Taste aversion following backward conditioning procedures in preweanling and adult rats.
Laboratory rats, 18 and 90 days old, received an intraperitoneal injection (2% body weight) of .15M lithium chloride or .9% saline 10 or 30 min before 15-min access to 12% sucrose. Additional control groups received LiCl injection followed by tap water access. Testing with a 2-bottle choice procedure revealed reliable aversion effects for both age groups at each toxicosis-flavor interval. Adult rats showed reliably greater persistence of aversion following training with the 10- than with the 30-min interval. Rat pups showed no reliable differences in aversion across training intervals. Reliably greater aversion effects occurred for adults than for pups following training at the 10-min interval. Following training at the 30-min interval a similar reliable age effect occurred on Test Trial 1; but from Trial 2 onward the magnitude of aversion was similar for pups and adult rats.
D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning; D002712:Chlorides; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological; D005260:Female; D008094:Lithium; D018021:Lithium Chloride; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013395:Sucrose; D013649:Taste; D013997:Time Factors
D002712:Chlorides; D013395:Sucrose; D008094:Lithium; D018021:Lithium Chloride