Resistance to extinction of a taste aversion: effects of level of training and procedures used in acquisition and extinction.
Two studies investigated the relationship between acquisition and extinction procedures on the development and elimination of a taste aversion. In the first experiment, subjects were given either forced or free choice acquisition to a common acquisition criterion. Then, their aversion was extinguished under either the free or forced choice procedure. The results of the first study showed that the greatest resistance to extinction was produced with a forced acquisition and free extinction procedure and the least resistance was produced by a free acquisition and forced procedure. Experiment 2 employed an equal number of acquisition trials (one or three) under either free or forced acquisition followed by either free or forced extinction. The results of Experiment 2 found that resistance to extinction was greater with three compared with one acquisition trial, but the acquisition technique did not influence resistance to extinction. As in the first experiment, extinction was more rapid with forced extinction. It appears that the strength of a taste-illness association is primarily dependent on the number of CS-US associations. Thus, when a common criterion is used, forced subjects take longer to extinguish their aversion due to their stronger taste-illness association. When an equivalent number of pairings is used, extinction rats are equal in free and forced animals (even though acquisition intake was higher in forced animals).
D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000187:drug effects; D004326:Drinking / Q000187:drug effects; D005108:Extinction, Psychological / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D008094:Lithium / Q000506:poisoning; D051381:Rats; D013649:Taste / Q000187:drug effects
D008094:Lithium