Background

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• Background
• Choice is lawful.
• The laws of choice that describe everyday
  (normal) voluntary behavior also describe drug
  use in those who meet the APA criteria for
  addiction.
• However, addiction is a disorder.

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Road Map 1. Characterize addiction 2. Derive an
outline of the structure of choice 3. Test if
outline of choice is consistent with outline of
addiction. 4. Test whether the choice theory
agrees with key empirical findings. 5. This leads
to the prediction that everyone who uses illicit
drugs should be an addict 6. This prediction is
wrong, but the choice analysis suggests
modifications to account for individual
differences---a test is briefly described 7.
Limits Psychological, no discussion of setting.
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Addiction according to the APA (DSM IV) 1.
The essential feature of substance dependence is
a cluster of cognitive, behavioral, and
physiological symptoms indicating that the
individual continues use of the substance despite
significant substance-related problems. 2. This
definition (along with specific criteria) has
worked. 3. Make more explicit
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Two qualifications 1. But APA account is
unnecessarily vague problems must outweigh
benefits. 2. Also, the APA account does not
capture the dynamic properties of addiction. a.
Alternating periods of abstinence and heavy
use b. Biographical, epidemiological, and
longitudinal studies indicate that after a while,
many if not most heavy users cut down or quit
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Summary Addiction is a dynamic
self-destructive pattern of drug use. Conceptual
challenge 1 To say that addiction is voluntary
leads to a contradiction. At face value
voluntary and self-destructive are mutually
contradictory. Conceptual challenge 2 Choice
principles should explain persistence as well as
decline of drug use---Drug use is dynamic, hence
we need a dynamic account.
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Structure of choice will be derived on basis of
one assumption and one observation 1. Choose
what is best 2. The values (rewards,
utilities) that guide choice change as a
function of time and/or choice itself
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The restaurant problem How to choose where to
eat.
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• Is the multiple equilibria description of choice
  consistent with addiction?
• Assume that distance between local/global
  equilibria measures degree of self-harm.
• Create graph that maximizes this distance.
• Question will graph capture key characteristics
  of heavy drug use?

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The local/global analysis of choice is consistent
with key features of addictive drug use. But
does the account predict actual behavior? First
order prediction Choice gravitates to the local
equilibrium and/or the global equilibrium.
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• The natural history of local and global choice
  equilibria.
• The local equilibrium is the same as the matching
  law Choice proportions equal reinforcement
  proportions
• This is one of the most ubiquitous findings in
  study of choice.
• In studies that put the local equilibrium at a
  great disadvantage relative to the local
  equilibrium, choice typically approximates the
  local equilibrium, despite loss in overall reward
  rate (animals and humans).

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• Under what conditions does choice reliably
  gravitate to the global equilibrium?
• The consumers in economic text books.
• In experiments in which the experimenter
  explicitly provides stimuli that correlate with
  choice aggregates or hint at global,
  choice-dependent changes in value (e.g., Heyman
  Tanz, 1995 Rachlin, 1995).

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Summary of the natural history of local and
global equilibria. The local equilibrium is the
default state. Choice distributions typically
gravitate to the local equilibrium unless a.
Experimenter makes special effort to provide
stimuli that point to the possibility of choosing
between aggregates rather than items. b. It is a
discussion of how to make choices---as in econ
books.
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Why is it so much easier to find examples of the
local equilibrium? Hypothesis items are more
salient than aggregates. The options in local
frame of reference (items) conform to the
natural (perceptual) fracture lines of
commodities and activities. The options in
global frame of reference do not have natural
contours. They are abstract categories. Thus,
frame of reference reflects saliency of the
commodities.
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Evidence that perceptual properties of
commodities and activities create conditions for
local frame of reference and local
equilibrium 1. Recall that global equilibrium is
observed in experiments in which experimenter
arranges stimuli that point to options as
aggregates rather than items. 2. Recall that when
students of choice think about how to choose,
they often arrive at global equilibrium. Perhaps
under these conditions perceptual properties of
commodities may be easier to override.
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But this analysis leads to an incorrect
prediction Self-destructive drug use entails
making choices according to the local frame of
reference. The local frame of reference is the
default case. Most of us have encountered an
addictive drug. Why arent we all addicts?
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• Why arent we all addicts?
• Imagination---capacity to imagine connections
  between items that are not apparent.
• The institutionalization of appetites
• Pre-established aggregates work week, dessert
  last, no drinks before 5PM, etc.
• Social values that promote temperance

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• Predictions
• Cognition will be negatively correlated with drug
  use, particularly measures that better
  approximate imagination, such as working
  memory.
• Social compliance will be negatively correlated
  with measures of drug use.

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• The perceptual hypothesis predicts that abstract
  thought protects us from the local equilibrium
• Test
• Are measures of cognition negatively correlated
  with measures of drug use?
• Are the correlations stronger for cognitive
  measures that better predict abilities to think
  abstractly?
• There is much evidence that working memory
  procedures measure abstract reasoning---data and
  face validity.

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Summary Physical scientists have come to realize
that natural disasters are explained by the same
laws as their tamer, more familiar counterparts
typhoons and calm breezes. These analyses were
based on the same idea that addiction, a form of
self-destructive choice, can be explained by the
same principles that explain everyday choice
(which restaurant to go to).