Criticisms of the Satiety Hypothesis as an Explanation for Within‐session Decreases in Responding

The authors of four papers recently reported that satiation provides a better explanation than habituation for within-session decreases in conditioned responding. Several arguments question this conclusion. First, the contribution of habituation to within-session changes in responding seems clearly established. Information that is consistent with habituation, but that is difficult to reconcile with satiation, is not adequately addressed. Second, the limited evidence offered in support of satiation is ambiguous because the results are just as compatible with habituation as with other satiety variables. Finally, the term satiation is used in an intuitive way that is sometimes contradicted by research about the termination of ingestion. Use of the technical term satiation in a way that differs from its conventional usage will only isolate operant psychology from other areas of psychological research.