Shifts in deprivation level: Different effects depending on amount of preshift training

The Role of Learning in the Operation of Motivational Systems

“…Perhaps the simplest demonstration of motivational processes in action comes from studies of shifts in motivational state. For example, Mollenauer (1971) fed her rats for 1 Learning and Motivation 4 hr per day while training them to run from the start box of an alleyway to the goal box for a food reward. The animals in Group DEP received two trials 22 h after each daily meal so that they were hungry at the time of training.…”

Incentive contrast produced by deprivation shifts

“…There was a brief preference for the high-hunger goalbox, followed by a preference for the low-hunger goalbox. The results of the second experiment suggest that deprivation affects the strength of conditioning of a cue-reinforcer expectancy, while the slow development of contrast in the first experiment indicates that deprivation also affects the development of either habit strength or a response-reinforcer expectancy.Rats switched from high to low hunger following a small number of rewarded runway trials run faster on initial rewarded postshift trials than do animals trained all along in the state of less hunger (Brush, Goodrich, Teghtsoonian, & Eisman, 1963 Mollenauer, 1971). Associative and incentive-motivational interpretations of this result have been offered.…”

“…Rats switched from high to low hunger following a small number of rewarded runway trials run faster on initial rewarded postshift trials than do animals trained all along in the state of less hunger (Brush, Goodrich, Teghtsoonian, & Eisman, 1963;Butter & Campbell, 1960;Capaldi, 1971;Capaldi & Hovancik, 1973;Deese & Carpenter, 1951;Eisenberger, Myers, & Kaplan, 1973; Timberlake, 1967; but see Mollenauer, 1971). Associative and incentive-motivational interpretations of this result have been offered.…”

“…One associative explanation assumes that the level of deprivation at which a stimulus-response sequence is followed by consumatory stimulation affects the asymptotic value of the stimulus' tendency to evoke the response (Capaldi, 1972;Eisenberger et aI., 1973;Hovancik, 1978). Incentive-motivational interpretations hold that the level of deprivation at which consumatory stimulation occurs affects the strength of conditioning of reward expectancy to the exteroceptive and proprioceptive stimuli that precede the reward (Black, 1965; Bolles, 1958Bolles, , 1975Capaldi, Smith, & White, 1978;Kurtz & Jarka, 1968; Mollenauer, 1971;Moltz & Maddi, 1956).…”

Where does value come from?

“…However, the incentive value of a stimulus nevertheless clearly depends on the internal state of the organism [23]. For example, the rate of approach towards food depends on hunger levels, and adapts immediately according to internal levels of satiety irrespective of prior training [24]. Similarly, food items that have been administered during states of food deprivation are preferred over control items during a later test when the animal is sated, suggesting they have acquired greater value [25].…”