title: Preservation of within-compound associations after blocked preexposure to two compound flavors.
abstract: Three experiments investigated the extinction of the within-compound A↔X association established when two compound flavors, AX and BX, are preexposed in blocks (i.e., AX, AX, AX, ... BX, BX, BX). In Experiment 1, a group of rats received preexposure to a block of AX trials followed by a second block of BX trials (AX-BX), while a second group received blocked preexposure to the same stimuli in the opposite order (BX-AX). Subsequently, flavor A was paired with lithium chloride. This conditioning resulted in a similar reduction of consumption of flavor X in both groups. In Experiment 2 four groups of rats received blocked preexposure to AX-BX, AX-B, A-BX, or A-X. After aversive conditioning of X, consumption of A and B was significantly lower for the groups which received these flavors paired with X than for the groups for which these flavors were presented isolated. In Experiment 3 a group of rats was preexposed to a block of SaltX presentations followed by a block of BX presentations (SaltX-BX), and a second group received blocked preexposure to (BX-SaltX). After subsequent sodium depletion, consumption of X was high and similar for the SaltX-BX and for the BX-SaltX groups. These results indicate that the within-compound association established in the first block of a blocked preexposure is not extinguished when the preexposure phase is concluded.
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Málaga, Spain. Electronic address: espinet@uma.es.
authors.forename: Alfredo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Espinet
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Málaga, Spain.
authors.forename: José M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Caramés
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Málaga, Spain.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cabo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning / Q000187:drug effects; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000187:drug effects; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological / Q000187:drug effects; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D005421:Flavoring Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D005793:Generalization, Psychological / Q000187:drug effects; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D018021:Lithium Chloride / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013649:Taste / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D005421:Flavoring Agents; D018021:Lithium Chloride
keywords: Blocked preexposure; Extinction; Perceptual learning; Within-compound association