Motivation and the three-function learning: Food deprivation and approach-avoidance to food words.

Abstract

Food words were considered as conditioned stimuli that elicit an appetitive emotional response. The emotional response-according to the two-process, three-stimulus-function learning theory involved-should be capable of mediating instrumental behavior toward the words. Motivational principles elaborated in the context of the three-function theory predicted that 5s deprived of food would learn to respond more quickly with an approach instrumental response to food words than would deprived 5s whose task was to make an avoidant response. Moreover, this difference should be of a lesser magnitude with nondeprived 5s. In addition, in a second experiment, it was predicted that food-deprived 5s would learn to make .an approach response to food words with less latency than nondeprived 5s. These expectations were supported. The findings contribute to the specification of motivational characteristics for the construct of a mediating emotional response (or state) in two-process learning studies (e.g., transfer of control and auto shaping), and suggest a means for integrating relevant animal and human research.

Appetitive and Aversive Taste Conditioning in a Computer Game Influences Real-World Decision Making and Subsequent Activation in Insular Cortex

“…Humans are faster to perform a response that makes a positively-valenced word approach rather than recede (Solarz, 1960), a tendency that is modulated by hunger in the case of food-related words (Staats and Warren, 1974). Moreover, pavlovian-instrumental transfer procedures demonstrate that an appetitive CS augments human performance of an instrumental response (Hogarth et al, 2007;Bray et al, 2008).…”

Positive and negative transfer of control: Instrumental response mediation and response competition

“…Experiment 2 was conducted, in part , to elucidate the role of the FCAR mediation in an appetitive transfer experiment. Staats and Warren (1974) stated that transfer would not occur if the animals had not previously learned to barpress for food: Without that training, the mediational associations between the mediator and the barpressing would not be formed. (They discussed an emotionresponse mediator, but the same would pertain to the FCAR mediation.)…”

“…In beginning the analysis of transfer of control within the framework of the three-function learning theory of social behaviorism (see Staats, 1975), the purpose of Experiment 1 was to validate the transfer phenomenon by replicating the prototypical appetitive transfer experiment. Previous social behaviorism research has shown the importance of analyzing the stimuli and responses in experimental situations (Staats, 1964).…”

Food deprivation and conditioned reinforcing value of food words: Interaction of Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning

“…Staats, Minke, Martin, and Higa (1972) showed the food words could transfer the conditioned emotional response to a neutral stimulus, in a classical conditioning procedure, more strongly for food-deprived subjects than for nondeprived subjects. Staats and Warren (1974) showed that fooddeprived subjects could learn an approach response to food words as the directive (discrim inative) stimulus in a two-choice response task more rapidly than they could learn an avoidance response, and that such subjects learned an approach response to food words more rapidly than did nondeprived subjects.…”

“…This three-function theory has also indicated that in the mature organism, through learning, a stimulus that is a es for an emotional response and hence can be a reinforcing stimulus will also function as a directive (discriminative) stimulus and control either approach instrumental responses (in the positive case) or avoidance responses (in the negative case) (Staats, 1975). There are a number of studies on the animal level (e.g., Brown & Jenkins, 1968;Trapold & Winokur, 1967;Zimmerman, 1957) that can be interpreted and integrated with the three-function learning theory (Staats, 1975;Staats & Warren, 1974), as well as a number of studies on the human level (Staats, 1975).…”