TY - JOUR
T1 - Aspartame demand in rhesus monkeys
T2 - Effects of volume and concentration manipulations
AU - Wade-Galuska, Tammy
AU - Galuska, Chad M.
AU - Winger, Gail
AU - Woods, James H.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by USPHS grants AA 013713 and DA 015449. We would like to thank Amy Hall, Sean Gallagher, and Graham Flory for technical assistance and Sarah Leinwand for research assistance. We also would like to thank Steven R. Hursh for reanalyzing previously reported results using the exponential demand model.
PY - 2007/1/10
Y1 - 2007/1/10
N2 - Three rhesus monkeys' lever presses produced aspartame-sweetened water according to a fixed-ratio schedule. The response requirement was increased across sessions and a demand-function analysis was used to assess the reinforcing effectiveness of different magnitudes of aspartame by manipulating reinforcer duration (1 and 3 s) in Phase 1 and concentration (0.3, 0.5, 0.7, and 1.0 mg/ml) in Phase 2. When duration was manipulated, the number of aspartame deliveries was mainly a function of the response requirement rather than unit price (responses/duration), suggesting that changes in duration did not significantly affect the reinforcing effectiveness of aspartame. When concentration was manipulated and the lowest concentration excluded, consumption was best described by unit price (responses/concentration) in two monkeys and by the response requirement in the third. Although results from the concentration manipulation provide some evidence that consumption was modulated by unit price, the results overall suggest that scalar equivalence does not exist between the components of unit price; specifically, the response requirement exerted a larger influence than duration or concentration on total consumption. Finally, a normalized demand analysis revealed that aspartame is a more elastic commodity than food and drug reinforcers.
AB - Three rhesus monkeys' lever presses produced aspartame-sweetened water according to a fixed-ratio schedule. The response requirement was increased across sessions and a demand-function analysis was used to assess the reinforcing effectiveness of different magnitudes of aspartame by manipulating reinforcer duration (1 and 3 s) in Phase 1 and concentration (0.3, 0.5, 0.7, and 1.0 mg/ml) in Phase 2. When duration was manipulated, the number of aspartame deliveries was mainly a function of the response requirement rather than unit price (responses/duration), suggesting that changes in duration did not significantly affect the reinforcing effectiveness of aspartame. When concentration was manipulated and the lowest concentration excluded, consumption was best described by unit price (responses/concentration) in two monkeys and by the response requirement in the third. Although results from the concentration manipulation provide some evidence that consumption was modulated by unit price, the results overall suggest that scalar equivalence does not exist between the components of unit price; specifically, the response requirement exerted a larger influence than duration or concentration on total consumption. Finally, a normalized demand analysis revealed that aspartame is a more elastic commodity than food and drug reinforcers.
KW - Aspartame
KW - Behavioral economics
KW - Demand function
KW - Reinforcement
KW - Rhesus monkey
KW - Unit price
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33845217162&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33845217162&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.beproc.2006.09.015
DO - 10.1016/j.beproc.2006.09.015
M3 - Article
C2 - 17095168
AN - SCOPUS:33845217162
SN - 0376-6357
VL - 74
SP - 71
EP - 78
JO - Behavioural Processes
JF - Behavioural Processes
IS - 1
ER -