Use of a Multiple-Choice Procedure with college student drinkers

The Multiple-Choice Procedure (MCP) was developed to investigate the relationship between drug preferences and alternative reinforcers. The current studies were designed to validate survey and laboratory versions of the MCP with college student drinkers. In Study 1, 320 undergraduates with a recent history of alcohol consumption used a survey version of the MCP to make 120 discrete hypothetical choices between two amounts of alcohol and escalating amounts of money delivered immediately or after a 1-week delay. In Study 2, 21 undergraduates completed a laboratory version of the MCP to make 120 discrete choices involving real alcohol and monetary payments. Responses to both versions of the MCP were related to measures of alcohol use and varied as a function of delay associated with the money choice. Responses to the survey version of the MCP also varied as a function of the amount of alcohol hypothetically available. The results of the 2 studies are consistent with a behavioral choice perspective of alcohol use, which focuses on preferences in the context of competing alternative reinforcers.