"The present paper is a study of the theoretical implications of the writer's experiments upon food acceptance and the relation of this work to current views concerning food-seeking drive, affective process, and learning." It is concluded that affective processes exist in the rat, and a hedonic theory of drive is proposed. The drive strength associated with a food is a direct function of the degree of enjoyment of that food. The preferential food selections of the rat are regulated by the intensity of affective arousal by food contacts and the number and temporal distribution of the runs to the food. While rats run faster to a more palatable food, its palatability does not seem to affect the rate of learning to go to it. 39 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)