growing tendency to switch after each reinforcement. Hence the molar law is compatible with many molecular choice processes. Processes underlying the distribution of responses There are three ideas on how humans and animals maximize reinforcement, molecular maximizing, molar maximizing and melioration. molecular maximizing: organisms always choose whichever response alternative is most likely to be reinforced at the time. molar maximizing: organisms distribute their responses among various alternatives so as to maximize the amount of reinforcement they earn over the long run. melioration: literally means to "make better"; organisms respond so as to improve the local rates of reinforcement for response alternatives. behavior keeps shifting towards the better of two alternatives until ratios are equal-which makes matching. Theoretical importance The matching law is theoretically important for several reasons. First, it offers a simple quantification of behavior that can be applied to a number of situations. Secondly, offers a lawful account of choice. As Herrnstein (1970) expressed it, under an operant analysis, choice is nothing but behavior set into the context of other behavior. The matching law thus challenges the idea that choice is an unpredictable outcome of free will, just as B.F. Skinner and others have argued. However this challenge becomes serious only if it applies to human behavior, as well as to the behavior of pigeons and other animals. When human participants perform under concurrent schedules of reinforcement, matching has been observed in some experiments, but wide deviations from matching have been found in others. Finally, if nothing else, the matching law is important because it has generated a great deal of research that has widened our understanding of operant control. Relevance to psychopathology The matching law, and the generalized matching law, have helped behavior analysts to understand some complex human behaviors, especially the behavior of children in certain conflict situations. James Snyder and colleague have found that response matching predicts the use of conflict tactics by children and parents during conflict bouts. This matching rate predicts future arrests. Even children's use of deviant talk appears to follow a matching pattern. Notes References Baum, W.M. (1974). On two types of deviation from the matching law: Bias and undermatching. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 22, 231–42. Bradshaw, C.M.; Szabadi, E. & Bevan, P. (1976). Behavior of humans in variable-interval schedules of reinforcement Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 26, 135–41. Davison, M. & McCarthy, D. (1988). The matching