Effects of postconditioning inflation on odor + taste compound conditioning.
The within-compound association approach has been proposed as an account of synergistic conditioning in flavor aversion learning. One prediction from the within-compound association approach is that following taste + odor compound conditioning, postconditioning inflation of one element of the compound should increase responding to the second element. In four experiments with rats, the AX+/A+ design was used to determine whether postconditioning inflation of A would increase responding to X. In Experiments 1 and 3, responding to X was significantly stronger after AX+/A+ conditioning, as compared with AX+ conditioning. In Experiments 2 and 4, the specificity of the inflation effect was demonstrated, because AX+/A+ conditioning produced a stronger aversion to X than did AX+/B+ conditioning. Furthermore, it appears that the taste + odor association is symmetrical because inflation of the taste aversion increased responding to the odor (Experiments 1 and 2) and inflation of the odor aversion increased responding to the taste (Experiments 3 and 4).
Batsell
W Robert
WR
Department of Psychology, Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49006, USA. rbatsell@kzoo.edu
Trost
Christina A
CA
Cochran
Stephanie R
SR
Blankenship
Aaron G
AG
Batson
John D
JD
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D005795:Generalization, Stimulus; D008297:Male; D009812:Odorants; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013649:Taste