Stimulus Preexposure, Comparison, and Changes in the Associability of Common Stimulus Features

In four experiments, rats received preexposure either to both of two compound flavours (AX and BX), or to just one (BX). Experiment 1 demonstrated a perceptual learning effect, showing that, for animals given preexposure to both flavours, an aversion conditioned to AX generalized only poorly to BX....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. B, Comparative and physiological psychology Comparative and physiological psychology, 1997-11, Vol.50 (4), p.317-331
Main Author: Hall, Michelle Symonds Geoffrey
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis of Variance
Animals
Avoidance Learning
Conditioning, Classical
Discrimination Learning
Feeding Behavior - physiology
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Rats
Rats, Inbred Strains
Taste - physiology
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:In four experiments, rats received preexposure either to both of two compound flavours (AX and BX), or to just one (BX). Experiment 1 demonstrated a perceptual learning effect, showing that, for animals given preexposure to both flavours, an aversion conditioned to AX generalized only poorly to BX. Subsequent experiments assessed the properties of the common feature, X. Experiment 3 showed that the two preexposure treatments did not differ in the extent to which they produced habituation of the neophobia evoked by X. Experiment 2 showed that conditioning to X proceeded more rapidly in subjects given preexposure to both AX and BX than in subjects preexposed to BX alone. In Experiment 4, a similar effect was found when the elements of the compounds were presented serially. It is concluded that the perceptual learning effect of Experiment 1 occurs in spite of the fact that preexposure to two stimuli tends to maintain the associability of their common elements.
ISSN:0272-4995
1464-1321
DOI:10.1080/713932663