Abstract
Transitivity in human choice behavior was examined by presenting concurrently to subjects two out of three kinds of TV commercials and having them view the one they preferred. Time allocated to viewing each commercial when presented in pairs was measured, and the ratio of time allocated was used as index of choice proportion. Experiment I examined transitivity in response-bias parameters of the generalized matching law and in time allocation data and found that transitivity occurred only in ten out of seventeen subjects for the response-bias parameter, whereas it occurred in all but one subject for the time allocation data. Experiment 2 showed that transitivity in choice proportion based on time allocation occurred in all fifteen subjects. These findings demonstrate that behavioral data such as choice proportion based on time allocation satisfy transitivity in human choice behavior.
