Alcohol researchers have sought to characterize the relationship between cue responsivity and alcohol consumption by alcoholics. This study used the beverage tasting paradigm to test for differences in cue responsivity in adolescent sons of alcoholics. It was hypothesized that, compared to sons of nonalcoholics, sons of alcoholics would be more insensitive to internal cues to drinking nonalcoholic beverages and more sensitive to external cues to drinking. Subjects were 36 nonalcoholic male college students, matched for current drinking practices, who were randomly assigned to either a preload or a no preload condition. Seventeen subjects were identified through family histories as high-risk because of paternal alcoholism. Presence or absence of internal cues related to drinking was manipulated by withholding or administering, respectively, preloads of 16 to 20 ounces of water. All subjects were then given orange juice and grapefruit juice to drink. The results revealed a significant interaction between risk group and preload condition, confirming the internality hypothesis. Sons of alcoholics drank significantly more juice following a water preload than did sons of nonalcoholics. The externality hypothesis was not supported. These findings suggest that a non-alcohol-specific "deficit" in responsivity to internal cues related to beverage consumption may be a risk factor for the development of alcoholism. (NB)