A methodological approach to manipulation of hunger and thirst drive stimuli in the rat

The hunger and thirst drives of rats were equated using a titration procedure in a modified T-maze with food as the reinforcer on the left and water on the right. The conditions (amount) rather than schedules (hours) of maintenance were varied from day to day during a 9-day cycle which was then replicated. The results showed that condition manipulations produce reliable and approximately linear functions for individual Ss on the following response measures: percent water choices, median latencies, and body weight. Results were discussed in terms of the animals responding to the drive stimuli and also in terms of some of the methodological problems that this procedure solved. Finally, it was suggested that the construct drive as defined by conditions of maintenance might possess more utility as an experimental variable.