Effects of drive level and experience on the reward value of saccharine solutions.

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Abstract
In one experiment various groups of rats received a fixed amount of 0.3% saccharine while under various numbers of days of 2- or 21-hr, food deprivation. Consumption speed of the saccharine increased longer for the 2-hr. groups. Control groups receiving sugar increased speed towards a physiological limit with no differences between groups. In a second experiment the animals were given a choice between water and saccharine in the two arms of a T-maze for 40 trials. Number of water choices increased with experience in the animals given their earlier training under 21-hr. deprivation, and decreased with experience in the rats trained under 2-hr. depriva-tion. "The results were interpreted as being consistent with a drive-reduction reinforcement position and not deducible from an hypothesis that the prepotent factor in reinforcement is the consummatory response.".
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