Bickel W K, Marsch L A, Carroll M E
University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry, Human Behavioral Pharmacology Laboratory, 38 Fletcher Place, Ira Allen School, Burlington, VT 05401-1419, USA.
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2000 Dec;153(1):44-56. doi: 10.1007/s002130000589.
Relative reinforcing efficacy has been assumed to be a homogeneous phenomenon referring to the behavior-strengthening or behavior-maintaining effects of a drug reinforcer. However, a variety of studies suggest that relative reinforcing efficacy may be heterogeneous.
The purpose of this theoretical proposal is to examine the difficulties associated with this conception of reinforcing efficacy and to explore whether relative reinforcing efficacy is a homogenous concept or whether it is composed of several functionally related heterogeneous phenomena. In examining this issue, we explore whether behavioral economic theory may address some of the challenges to the current conception of relative reinforcing efficacy and use this theory to suggest how the differing measures of reinforcing efficacy may relate to one another.
Results indicate that peak-response rate and breakpoint are related to the economic measure of maximal output and elasticity of demand, respectively. Preference is related to and predicted by the relative location of the demand curves obtained under single schedule conditions. This behavioral economic analysis may provide a theoretical understanding of reinforcement that can reconcile results of studies that both support and fail to support the notion of reinforcing efficacy as a homogenous phenomenon.
If this theoretical proposal is validated by additional studies, then like other natural phenomena found to be heterogeneous, the study of drug reinforcers may require the adoption of several new scientific terms, such as those used in behavioral economics, each of which has analytical precision and refers to homogeneous phenomena.
相对强化效能一直被认为是一种同质现象，指药物强化物对行为的强化或维持作用。然而，大量研究表明相对强化效能可能是异质的。
本理论性提议的目的是审视与这种强化效能概念相关的困难，并探究相对强化效能是一个同质概念，还是由若干功能相关的异质现象组成。在探讨这个问题时，我们探究行为经济学理论是否可以应对当前相对强化效能概念面临的一些挑战，并运用该理论来表明强化效能的不同测量方法可能如何相互关联。
结果表明，峰值反应率和断点分别与最大产出和需求弹性的经济学测量相关。偏好与单程式条件下获得的需求曲线的相对位置相关并可由其预测。这种行为经济学分析可能为强化作用提供一种理论理解，从而调和那些支持和不支持强化效能是同质现象这一概念的研究结果。
如果这一理论性提议通过更多研究得到验证，那么与其他被发现是异质的自然现象一样，对药物强化物的研究可能需要采用一些新的科学术语，比如行为经济学中使用的术语，其中每一个都具有分析精确性且指代同质现象。
