Incidental Cue Utilization as a Function of its Incentive-Produced Validity under Two Levels of Water Deprivation

Abstract

Moderately (18 hr.) water-deprived rats were able to utilize an incidental cue of floor-texture following learning of brightness of a goal door better than highly water-deprived (23.5 hr.) animals only when water and sucrose liquids were paired with attributes of the new cue. These findings along with results from three subsidiary experiments indicate that drive level influences utilization of incidental cues by determining the differential incentive value of rewards predicted by attributes of those cues. This formulation is contrary to the drive level-focus of attention model of Tolman (1948) and Easter-brook (1959).