Central Motive State

The question of how a habit (H) is formed and how it is stored in the brain is
a lively research topic in the psychobiology of learning, memory, and cognition,
as well as in neuropsychology, which deals with learning deficit and loss
of memory. Drive and reinforcement are important variables that determine
whether learning will succeed and whether past learning will be manifested
as behaviors. Research on hunger and thirst forms one subfield of
psychobiology.

If D is the common energizer of various behaviors, then all sources ofD—
hunger, thirst, sex, mothering, exploration—should have something in
common physiologically. The so-called central motive state is hypothesized
to be such a state. It is known that arousal is common to the sources of D. Research
involves biological delineation of the sources of D; researchers are
studying the mechanisms of hunger, for example. There has been insufficient
attention paid to the physiological processes by which hunger may motivate
various behaviors and by which drive reduction would serve as a reinforcement
in learning. Extreme lack of motivation can be seen in some
depressed and psychotic patients, which results both in a lack of new learning
and in a lack of manifesting what is already known. The neuronal substrates
of this “lack of energy” represent one problem under investigation in
the area of drive and motivation.

Sources for Further Study
Amsel, Abram. Mechanisms of Adaptive Behavior: Clark Hull’s Theoretical Papers,
with Commentary. New York: Columbia University Press, 1984. An annotated
collection of Hull’s theoretical work on drives and behavior.
Bolles, Robert C. Theory of Motivation. 2d ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1975.
This standard text in motivation reviews the concepts of motivation and
drive and present pros and cons of the drive concept.
Freud, Sigmund. New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis. Translated and
edited by James Strachey. New York: W. W. Norton, 1989. Freud’s 1933
work explains his theory of the workings of the id, ego, and superego. His
concept of behavioral energy is described in this book.
Hull, Clark Leonard. Principles of Behavior. 1943. Reprint. New York: Appleton-
Century-Crofts, 1966. This bible of the Hullian neobehavioristic theory
delineates the concepts of D and H and the philosophical bases of behavioral
study. The theory has excited many students into studying psychology.
Pfaff, Donald W., ed. The Physiological Mechanisms of Motivation. New York:
Springer-Verlag, 1982. Various authors describe the physiological substrates
of different sources of drive and motivation in terms of the nervous
system, hormones, and body fluid parameters.

Stellar, James R., and Eliot Stellar. The Neurobiology of Motivation and Reward.
New York: Springer-Verlag, 1985. Eliot Stellar, one of the best-known theorists
in biopsychology of motivation, along with his son, describes how
biological antecedents of motivation can be found to explain various behavior.
Warden, Carl John. Animal Motivation: Experimental Studies on the Albino Rat.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1931. This was the first research attempting
to compare different sources of drive using various reward substances.
Sigmund Hsiao
See also: Hunger; Instinct Theory; Motivation; Thirst. 299