Assessing the effects of drugs on choice performance

Abstract

Interest in how teaching interventions and drugs jointly affect performance has produced a demand for assessment methods that are sensitive to both types of variables. An adequate assessment procedure needs to provide quantitative measures of the influence of these variables on critical aspects of performance. Two critical aspects of performance that might be adversely affected by drugs are motivation to work and ability to perform efficiently. It is shown that a work allocation model of choice, developed to examine performance maintained by reinforcers, can be used to examine the influence of varying doses of drugs on performance. When choice performance is analyzed using the work allocation model, efficiency of allocating responses can be separated from total output of responses. One data set is analyzed, where it is found that increasing doses of two stimulant drugs have different effects on performance.