The relationship between feeding rate and patch choice.
Reinforcement rate per minute, not item size, controls choice.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team let lab rats choose between two feeding spots. One spot gave more food per minute, even if each pellet was tiny.
They counted where the rats spent their time. The question: do rats care more about speed or pellet size?
What they found
The rats picked the patch that delivered the highest grams per minute. Bigger pellets did not win over faster delivery.
The result fits the matching law: time spent tracks reinforcement rate.
How this fits with other research
Mellgren (1982) saw the same idea earlier. Once position bias was removed, rats also followed food amount.
Morris et al. (2022) stretched the rule to children with autism. Social minutes matched social reinforcement rate, showing the law works beyond rat feeding.
LeFrancois et al. (1993) seems to clash. Pigeons liked bigger grain, but the key is dimension: R studied single-pellet size, while F et al. looked at overall rate. Rate, not size, drives choice when both patches run together.
Why it matters
When you set up reinforcement schedules, think speed first. A tiny edible delivered quickly can beat a large one that takes longer. Check grams or tokens per minute across choices, not just item size. This keeps the client’s time allocation where you want it.
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Join Free →Time each reinforcer delivery for one day; pick the option with the higher items-per-minute to boost engagement.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Rats in a laboratory foraging simulation searched for sequential opportunities to feed in two patches that differed in the rate at which food pellets were delivered (controlled by fixed-interval schedules) and in the size of the pellets. The profitability of feeding in each patch was calculated in terms of time (grams per minute) and in terms of effort (grams per bar press). These values were the result of the imposed fixed interval, the size of the pellets, and the rate at which the rats pressed the bar in each condition. The rats ate more food and larger meals, but not more frequent meals, at the patch offering the higher rate of food consumption, calculated as grams per minute. The relative intake at any patch was a function of the relative rate of intake during meals at that patch compared to the other patch. Rats respond to explicit manipulations of feeding time in the same manner as they respond to manipulations of feeding effort.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1991 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1991.55-79