Enhanced discrimination between flavor stimuli: roles of salience modulation and inhibition.
Rats were given intermixed preexposure to the compound flavors AX and BX and to the compound CX in a separate block of trials (4 presentations of each compound). In Experiment 1, rats showed less generalization of conditioned aversion from AX to BX than from CX to BX, a perceptual learning effect. Experiment 2 showed that the formation of an excitatory association proceeded more readily between A and B than between C and B, suggesting that intermixed preexposure maintains the effective salience of A and B and does not establish inhibition between them, a process that would require prolonged preexposure. According to this analysis, salience modulation and associative inhibition may contribute to perceptual learning at different stages of preexposure.
Artigas
Antonio A
AA
Departament de Psicologia Bàsica, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.
Sansa
Joan
J
Blair
C A J
CA
Hall
Geoffrey
G
Prados
Jose
J
D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D008297:Male; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000502:physiology; D010469:Perceptual Distortion; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013649:Taste / Q000502:physiology*