Melioration revisited: a systematic replication of Vaughan (1981)
Local payoff grabs choice even when it hurts overall gains—arrange schedules so the best long-term option also feels best right now.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Bland et al. (2018) copied Vaughan’s 1981 pigeon test. Birds pecked two keys. Each key paid off on its own clock. The clocks changed every few minutes. Researchers watched which key the bird hit most.
The goal was to see if pigeons pick the key that feels best right now, even if it earns less food overall.
What they found
The birds chased the key with the higher local payoff. When that key became the poorer long-term bet, they still stayed. Their choice flipped only after the local rates reversed.
In short, pigeons follow the moment, not the big picture.
How this fits with other research
DeCarlo (1985) saw the same pigeon bias. Birds matched time to local rate even when it paid less. The new study adds clean reversals, showing the habit flips with the schedule.
Johnson et al. (1991) found rats also go for the patch that feeds fastest per minute. Same rule, new species.
McSweeney et al. (2000) moved the math to kids with ADHD. Methylphenidate made their choices fit the matching law better. The bird data remind us that local rate is a strong force before any drug is given.
Why it matters
Your client will chase the option that delivers the quickest payoff right now, even if it blocks bigger gains later. Build schedules so the long-term best choice also feels best in the moment, or add brief delays to level the field.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Organisms that behave so as to forfeit a relatively higher overall rate of reinforcement in favor of a relatively lower rate are said to engage in suboptimal choice. Suboptimal choice has been linked with maladaptive behavior in humans. Melioration theory offers one explanatory framework for suboptimal choice. Melioration theory suggests behavior is controlled by differences in local reinforcer rates between alternatives. Vaughan (1981) arranged two experimental conditions in which maximizing the overall rate of reinforcement required behavior that was compatible, or incompatible, with melioration. Vaughan found pigeons allocated more time to a locally richer alternative even when doing so resulted in suboptimal choice. However, Vaughan did not show whether these effects could systematically reverse and did not provide within-session data to show that choice across short time spans remains under the control of differences in local reinforcer rates. The present study used pigeons to replicate and extend Vaughan's findings. We investigated shifts in overall- and within-session choice across repeated conditions, according to arranged local contingencies. Behavior systematically followed changes in local contingencies for most pigeons. Within-session data suggests that, providing differences in local reinforcer rates are discriminated, pigeons will allocate more time to a locally richer alternative, even if this leads to suboptimal choice. These findings facilitate the more confident use of similar procedures that investigate how melioration contributes to suboptimal choice.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 2018 · doi:10.1002/jeab.327