disk, it remained so until the pigeon collected the reinforcement or until the end of the day's experimental session, which typically lasted about an hour and a half. The sole connection between the two schedules was that their average intervals were chosen to keep the maximum possible rate of reinforcements constant at 40/h.