Abstract
Rats under high (23.5 h) or moderate (18 h) water deprivation were required to learn a simultaneous goal door discrimination with S+ position correlated with incentive (water and 20% sucrose). A series of free choice trials with S+ simultaneously present at both incentive positions followed the initial discrimination. Moderately deprived animals made more errors and ran more slowly to S+ when it occurred on the water side than when on the sucrose side during discrimination trials. Highly water-deprived animals displayed less consistent and less differentiated speeds between incentives. Both deprivation groups preferred sucrose to water on free choice tests, but only moderately deprived animals tended to exclusively choose sucrose. The results were interpreted as indicating that the two deprivation levels substantially created different thirst arousal conditions in the animals.
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Hachey, G. Development of incentive preference as a function of water deprivation and sucrose concentration. Unpublished Master’s Thesis, University of Windsor, 1976.
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The present study is based on a paper delivered at the Canadian Psychological Association convention, Quebec City, Quebec, June 1975. The authors are indebted to R. C. Beck, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for his valuable criticism of the manuscript.
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Cohen, J.S., Oöstendorp, A. Incentive preference under two levels of water deprivation in the rat. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 8, 381–384 (1976). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335174
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335174