Richard J. Herrnstein was Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. Howard Rachlin is Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, at Stony Brook University. David I. Laibson is Robert I. Goldman Professor of Economics at Harvard University.

Herrnstein provided major contributions to several fields, like the understanding of crime, genetics, or problems of social policy. [This] book covers most of Herrnstein's work on economic problems...The editors, who wrote the introductions to the individual parts, provide concise and very informative summaries and discussions of them.

• Preface Editors' Note Introduction Part I. The Matching Law: Against Reflexology 1. Relative and Absolute Strength of Response as a Function of Frequency of Reinforcement 2. Toward a Law of Response Strength 3. Derivatives of Matching 4. Melioration as Behavioral Dynamism Part II. Self-Control 5. Choice and Delay of Reinforcement 6. Self-Control as Response Strength 7. On the Functions Relating Delay, Reinforcer Value, and Behavior 8. Lost and Found: One Self 9. A Theory of Addiction Part III. Against Optimization 10. Stability, Melioration, and Natural Selection 11. Rational Choice Theory: Necessary but Not Sufficient 12. Behavior, Reinforcement, and Utility 13. Experiments on Stable Suboptimality in Individual Behavior 14. Melioration: A Theory of Distributed Choice 15. Preferences or Principles: Alternative Guidelines for Choice References Index

Richard J. Herrnstein was Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. Howard Rachlin is Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, at Stony Brook University. David I. Laibson is Robert I. Goldman Professor of Economics at Harvard University.

Herrnstein provided major contributions to several fields, like the understanding of crime, genetics, or problems of social policy. [This] book covers most of Herrnstein's work on economic problems...The editors, who wrote the introductions to the individual parts, provide concise and very informative summaries and discussions of them.

• Preface Editors' Note Introduction Part I. The Matching Law: Against Reflexology 1. Relative and Absolute Strength of Response as a Function of Frequency of Reinforcement 2. Toward a Law of Response Strength 3. Derivatives of Matching 4. Melioration as Behavioral Dynamism Part II. Self-Control 5. Choice and Delay of Reinforcement 6. Self-Control as Response Strength 7. On the Functions Relating Delay, Reinforcer Value, and Behavior 8. Lost and Found: One Self 9. A Theory of Addiction Part III. Against Optimization 10. Stability, Melioration, and Natural Selection 11. Rational Choice Theory: Necessary but Not Sufficient 12. Behavior, Reinforcement, and Utility 13. Experiments on Stable Suboptimality in Individual Behavior 14. Melioration: A Theory of Distributed Choice 15. Preferences or Principles: Alternative Guidelines for Choice References Index

Richard J. Herrnstein was Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. Howard Rachlin is Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, at Stony Brook University. David I. Laibson is Robert I. Goldman Professor of Economics at Harvard University.

Herrnstein provided major contributions to several fields, like the understanding of crime, genetics, or problems of social policy. [This] book covers most of Herrnstein's work on economic problems...The editors, who wrote the introductions to the individual parts, provide concise and very informative summaries and discussions of them.

• Preface Editors' Note Introduction Part I. The Matching Law: Against Reflexology 1. Relative and Absolute Strength of Response as a Function of Frequency of Reinforcement 2. Toward a Law of Response Strength 3. Derivatives of Matching 4. Melioration as Behavioral Dynamism Part II. Self-Control 5. Choice and Delay of Reinforcement 6. Self-Control as Response Strength 7. On the Functions Relating Delay, Reinforcer Value, and Behavior 8. Lost and Found: One Self 9. A Theory of Addiction Part III. Against Optimization 10. Stability, Melioration, and Natural Selection 11. Rational Choice Theory: Necessary but Not Sufficient 12. Behavior, Reinforcement, and Utility 13. Experiments on Stable Suboptimality in Individual Behavior 14. Melioration: A Theory of Distributed Choice 15. Preferences or Principles: Alternative Guidelines for Choice References Index