Matching Law

The matching law is a principle of operant behavior, formulated by Richard Herrnstein from his research with pigeons, stating that when an organism can choose between two or more sources of reinforcement, it will allocate its behavior between them in proportion to the relative rate of reinforcement each source provides, rather than concentrating entirely on the richer source or dividing behavior evenly. If one option delivers reinforcement twice as often as another, the matching law predicts the organism will direct roughly twice as much of its responding toward that option rather than all of it. The matching law has been used to describe choice not only in laboratory experiments but also in some real-world settings, such as how basketball players allocate shot attempts among different shot types.