Mace F C, McCurdy B, Quigley E A
Graduate School of Applied Psychology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854-0819.
J Appl Behav Anal. 1990 Summer;23(2):197-205. doi: 10.1901/jaba.1990.23-197.
Matching theory describes a process by which organisms distribute their behavior between two or more concurrent schedules of reinforcement (Herrnstein, 1961). In an attempt to determine the generality of matching theory to applied settings, 2 students receiving special education were provided with academic response alternatives. Using a combined simultaneous treatments design and reversal design, unequal ratio schedules of reinforcement were varied across two academic responses. Findings indicated that both subjects allocated higher rates of responses to the richer schedule of reinforcement, although only one responded exclusively to the richer schedule. The present results lend support to a postulation that positive reinforcement may have undesirable collateral effects that are predicted by matching theory (Balsam & Bondy, 1983).
匹配理论描述了生物体在两个或多个并发强化程序之间分配其行为的过程（赫尔恩斯坦，1961年）。为了确定匹配理论在应用环境中的普遍性，为2名接受特殊教育的学生提供了学业反应选择。采用同时处理设计和反转设计相结合的方法，对两种学业反应采用不等比例强化程序。结果表明，尽管只有一名受试者完全对更丰富的强化程序做出反应，但两名受试者都将更高比例的反应分配给了更丰富的强化程序。目前的结果支持了一种假设，即正强化可能会产生匹配理论所预测的不良附带效应（巴尔萨姆和邦迪，1983年）。
