Potentiation by a novel flavour of conditioned place aversions based on both toxicosis and shock

Abstract

Three experiments examined how a flavour modified the development of aversions to the place in which it was presented and paired with a reinforcer. Experiment 1 confirmed the cue-to-consequence effect: rats made sick after exposure to a flavour in a novel place (Skinner boxes) displayed stronger aversions than shocked animals when they were presented with the flavour in a second, familiar place; rats shocked after exposure to water acquired stronger place aversions than animals made sick. Experiment 2 confirmed the potentiation effect: rats made sick after exposure to the flavour developed stronger place aversions than those made sick after ingestion of water. This experiment also revealed that rats shocked after exposure to the flavour likewise acquired stronger place aversions than the animals shocked after ingestion of water. Experiment 3 replicated this flavour potentiation of place aversions based on shock. The results are not consistent with Garcia, Lasiter, Bermudez-Rottoni, & Deems’ (1985) account of how a flavour interacts with an aversive reinforcer to modify what is learned about its associates in a compound.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Best

M. R.

Batson

J. D.

Meachum

C. L.

Brown

E. R.

Ringer

(1985). Characteristics of taste-mediated environmental potentiation in rats. Learning and Motivation 16, 190–209.

Best

M. R.

Brown

E. R.

Sowell

M. K.

(1984). Taste-mediated potentiation of non-ingestional stimuli in rats. Learning and Motivation 15, 244–258.

Best

M. R.

Meachum

C. L.

(1986). The effects of stimulus pre-exposure on taste-mediated environmental conditioning: Potentiation and overshadowing. Animal Learning and Behavior 14, 1–5.

Clarke

J. C.

Westbrook

R. F.

Irwin

(1979). Potentiation instead of overshadowing in the pigeon. Behavioral and Neural Biology 25, 18–29.

Domjan

(1983). Biological constraints on instrumental and classical conditioning: Implications for general process theory. The psychology of learning and motivation. Bower

New York: Academic Press 17, 215–277.

Domjan

Wilson

N. E.

(1972). Specificity of cue-to-consequence in aversion learning in the rat. Psychonomic Science 26, 143–145.

Durlach

P. J.

Rescorla

R. A.

(1980). Potentiation rather than overshadowing in flavor-aversion learning: An analysis in terms of within-compound associations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Process 6, 175–187.

Galef

B. G.

Osborne

(1978). Novel taste facilitation of the association of visual cues with toxicosis in rats. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology 92, 907–916.

Garcia

Garcia y Robertson

(1985). The evolution of learning mechanisms. The master lecture series. Hammonds

B. L.

Washington, DC: American Psychological Association 4, 191–243.

10.

Garcia

Koelling

R. A.

(1966). Relation of cue to consequence in avoidance learning. Psychonomic Science 4, 123–124.

11.

Garcia

Lasiter

P. S.

Bermudez-Rottoni

Deems

D. A.

(1985). A general theory of avoidance learning. Annals of the New York Academy of Science 443, 8–21.

12.

Hays

W. L.

(1982). Statistics New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

13.

Kamin

L. J.

(1969). Predictability, surprise, attention and conditioning. Punishment and aversive behavior. Campbell

Church

New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts 279–296.

14.

Lett

B. T.

(1980). Taste potentiates color-sickness associations in pigeons and quail. Animal Learning and Behavior 8, 193–198.

15.

Rusiniak

K. W.

Hankins

W. G.

Garcia

Brett

L. P.

(1979). Flavor-illness aversions: Potentiation of odor by taste in rats. Behavioral and Neural Biology 25, 1–17.

16.

Rusiniak

K. W.

Palmerino

C. C.

Rice

A. G.

Forthman

D. L.

Garcia

(1982). Flavorillness aversions: Potentiation of odor by taste with toxin but not shock in rats. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology 96, 527–539.

17.

Westbrook

R. G.

Brookes

(1988). Potentiation and blocking of conditioned flavour and context aversions. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 40B, 3–30.