Lack of age differences in context-illness associations in the long-delay taste-aversion conditioning of rats.
To evaluate whether previously observed age differences in long-delay taste aversion were due to age-related differences in the shared association of contextual cues and CS with the US, weanling, young-adult, and old-adult rats were given a NaCl or LiCl US immediately after or a LiCl US 3 hr. after a saccharin CS presentation in a black or white context. They were then given a context-preference test in a chamber which was half black and half white. Analysis showed rats, irrespective of age or conditioning context, spent a significantly smaller percentage of time on the white side than on the black side of the test chamber. These results suggest that age differences in long-delay taste-aversion conditioning are not due to age-related differences in the shared association of contextual cues and CS with the US.
Misanin
J R
JR
Department of Psychology, Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, PA 17870, USA.
Hinderliter
C F
CF
D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D005260:Female; D018021:Lithium Chloride; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D012931:Social Environment; D013649:Taste
D018021:Lithium Chloride