Past research on the relation between response effort and response rate in humans has not considered the effect of subjects' sex. Subjects (22 men and 23 women) were asked to pull a trigger repeatedly when the force required to pull the trigger was varied for each subject at 5, 10, 15, or 20 lb. At the lower force requirements, combined, women made more responses than at the combination of the two higher force requirements. For men, however, this relation was reversed. Possible implications of these findings are discussed.
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