Conditioned and latent inhibition in taste-aversion learning: clarifying the role of learned safety.
Experiments 1-3 investigated the applicability of the classical conditioning concept of conditioned inhibition to taste-aversion learning. Rats made ill after drinking saccharin and subsequently administered a "safe" exposure to saline (or casein hydrolysate) evidenced an enhanced preference for the safe fluid (relative to either a third, slightly aversive, solution or to water) when compared to controls in which saccharin was not previously poisoned. Such active condition inhibition was significantly reduced in Experiment 4 when two safe exposures to saline preceded saccharin-illness pairings. These results indicate that conditioned inhibition can be established in a taste-aversion procedure and that a latent inhibition manipulation reduces the ability of a taste to become a signal for safety. Implications of these findings for the learned safety theory of taste-aversion learning and the relevance to bait-shyness of principles established within the classical conditioning paradigm are considered.
D000818:Animals; D001058:Apomorphine / Q000506:poisoning; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D002364:Caseins; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D004327:Drinking Behavior; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D012439:Saccharin / Q000506:poisoning; D012965:Sodium Chloride; D013649:Taste
D002364:Caseins; D012965:Sodium Chloride; D012439:Saccharin; D001058:Apomorphine