Satiation Effect Research Articles

Satiation for social reinforcers: The effects of contingency, vicarious experience, and ambiguous situations

The relative satiation effect, an inverse relationship between the frequency of prior social reinforcement (the word “good”) and the later effectiveness of the social reinforcer in controlling behavior, was studied. In Experiment 1, a discrimination task in which social reinforcement was given for correct responses was administered to first- to fourth-grade children (6 to 10 years of age), who had during a preexposure phase performed a preliminary task or observed another child performing. During the preexposure phase, the experimenter delivered frequent or infrequent social reinforcement that was either contingent or noncontingent. Only performers and observers who had experienced frequent noncontingent reinforcement showed the satiation effect during the discrimination task phase. The results were interpreted as inconsistent with J. L. Gewirtz' ( Developmental Psychology, 1969 , 1, 2–13) social drive formulation but supportive of an informational analysis in which the children are seen as responding appropriately to unambiguous evidence concerning the reliability of contingency information. In Experiment 2, seating arrangements were varied so that information concerning the direction of reinforcement was made ambiguous. Performers were less responsive during the discrimination phase after experiencing frequent noncontingent reinforcement when seated alone or opposite an observer than when seated next to an observer. The results are interpreted as indicating trust of the reliability of the contingency under ambiguous conditions.

Schedule-induced drinking and other behavior in the rat, as a function of body weight deficit

Six rats were presented with food according to a fixed time 60-sec schedule at 80%, 90% and 100% of their initial ad lib body weight, and with food freely available in the home cage. Water was available at all times. Amount of water consumed during test sessions, time spent drinking, number of bouts of drinking, and bout duration of drinking varied inversely with body weight. Visiting the food tray also varied inversely with body weight, while grooming varied directly. In rats fed ad lib in their home cages, more water was drunk when pellets were intermittently scheduled than when the same number of pellets was freely available in a session of equal duration, but time spent grooming did not vary significantly. Thus, drinking is schedule-induced in satiated rats, but grooming is not. It is suggested that the primary effect of satiation is to reduce drinking, and that grooming increases secondarily to fill the time vacated by drinking.

Increasing the rate of ethanol consumption in food- and water-satiated rats

The effects of food satiation, ethanol concentration, and the schedule of ethanol availability on the rate of ethanol consumption were investigated in rats. In Experiment 1 separate groups were exposed to 6.2 or 12.5% w/v ethanol and unlimited access to food. The food and ethanol were available concurrently for one to three hours daily. After approximately 15 sessions unlimited food was available whenever ethanol was not available. The rate of ethanol consumption was positively related to ethanol concentration and negatively related to duration of ethanol availability. In Experiment 2 similar procedures were followed, except rats had unlimited access to food throughout the experiment. The results were similar to Experiment 1. In Experiment 3 separate groups were exposed to 6.2 and 12.5% w/v ethanol for one hour every other day; unlimited food was available throughout the experiment. The results were similar to the one-hour availability groups in Experiments 1 and 2. In all experiments ethanol consumption rates increased to levels above baseline and above the usual ethanol metabolic rate found in rats. The results demonstrated new combinations of ethanol availability and non-availability durations that were sufficient to significantly increase the rate of ethanol consumption.

The reinforcing value of several types of aggressive behavior: A review

Field observations of “surplus killing” and laboratory studies of operant performance rewarded by prey-killing opportunities suggest that predatory behavior is positively reinforcing. Similarly, both repeated encounter and operant performance studies suggest that intraspecific aggression can be positively reinforcing for successful aggressors. While a few studies suggest that defensive aggression under aversive conditions may also be positively reinforcing, it appears that when appropriate response modes are available escape and/or avoidance are preferred to attack. Studies of the reinforcing properties of aggression-eliciting brain stimulation are in general agreement with these conclusions, but methodological problems with these latter observations render them less compelling. The progressive escalation of aggression seen in “warm-up effects” of birds and fish, “priming effects” of mice, and ecstatic violence of humans may be analogous processes based on the positively self-reinforcing characteristics of some kinds of aggression. The transient reductions of aggression which appear as refractory periods and satiation effects in a variety of species may reflect temporary reductions in the reinforcing value of aggression. All these temporal effects must be considered in the evaluation of experiments on the reinforcing value of aggression. More generally, it is possible that these temporal fluctuations reflect the operation of common motivational processes (aggressive states) which regulate overt aggression by changing its reinforcing value.

Reactivation-induced interference in a short-term retention paradigm

In Experiment 1 it was demonstrated that interference with a rat's retention of a target spatial cue decreases as the interval between prior conflicting cues and the target increases. Experiment 2 showed that interference can occur even when the interstimulus interval is long, if the memory of a conflicting cue is reactivated just prior to exposing an animal to the target cue. A third experiment suggested that these findings could not be easily interpreted in terms of a stimulus satiation effect. The implications of these findings for a trace decay model of short-term retention were discussed.

Effectiveness of social reinforcement as a function of contingent and noncontingent satiation

The social satiation effect is the inverse relation between the availability of a social stimulus and its subsequent efficacy in a reinforcing role. According to a suggested cognitive-interactive theory, the satiation effect is mediated by children's attributions of contingency between their own behavior and the experimenter's actions in the satiation treatments. Perceived contingencies depend, at least to an extent, on actual contingencies, and it was therefore predicted that a satiation effect would be observed only for groups presented in the satiation treatment with noncontingent social stimuli but not for groups presented with contingent stimuli. Middle-class 5- and 7-year-old children were subjected to a 10-min waiting period in which the stimulus word “Yafeh” (“good” in English) was presented 2 or 20 times, contingently or noncontingently. They were then given a 75-trial binary discrimination test: correct responses were reinforced with “Yafeh”. The hypothesis was confirmed in the analysis of variance. However, the predicted difference between the slopes of the contingency and noncontingency conditions was found clearly only in the older sample, while the younger children were more influenced by the number of social stimuli presented in the treatment (satiation) and less influenced by the method of stimulus presentation.

Can Social Satiation be Learned Vicariously?

Summary An attempt was made to create the social satiation effect via vicarious learning. Second-grade boys and girls from middle class homes in a Jerusalem school observed other children being administered a short treatment in which the stimulus word Yafeh (“Good”) was presented by E twice (low-satiation) or 20 times (high-satiation). Immediately thereafter, E administered to the observers a 75-trial binary discrimination task, to test the efficacy of the word Yafeh as a reinforcer. The control groups consisted of Ss treated and tested by the same E. A typical satiation effect (i.e., decreased performance of the group presented with 20 stimuli) was observed for the control groups, but no difference was found between groups of Ss observing the high- and low-satiation treatments. It was thus concluded that social satiation had not been learned vicariously. The post-treatment inquiry on the Ss who were observed by the experimental Ss revealed that these children were aware of the frequency of stimuli presen...

The Effects of Visual and Verbal Satiation on a Lexical Decision Task

Immediately before a visually presented target, a string of letters that was to be quickly classified as a word or nonword, the subject saw a prime, a word either semantically related (R) or unrelated (U) to the target. Before this prime, the subject had received visual satiation (V) or both visual and verbal satiation (B) on a word either identical (I) to the prime itself or related to neither (N) the prime or target. Decision times to word targets were faster under condition R than U, but equally so under conditions VI, VN, BI, and BN. Averaged across conditions R and U, decision times to word targets were slower under condition BI than under conditions VI, VN, and BN; decision times to nonword targets under the same four conditions were equal. The results are discussed in terms of the semantic-satiation hypothesis, which they fail to support.

Are Nurturance and the Satiation of Social Reinforcers Equivalent Operations?

Summary This research sought to determine whether or not there is equivalence between the effects of nurturance and satiation with young children. Forty kindergarten and first grade girls participated. The children played with an adult who was either continuously nurturant or withdrew nurturance or with an adult who dispensed either four or 30 praise statements. Then, each child was tested in a discrimination task in which correct responses were reinforced by adult praise. The dependent measure was the number of trials required to reach a criterion of three consecutive correct responses. For children verbalizing at a high frequency during the session, those who received four reinforcers learned the task more rapidly than those who had received 30 reinforcers. The reverse results were obtained for children who verbalized infrequently. Although the direction of difference for children who verbalized frequently in the nurturance conditions was the same as that for children who verbalized frequently in the fr...

Comparison of the cycloheximide and food satiation effects on a discrimination task

The effects of intraventricular cycloheximide (CHX) pretreatment were examined on the ability of rats to recall a light position discrimination task. The CHX pretreatment used inhibited brain protein synthesis at the time of training by 71%. Following treatment with CHX the animals demonstrated no retention of the task 18 hr later. Free feeding for 24 hr prior to treatment with cerebro-spinal-like fluid (CSF) produced similar effects as CHX. It is proposed that the amnesic effect of CHX in this behavioral paradigm may be a nonspecific action resulting from decreased motivation. Both the CHX-treated and satiated animals exhibited low responding levels during training, despite comparable behavioral activity levels for the CHX- and CSF-treated groups.

Modification of the behavioral hierarchy ofPleurobranchaea

1. Unrelated acts of behavior inPleurobranchaea are organized into a behavioral hierarchy (Fig. 1), in which feeding behavior takes precedence over righting behavior and over withdrawal of the head and oral veil from tactile stimulation. The present paper examines the effect on the behavioral hierarchy of one form of experience that affects feeding motivation, namely, food satiation. 2. Feeding specimens to satiation with raw squid increased the threshold of the feeding response measured using dilutions of squid homogenate (Fig. 4). These and the following effects of satiation were determined by comparing experimental (sated) to control (unsated) specimens using a “blind” experimental protocol, and were evident within minutes of satiation (Figs. 15, 16). 3. Application of squid homogenate before and at various times after satiation suppressed righting behavior (Figs. 5, 6), whether or not feeding behavior occurred (Fig. 6). 4. Strong tactile stimulation of the oral veil with a constant-strength mechanical stimulator (Fig. 2) caused withdrawal of the head and oral veil. This response remained constant over 10 trials repeated every 60 s (Fig. 3). In unsated specimens, the presentation of squid homogenate reduced the withdrawal response to 50–75% of control values (Figs. 7, 9), providing a quantitative demonstration of the dominance of feeding over withdrawal. Application of squid homogenate at various times after satiation did not suppress withdrawal (Figs. 7, 9) unless active feeding behavior occurred (Figs. 8, 10). 5. The data show that the usual dominance of feeding behavior over righting behavior is independent of feeding motivation and dependent only on the presence of chemosensory stimuli that cause feeding. In contrast, the usual dominance of feeding behavior over withdrawal is dependent on the execution of feeding behavior. 6. These behavioral observations suggest a dual cellular mechanism for the dominant position of feeding in the behavioral hierarchy (Fig. 17): direct inhibition of subordinate behaviors by sensory pathways that cause the dominant behavior (in the case of feeding versus righting); and inhibition of subordinate behaviors by central neurons that control the dominant behavior (in the case of feeding versus withdrawal).

Effects of Social Satiation on Efficacy of Social and Nonsocial Reinforcers

Summary The social deprivation-satiation effect is interpreted in terms of the perceived contingencies of the S-E interaction and the attributions made by S on that basis. According to this interpretation, the children are satiated with E and not with the stimuli. It was predicted that satiation with social stimuli would affect to the same degree performance for social and nonsocial reinforcers. Middle-class second-grade boys and girls (N = 40) were subjected to a 10-minute satiation treatment, in which the stimulus word Yqfeh (“Good” in Hebrew) was emitted by E two or 20 times. The treatment was followed by a 75-item binary discrimination task, in which correct responses were reinforced either with Yafeh or with a plastic token. A significant satiation effect was found for both social and nonsocial reinforcement. These results are in conflict with other studies reporting no social satiation effect for nonsocial reinforcement. In these studies the nonsocial reinforcement was not administered by E, but dis...

Persistent Behaviour in Extinction after Partial Deprivation in Training

Four groups of rats were trained to run an alleyway with one trial per day. Two groups were always deprived when trained while the other two received a partial deprivation schedule. One group of each pair received a continuous reward in the goal box while the other received partial reward. A partial reinforcement effect was found during extinction. The partially deprived groups also showed persistence in extinction. This result extends parallels between the effects of satiation and nonreward upon behaviour.

The effects of stimulus preference on habituation of looking behavior in normal and retarded children

Picture preferences in terms of looking time were determined for groups of normal and moderately retarded children. Categories of highly preferred and nonpreferred pictures were then used with a constant picture stimulus alternated with a continually changing stimulus. For both groups, habituation of looking time was similar, being significant for preferred stimuli and nonsignificant for nonpreferred stimuli. The findings support an “attention” interpretation of any differential effects of stimulus satiation or habituation in normal vs. retarded individuals.

Effects of social deprivation and satiation on the reinforcing properties of social stimulation in chronic male hospitalized schizophrenics.

Effects of social deprivation and satiation on the reinforcing properties of social stimulation in chronic male hospitalized schizophrenics.

When familiarity breeds contempt, absence makes the heart grow fonder: Effects of exposure and delay on taste pleasantness ratings

The effects of repeated exposure and delay on taste pleasantness ratings were explored in a study involving 10 female subjects. Subjects tasted and rated for pleasantness small quantities of 15 spices 10 times each in Session I and 1 week later (Session II) made four additional tastes and ratings of each of the spices. Pleasantness ratings were a decreasing concave upward function of trials during each session, the decay in pleasantness being more rapid in Session II than in Session I: Initial trials in both sessions did not differ in rated pleasantness. Results suggest that some satiation effects dissipate with time while others are cumulative.

社会的強化について

The purpose of this study is to re-test the “deprivation and satiation effects” of a social reinforcer and to emphasize the importance of the behavior under the satiation and deprivation treatment.In experiment I, effects of satiation and recovery of a social reinforcer were tested. Subjects were from 5 years and 7 months to 6 years and 6 months boys. Experimental design was 3 (satition level) × 2 (recovery interval) and there were four subjectes for each group. Subjects were individually brought to a experimental room and asked to wait while see some nursery books. For 8 minutes, an experimenter presented approvals with the word “orikosan ne” 1, 4, or 16 times, and then there was a 1-or 8-minute recovery interval during which the stimulus was not dispenced This was followed further by a discrimination test under continuous reinforcement with “oriko-san ne”. Mean number of correct responces was inversely related to the preceeding satiation level only when the 8-minute deprivation interval was followed. This result was considered because of the subject's behavior under the satiation and recovery treatment.In Experiment II, the effect of subject's behavior was tested by using the condition of 16-time stimulus presentation and 8-minute recovery interval, and there were two groups differing in behaviors under the two treatments. In one group subjects were demanded different behaviors under the two treatments (W-R group), and in the other, the subjects behaved the same under them (W-W group). It was expected that in W-R group, the social reinforcement efficacy would be high and in W-W group the efficacy would be low. Subjects were boys from 6 years to 6 years and 9 months. The number of subjects for each group was 10. The subject's behavior under the satiation treatment was card sorting, and the behavior under the recovery treatment was seeing nursery books. But in W-W group the subjects sorted cards again. The other procedures were the same as in Experiment I. The result was as expected. The mean number of correct responces of W-R group was significantly higher than that of W-W group, and it was confirmed that the satiation and deprivation effect of the social reinforcer is dependent on the recipiant's behavior.These results were discussed from behavioral and cognitive standpoints and the necessity to point out the mediator between operation and performance and the importonce of poining out the relations to others (ie. operation and performance) was emphasized.

The effect of two ways of devaluing the unconditioned stimulus after first- and second-order appetitive conditioning.

Rats received first- and second-order conditioning based upon a food unconditioned stimulus (UCS). They then received one of two manipulations designed to reduce the value of that food, satiation, or pairing of food with high-speed rotation. The effects of these manipulations were assessed during extinction tests of the conditioned stimuli (CSs). Compared with controls, both manipulations reduced the activity produced by the first-order CS but did not affect that produced by a second-order CS. The results are interpreted as consistent with those from aversive UCSs in implying the involvement of a UCS representation in first- but not in second-order conditioning. They also suggest that a major effect of satiation is to reduce the value of the UCS.

Effects of water temperature on post-cold-exposure drinking response of rats.

ARTICLESEffects of water temperature on post-cold-exposure drinking response of ratsEL Nelson, MJ Fregly, and PE TylerEL Nelson, MJ Fregly, and PE TylerPublished Online:01 Oct 1974https://doi.org/10.1152/ajplegacy.1974.227.4.977MoreSectionsPDF (787 KB)Download PDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesGet permissionsTrack citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInWeChat Previous Back to Top Next Download PDF FiguresReferencesRelatedInformation Cited ByBody Fluid Distribution in Rats With Cold-Induced HypertensionPhysiology & Behavior, Vol. 65, No. 4-5Salt consumption and body fluid balance during cold exposure in ratsPhysiology & Behavior, Vol. 55, No. 1Effects of Environmental Stresses and Privations on ThirstBehavior and body weight changes under intermittent exposure to cold in C57BL/6J micePhysiology & Behavior, Vol. 47, No. 4Effect of Exposure to Cold on Fluid and Electrolyte ExchangeWater and electrolyte exchange during exposure to coldPharmacology & Therapeutics, Vol. 18, No. 2Cool water's suppression of water intake: Persistence across deprivation conditions, ages, sexes, and osmolaritiesPhysiology & Behavior, Vol. 18, No. 6Temperature of Ingested Fluids: Preference and Satiation Effects (Pease Porridge Warm, Pease Porridge Cool)Effect of duration of cold exposure and water temperature on post-cold exposure drinking response of rats More from this issue > Volume 227Issue 4October 1974Pages 977-980 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 1974 by American Physiological Societyhttps://doi.org/10.1152/ajplegacy.1974.227.4.977PubMed4429148History Published online 1 October 1974 Published in print 1 October 1974 Metrics

Ses Differences in Effects of Brief Social Satiation

Summary Two previous studies which supported a cognitive interpretation of the social deprivation-satiation effect with middle class children were replicated with lower class Ss. In the first experiment 40 middle class and 40 lower class children were given a social deprivation or a satiation treatment, followed by a binary discrimination test, given either by the same or by another E. In the second experiment, 74 middle class and 74 lower class Ss were given information about their E's “reinforcing habits” prior to the treatment. In that experiment both treatment and test were given by the same E. The findings for the middle class samples were as follows: the deprivation-satiation effect was person-specific, not generalizable from one E to another; the informational input caused a deprivation-satiation like effect and modified the effect of actual treatments on subsequent performance. The lower class children reacted mostly to the most immediate, salient, and concrete aspects of the situation. The intang...