APPETITIVE CONDITIONING

What is APPETITIVE CONDITIONING?

A type of Pavlovian or classical conditioning in which the unconditioned stimulus is a positive reinforcer that plays to the appetite, for example, food.

APPETITIVE CONDITIONING: "In appetitive conditioning, food for example, is provided as a reward following the presentation of a stimulus."

Appetitive conditioning utilizes a positive reinforcing stimulus—for example, access to food, water, or sex. Interestingly, animals conditioned with an appetitive stimulus, such as food, will often approach and contact the stimulus signaling its availability. If a localized visual stimulus (CS) repeatedly signals the delivery of food (US), pigeons will often peck at the CS before approaching the food cup, although pecking is not required for food access. Interestingly, the tracking of a food signal appears to be modality-specific. When trained with an auditory CS, which is presumably less localized in space, pigeons do not peck at the CS but instead advance toward the food cup directly (Brown and Jenkins 1968).