Characterization and analysis of an experimental token economy

Abstract

Token economies have been used for some years as therapeutic devices for treating mental illness. Recently they have also been employed in experimental research for study of individual social and economic behavior. This study gives a detailed description of an experiment in which the primary subject of investigation was the relation between cannabis smoking and human socio-economic behavior. The experiment was carried out in the setting of a token economy using volunteer subjects who were continuously resident in the experimental unit. The experimental conditions, economic conditions, observation and data collection processes are reported. Due to some interstices in the experimental data with respect to consumption of cannabis, estimates of cannabis consumption are constructed from the primary data using a consistent system of rules. Also, time allocation behavior among the subjects is reported. A model of microeconomic behavior is developed and presented for use in organizing and studying the economic behavior of the subjects in the study. The model specifically takes account of the