Context dependency of conditioned aversions to familiar and novel fluids

• Published in: Learning and motivation Vol. 37; no. 2; pp. 113 - 130
• Main Authors: Ishii, Kiyoshi, Iguchi, Yoshio, Sawa, Kosuke
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia Elsevier Inc 01.05.2006; Elsevier; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Animal Behavior; Animals; Conditioned aversion; Conditioning; Context dependency; Context Effect; Discrimination Learning; Fluids; Learning; Nausea; Novelty (Stimulus Dimension); Occasion setting; Rat; Rodents; Water; Occasion setting; Context dependency; Rat; Conditioned aversion
• ISSN: 0023-9690; 1095-9122
• DOI: 10.1016/j.lmot.2005.04.002

Using a context discrimination procedure and rats as the subjects, the formation of context-dependent aversions to novel and familiar fluids was investigated. Experiment 1 revealed that context dependency could be established to a novel fluid (saccharin) after three cycles of context discrimination training and that the acquired context dependency was revealed also to a second familiar fluid (water) presented in the following test. Experiment 2 showed that the formation of the context-dependent aversion and its transfer to a second fluid was not affected by whether fluid presented during discrimination was novel (saccharin) or familiar (water). Experiment 3 demonstrated that when the same water was given both in the two training contexts and in the home cages of the subjects during discrimination, the context-dependent aversion formed was specific to it. These findings can be explained in terms of a simple summation effect of fluid-nausea and context-nausea associations.