title: Some appetitive procedures for examining associative learning in the mouse: Implications for psychopathology.
abstract: There are few demonstrations of basic associative learning phenomena using appetitive procedures in mice. This article describes procedures for obtaining four associative learning phenomena in mice, using an appetitive conditioning procedure in which the reinforcer was delivery of a sucrose pellet, and the conditioned response head entry into the food tray. Experiment 1 demonstrated latent inhibition in a within-subjects procedure. Experiment 2 demonstrates both overshadowing and blocking, and Experiment 3 Pavlovian conditioned inhibition, which was evaluated by both summation and retardation tests. These procedures all have potential relevance to current translational research questions. The specific advantages of using appetitive tasks are discussed.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom. cmb@psychology.nottingham.ac.uk
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bonardi
authors.forename: Craig
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bartle
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bowles
authors.forename: Felicity
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: de Pulford
authors.forename: Dómhnall J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Jennings
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001070:Appetitive Behavior; D001245:Association Learning; D035841:Behavioral Research / Q000379:methods*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D005260:Female; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D013997:Time Factors