Abstract
Study objective: Price and income studies in behavioral economics were evaluated through a review of experiments on animal consumption behavior. Demand curve analysis revealed that exchangeability in the unit price between cost and benefit factors, and functional equivalence between effort- and time-costs manipulated by the reinforcement schedules held only for a moderate range of prices. These functional relations among the experimental manipulations corresponded to 2 functions in human currency: a medium of exchange, and a measure of value. The income variable, which was manipulated by constraints on the total amount of reinforcers within a session, showed similar effectson animals' consuming behavior as with humans' consuming behavior using currency. However, functional equivalence among income manipulations does not appear to have been studied. Systematic studies to specify the shape of the income-consumption curve are necessary. It is supposed that the effects of income constraint will be shown further by analyzing an efficient food-intake or a change in food preference as evidence of behavioral allocation.
