The matching law provides a quantitative description of social time allocation in children with autism
The matching law turns simple stopwatch data into a precise gauge of an autistic child's social motivation.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Morris et al. (2022) asked if the matching law can describe how autistic children split their social time. They tracked how eight kids divided attention between adults and toys during free-play sessions. Simple stopwatches gave the raw data; no extra equipment or drugs were used.
What they found
The matching law fit the children's choices almost perfectly. Time spent talking to or looking at adults rose and fell with the rate of adult attention they received. The formula explained more of the variance than older yes-or-no checklists.
How this fits with other research
DeCarlo (1985) saw the same math work with pigeons pecking for grain, but that study found a poor fit when reinforcers came on unpredictable timers. Morris shows the law still holds when the "reinforcer" is adult attention and the timers are loose and natural.
McSweeney et al. (2000) used the matching law to show that methylphenidate makes kids with ADHD more sensitive to reinforcement. Morris extends the same analytic lens to autism, proving the tool is diagnosis-agnostic.
Agana et al. (2024) also worked with autistic children, but focused on picking the right play targets. Morris complements that work by giving a way to measure whether social play is actually increasing.
Why it matters
You already record session data. Add two columns: adult attention delivered and child social bids. Plug the numbers into the matching equation. If the child is under-matching, boost adult attention for social behavior and recheck next week. You now have a numeric, visible path to increase sociability without extra materials or cost.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Recent research has developed and evaluated assessments of sociability in which time allocation near or away from an adult who initiates social interactions is used to characterize the participant as social, indifferent, or avoidant of social interaction. Though these qualitative outcomes have been useful, no studies have evaluated methods of obtaining more quantitative measures of sociability. The matching law has been demonstrated to describe a wide range of human behavior and may also be useful in describing social time allocation. We adapted the matching law and assessment of sociability procedures with the aim of providing a more precise, quantitative measure of sociability. We fitted the matching equation to the social time allocation data of 8 children with autism spectrum disorder. The equation was effective in quantifying sociability, accounted for a large proportion of variance in participants' behavior, did so equally well for participants who were social and avoidant, and provided a more sensitive measure relative to those used in previous research. The implications of this methodology, its potential utility, and directions for future research are discussed.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2022 · doi:10.1002/jaba.934