Regulation of drug-maintained behavior: comment on Meisch (2000)

In his article, R. A. Meisch (2000) introduces a concept termed relative persistence of behavior, a measure obtained by comparing rates of behavior under high-response costs to rates obtained under lower response costs. In this commentary, relative persistence of behavior is discussed in terms of behavioral regulation theory, in which responding is allocated in such a way as to maintain a stable balance point. Meisch's relative persistence of behavior may be analogous to the free (paired) baseline technique necessary for testing hypotheses based on behavioral regulation.