“On the Combination of Drive and Incentive Motivation:” A Critical Comment

Abstract

Black's (1965) evaluation of the literature on the combination of drive and incentive is criticized on two grounds. (1) In order to reconcile to the existing data his arguments for an additive relationship he must shift his theoretical assumptions from one argument to the next; unfortunately he never makes this shift explicit; (2) he ignores available data which are contrary to his view that D and K combine additively. An operational analysis of the available research reveals that the additive relationship holds unambiguously only when non-zero levels of food incentive are combined with the TD operation. When a liquid incentive is used and/or when other methods of manipulating drive are used, the evidence is unsystematic and the results are conflicting.