Effects of food deprivation upon cue utilization as measured by novelty-incentive

A series of three experiments was done to test the hypothesis that high levels of food deprivation would adversely affect cue utilization from a complex stimulus goal as tested by its novelty-incentive value when that goal was later opposed to food for hungry subjects in a T-maze. It was found that the hunger drive level under which the male rats had originally experienced the complex stimulus goal determined its later incentive value, whether the original experience was in a latent learning type II situation (Experiment I, 20 subjects), a drive-shift situation (Experiment II, 40 subjects), or a free exploration situation (Experiment III, 30 subjects). In each experiment, having first experienced the complex goal under low levels of deprivation significantly decreased the frequency of choices of that goal in a later test relative to the performance of the more deprived animals. The data was interpreted as indicating that utilization of cues, in the sense of input and possibly retention of information, was hindered by the higher levels of deprivation.