[1. Local]: Psychology

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5-02-2010 @ 10:19PM

theRaptor said...

While that study may have been discredited in primates the observed effect that if you switch from a large reinforcer to a smaller reinforcer* you will get less instrumental responses is still consistent with rat studies.

And in my book lab rats are smarter and more logical than the average MMO player.

* The really interesting thing is that say if one group goes from four food pellets to two they will have a large drop in responding, while another can go from one pellet to two and have a large jump in responding and respond more than the first group when it was given four food pellets. Reactions to rewards is based more on the comparative expectation of reward and not the absolute size of it. Which is why pre-nerfing and buffing is the optimal game design method.

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