Matching Law
According to Cooper, Heron and Heward, matching law is, “The allocation of responses to
choices available on concurrent schedules of reinforcement; rates of responding across choices
are distributed in proportions that match the rates of reinforcement received from each choice
alternative.”
Matching law simply states that behavior goes where reinforcement flows. Matching law is
related to concurrent schedules of reinforcement which is where there are two different behaviors
with different schedules of reinforcement; meaning that a person has a choice between two or
more activities that have different levels of reinforcement. Matching law states that you will do
things in proportion to the amount of reinforcement that you receive from it.
So, if I were to offer you playing with the iPad for 5 minutes or reading a book for 2 minutes,
you will choose the thing that provides you the most reinforcement.
If both items are reinforcing, you will choose the items in proportion to that level of
reinforcement. For example, if you like both hamburgers and hotdogs but you like hotdogs twice
as much as hamburgers, if you go to 6 barbecues you are offered either a hamburger or a hot dog,
you will choose the hot dog 4 times and the hamburger 2 times.
