Social blockade of taste-aversion learning in Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus): is it a social phenomenon?
In Experiment 1, hooded rats (Rattus norvegicus) were exposed to a novel diet in a food dish or on a conspecific; they were allowed to consume the same diet and then were injected with a toxin LiCl. Later both groups ate more of the novel diet than animals that had not been exposed, and the conspecific-exposed group ate more than the dish-exposed group. Reducing aversion learning by exposure on a conspecific is known as social blockade. We examined if this effect is because a conspecific intensifies dietary cues and thereby increases latent inhibition. Experiment 2 failed to show that diet on a conspecific is a more effective conditioned stimulus for taste-aversion learning than diet in a dish, and Experiment 3 showed that diet in a dish is an effective overshadowing stimulus in aversion learning but diet on a conspecific is not. These results suggest that social blockade cannot readily be assimilated to a latent-inhibition model and may be a distinctly social form of learning.
Heyes
C M
CM
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Durlach
P J
PJ
D000818:Animals; D001143:Arousal; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D003463:Cues; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D012931:Social Environment; D013649:Taste