Rapid loss of stimulus-specific satiety after consumption of a second food

'Meals' consisting of several differently flavoured 'courses' result in greater consumption than meals consisting of identical courses. Experiment 1 confirmed that this effect is found in rats during the dark phase of a LD 12:12 cycle. Two subsequent experiments demonstrated that meals consisting of three or four courses in which only two flavours were alternated produced as great an enhancement of consumption as meals in which each course was differently flavoured. The implications of this result are discussed for the nature of the processes underlying the generation and reversal of this stimulus-specific aspect of satiety.