Logan: Basic Principles of Learning

                  PRIMARY APPETITIVE DRIVE MOTIVATION

          The performance of a learned response is an increasing 
          function of the time of deprivation of any commodity
          that is necessary for survival and that is relevant to 
          that response.

     It may seem strange to begin a book on Principles of Learning with a 
basic Principle of Motivation, but in point of fact, it is very appropriate.
This is because all learning situations presuppose that the organism is 
somehow motivated.  Which is more, the nature of that motivation may, to 
some extent at least, determine what the organism learns in the situation.  
We think of motivation as a SETTING OPERATION in an experiment, one of the
things that an experimenter does before the experiment proper to prepare 
the organism for the task.  It may mean insuring that an animal is hungry 
or it may mean giving instructions to humans, but learning must always be
preceded by motivation.

     We shall consistently use the word "primary" to refer to factors that 
are innate (not learned).  DRIVE motivation is an internal force that causes 
the organism to emit some kind of behavioral performance.  The appetitive 
drives are those that are based on deprivation.  We get hungry if deprived 
of food, thirsty is deprived of water, and sexually inclined if deprived of
sexual activity.  We also need to breathe air and to eliminate waste 
products from our bodies.  These are based on basic, biological survival 
needs and although one may question whether all primary drives are tied to
survival, there is no question about the fundamental significance of the 
primary appetitive drives.  The principle states that performance is higher 
the stronger the drive, which should also mean that performance changes if 
the drive level is changed.  

     The simplest situation to observe the effect of primary drive
motivation is to run rats down a short straight runway under different
degrees of food deprivation.  If the reward for running is food, the
longer the deprivation (up to the point of physical weakness), the
faster the rats run.  You may have noticed how fast a pet comes when
called to dinner, and a somewhat similar effect can be seen at school
when lunch break comes and students rush to the cafeteria.

     Motivation may also affect what is learned.  Learning is defined as 
a RELATIVELY PERMANENT PROCESS RESULTING FROM EXPERIENCE AND REFLECTED IN 
A CHANGE IN BEHAVIOR UNDER APPROPRIATE CIRCUMSTANCES.  As we shall see,
one tends to learn to do things pretty much the way you practice doing
them.  Hence, if motivation leads to fast or slow practice, one learns
to respond in a fast or slow manner.  



     Another reason that motivation affects learning is that each 
deprivation state gives rise to a drive stimulus.  A DRIVE STIMULUS is
a hypothetical internal cue that is different for each drive state.
Specifically, for example, you know when you are hungry and, indeed, how
hungry you are.  This is important because the drive stimulus is a part 
of the total stimulus context in which learning occurs, and learning is
somewhat specific to the context.  In general, you remember what you 
learn best under the same conditions and in the same place you learned it.

     An remarkable instance of specificity is called STATE DEPENDENT 
LEARNING.  Some learning may only be observable if the organism is in the
original motivational state.  For example, you may study your lessons 
while comfortably relaxed in your own room, and then perform poorly on an 
exam given in an uncomfortable fear arousing classroom.  A more dramatic
instance of state dependent learning occurs when material is learned when 
the person is heavily drugged (e.g., drunk).  There is sometimes no memory 
of drugged experiences when the drug has worn off but the person can
remember the exerience when back in the drug state.

     Although the primary appetitive drives are based on survival needs, 
not all such needs have motivating power.  For example, we are continually
motivated to breathe air and, as a result, normally take in an adequate 
supply of oxygen.  However, we are not specifically motivated by oxygen
deprivation and, if the air were lacking in oxygen, we would likely not be
aware of the fact.  Similarly, although the "wisdom of the body" is quite 
remarkable, so that we sometimes crave foods that contain needed minerals, 
some very important substances do not give rise to specific hungers.  In 
early days, various sicknesses were quite common as a result of an 
unrecognized deficiency in iodine (which is now largely prevented by 
using iodized salt).
     
     Like it or not, we are all basically biological creatures.  Humans 
are certainly unique within the animal kingdom, but then, all species are 
unique in one or another way.  Regardless of one's beliefs about why we 
are here and what our ultimate destiny may be, for the immediate present, 
we need to eat, drink, breathe, sleep, eliminate wastes, and as we shall 
discuss separately, protect ourselves from physical injury.  It has also 
been said that anyone who is not motivated by sexual deprivation must have 
come from a long line of extinct ancestors.  Although it is true that a 
prime function of a successful culture is to provide the necessities of 
life, we must never ignore their ever present role in affecting our behavior.

     As with all principles of behavior, there is much yet to be learned
from further experimental analysis.  Although it is clear that animals
get hungry, they have special appetites and preferences for particular
foods.  Similarly, some people may be sexually aroused by acts that you
find disgusting.  Many animals somehow control population in relation to
the available resources but humans seem to over-populate areas that can
least suppport them.  Controlling the primary drives, as in the toilet
training of both pets and children, is not well understood.   

TERMS: Context, cue, drive (primary), drive stimulus, innate, learning, 
motivation, setting operation