Deprivation and the Canalization of Responses to Food

Abstract

The present study, under somewhat more rigorous conditions, has confirmed Lukomnik's original testing of the canalization hypothesis. Within the limits of the procedure employed, sheer familiarization had relatively little effect in modifying S's liking for esoteric foods; but, when S came to the training session hungry, statistically significant changes in the later ratings of the foods then tested were induced. Clearly, Murphy's canalization hypothesis with respect to the increase in liking for one among several potential ways of satisfying a need is supported. It should be noted (as Murphy has commented in a personal communication) that in both the Lukomnik and the present studies, the relation between the amount of food taken to taste and the amount needed for satisfying the hunger has not been established. Whether there has been true need-satisfaction or drive-reduction is as yet an unsolved question, the answer to which seems crucial to the clarification of the basic mechanisms involved in the phenomenon demonstrated.