Abstract

After determining the preferences of rhesus monkeys for 4 foods by a paired-comparison technique, the relative frequency of selection of the most-preferred and the second-least preferred foods were studied when the amounts of each simultaneously presented were systematically varied. Tests were given under 1, 23, and 47 hours of food deprivation. It was found that preference is related to the ratio of sizes of two incentives even if they differ in quality as well as in quantity, and this relation is unaffected by time of deprivation. These results confirm the conclusion that logarithmic increments in quantity of incentive yield linear increments in scaled preference, and indicate that quality and quantity are independent dimensions