BACKGROUND Delivering effective health care within limited budgets requires an understanding of patient priorities. Discrete choice experiments (DCEs) provide patients with choices, where each choice differs in terms of certain attributes (such as waiting times, quality of care). Although this technique has significant potential in examining priorities, its use raises practical and conceptual i...

There is accumulating evidence that having many options from which to choose may be counterproductive (Iyengar & Lepper, 2000; Iyengar, Well, & Schwartz, 2006; Schwartz, 2004). In the consumer world, Procter & Gamble noticed a 10% increase in sales of its Head & Shoulders brand after they reduced the number of varieties (Goldstein, 2001). Iyengar and Lepper (2000) carried out three experiments ...

Previous research has demonstrated that factors such as reinforcer frequency, amount, and delay have similar effects on resistance to change and preference. In the present study, 4 boys with autism made choices between a constant reinforcer (one that was the same food item every trial) and a varied food reinforcer (one that varied randomly between three possible food items). For all 4 boys, var...