title: Rate, probability and matching: comments on "The identities hidden in the matching laws, and their uses" by David Thorne.
abstract: David Thorne's (2010) article, "The identities hidden in the matching laws, and their uses" performs a valuable service in pointing out alternative expressions of matching. However, some identities tend to obscure rather than illuminate empirical relationships. Three such problematic instances are discussed: interresponse time as a function of interval and ratio schedule parameters; probability equality as implying rate matching; the apparent simplicity of probabilistic functions, as opposed to response rate functions, of reinforcement rate.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2500, USA. howard.rachlin@sunysb.edu
authors.forename: Howard
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rachlin
authors.forename: Matthew L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Locey
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D008960:Models, Psychological; D015233:Models, Statistical; D011337:Probability Learning; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule