The effects of intraventricular cycloheximide (CHX) pretreatment were examined on the ability of rats to recall a light position discrimination task. The CHX pretreatment used inhibited brain protein synthesis at the time of training by 71%. Following treatment with CHX the animals demonstrated no retention of the task 18 hr later. Free feeding for 24 hr prior to treatment with cerebro-spinal-like fluid (CSF) produced similar effects as CHX. It is proposed that the amnesic effect of CHX in this behavioral paradigm may be a nonspecific action resulting from decreased motivation. Both the CHX-treated and satiated animals exhibited low responding levels during training, despite comparable behavioral activity levels for the CHX- and CSF-treated groups.