Description: Incentive relativity is the study of the disappointment and irritation shown by animals and humans when they fail to obtain an expected reward. This book provides a full account of the subject, focusing on animals' responses to the relative value of rewards. These relativity effects cause stress in animals but they may also inspire adaptation beneficial to survival. This text shows how animal research may lead to an understanding of individual differences in discernment and susceptibility to disappointment, and to an understanding of both the advantages and disadvantages of dissatisfaction.
Review Quotes: "The strength of Flaherty's book lies in its very thorough and clear review of the literature on the different varieties of contrast. ...it provides valuable background for researchers intrigued by the puzzles of contrast and by the questin of how to compute relative value temporally distant events." K. Geoffrey White, The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology