Potency of food deprivation intensity cues as discriminative stimuli

Rats were trained to use stimuli arising from 0 and 24 hr without food as discriminative signals for shock. In Experiment 1, one group was shocked under 0-hr food deprivation and not shocked under 24-hr food deprivation. Another group received the reverse contingency. The groups received only 3 training trials under each deprivation level. Learning was revealed in a test phase when greater extinction of freezing was observed under the nonshocked than under the shocked deprivation level for both groups. A similar pattern of results was obtained in Experiment 2 when auditory cues were also relevant throughout training. Furthermore, prior training with food deprivation cues seemed to reduce learning about auditory cues subsequently trained in compound with deprivation stimuli. The results indicate that food deprivation intensity cues can be potent discriminative stimuli. The idea that deprivation cues function as conditioned modulatory stimuli cues is also discussed.