The secondary reward value of food for satiated animals.

Abstract

The primary purpose of these two experiments was to determine whether or not an irrelevant incentive, the sight of food, acts as a learned reward for Sprague-Dawley rats first satiated for food and water. Secondarily, the persistence of the acquired reward value and the effects of two satiation techniques were studied. Since the experimental Ss, traversing a runway to an end box containing food, ran more rapidly and consistently than control Ss running to an empty end box, it was concluded that the sight of food has reward value for satiated animals. The reward value of the irrelevant incentive showed great persistence, but the two satiation methods had no differential effect.