title: The Espinet and the perceptual learning effects in flavour aversion conditioning: do they depend on a common inhibitory mechanism?
abstract: In three experiments rats were given short or long preexposure (4 or 10 sessions) to two compound flavours, AX and BX, according to an intermixed or a blocked schedule. Following preexposure, aversion conditioning trials were given with AX as the conditioned stimulus (CS). In Experiments 1 and 2, retardation and summation tests were then carried out to assess the inhibitory properties of B (an Espinet procedure). In Experiment 3, test trials evaluated generalization from AX to BX (the standard perceptual learning procedure). The results showed that B performed as an inhibitor of the unconditioned stimulus (US; an Espinet effect) only after long intermixed preexposure, whereas a reliable perceptual learning effect was observed both after short and after long preexposure. The observation that B had no detectable inhibitory properties after short preexposure casts doubt on the suggestion that inhibitory learning is responsible for perceptual learning after brief exposure to AX and BX.
authors.affiliation: Department de Psicologia Bàsica, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Antonio A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Artigas
authors.forename: Joan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sansa
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Prados
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological; D004924:Escape Reaction; D005260:Female; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D010465:Perception; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D013649:Taste