Incentive Relativity

by Charles F. Flaherty

Overview

Incentive relativity is the study of the disappointment and irritation shown by animals and humans when they fail to obtain an expected reward. This book provides a full account of the subject, focusing on animals' responses to the relative value of rewards. These relativity effects cause stress in animals but they may also inspire adaptation beneficial to survival. This text shows how animal research may lead to an understanding of individual differences in discernment and susceptibility to disappointment, and to an understanding of both the advantages and disadvantages of dissatisfaction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521381185
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/13/1996
Series:	Problems in the Behavioural Sciences , #15
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.22(w) x 9.33(h) x 0.83(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; Prologue; 1. Brief history of reward magnitude research; 2. Successive contrast: procedures and parameters; 3. Successive contrast: psychopharmacology and neurobiology; 4. Successive contrast: theories; 5. Anticipatory and simultaneous contrast; 6. Contrast with differential conditioning in runway and operant tasks; 7. Summary and epilogue; Appendix; References; Author index; Subject index.

Editorial Reviews

"The strength of Flaherty's book lies in its very thorough and clear review of the literature on the different varieties of contrast. ...it provides valuable background for researchers intrigued by the puzzles of contrast and by the questin of how to compute relative value temporally distant events." K. Geoffrey White, The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

From the Publisher