Taste preferences as a function of food deprivation during original taste exposure

Abstract

It has been reported previously that rats prefer a flavor they consumed under high deprivation to a flavor they consumed under low deprivation (Revusky, 1967). Here it was found that this preference occurs only if nutritive solutions are used and the flavors are given preceding and following eating. If flavors are given separately from the daily feeding, rats prefer the flavor given under low deprivation, whether or not a nutritive solution is used (Experiment 3). If flavors are given before and after the daily feeding, rats prefer the flavor they had under high deprivation (before feeding) more if sucrose solutions are used than if saccharin solutions are used and more on a high-deprivation test than on a low-deprivation test (Experiments 1 and 2). It was concluded that the “incentive value” of consumption is not necessarily higher under high deprivation than under low deprivation. The preference for the low-deprivation flavor obtained here may reflect a greater proportional rewarding effect of consumption under low deprivation or may reflect an aversion to the flavor consumed under high deprivation. Perhaps a small taste of flavor under high deprivation initiates responses of digestion that are unsatisfied and thus aversive, and the more so the higher the deprivation level.