Rated salience of internal and external cues in cases of self-reported hunger and illness

An event contingent diary method compared the rated salience of ambient external and internal cues reported in association with instances of feeling hungry and ill, to test whether environmental and psychological factors might be differentially identified in conjunction with these states. In cases of hunger but not illness, external and internal events were equally salient cues. However, within the general category of external cues, for those feeling hungry, smells were rated more salient than sounds. Within the category of internal cues, in both cases of hunger and illness, cognitions were rated as more salient than moods. We consider Pavlovian conditioning as a mechanism for these effects.