Changes in stimulus salience as a result of stimulus preexposure: evidence from aversive and appetitive testing procedures.
In two experiments, rats received preexposure to three compound flavor stimuli, AX, BX, and CX, where X represents a saline solution. AX and BX were presented in alternation; CX, on a separate block of trials. The value of X was then modified, being devalued by aversive conditioning in Experiment 1, and rendered valuable by the induction of a state of salt need in Experiment 2. When given a choice between BX and CX, the rats consumed more of BX than of CX in Experiment 1, and more of CX than of BX in Experiment 2, suggesting that B and C differed in their ability to modulate the response governed by the X element. It was suggested that blocked preexposure to CX reduces the salience of the C stimulus but that the salience of B is maintained by preexposure in which BX is alternated with AX. The implications of this result for the phenomenon of perceptual learning are discussed.
Blair
C A J
CA
Department of Psychology, University of York, York, England.
Hall
Geoffrey
G
D000818:Animals; D001070:Appetitive Behavior; D001288:Attention; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D005795:Generalization, Stimulus; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D010469:Perceptual Distortion; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D013652:Taste Threshold; D013997:Time Factors