The figure below plots the baseline bliss point (open circle) of a child who was given the opportunity to play pinball and eat candy under unconstrained conditions. As you can see, at the bliss point, the child spent 20 minutes eating candy and 10 minutes playing pinball. Thus, at the baseline or bliss point the ratio of eating candy to playing pinball was 2:1. The line in the graph is a contingency line that represents the ratio when an instrumental conditioning procedure is introduced that constrains the child’s choices. The instrumental contingency represented by the line requires that the child change from its baseline or “bliss” level of responding to one in which she spends 10 minutes eating candy for every 40 minutes she spends playing pinball. Thus, the ratio of times spent on the two responses required by the instrumental procedure is 1:4.
Answer the following questions:
Draw a point on the contingency line that shows how the child will redistribute her behavior under the 1:4 contingency.