Context Specificity of Latent Inhibition in Taste Aversion Learning

Abstract

In three experiments rats were given injections of LiCl after consuming distinctively flavoured water. The rats developed an aversion to the flavour and in all experiments the magnitude of the aversion was found to be reduced in subjects that had received pre-exposure to the flavour without aversive consequences. Experiment 1 demonstrated this pre-exposure effect to be a case of latent inhibition. The remaining experiments investigated the effects of pre-exposing the flavour in a context different from that used for conditioning. It was found (Experiment 2) diat latent inhibition transferred perfectly when the context change consisted of a move from one home cage to another. Context specificity of latent inhibition was found (Experiment 3) only when the subjects were given daily sessions in die experimental contexts, these being cages different from the home cage.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Archer

Sjöden

P-O.

Carter

(1979). Control of taste-aversion extinction by exteroceptive cues. Behavioral and Neural Biology 25, 217–226.

Archer

Sjödén

P-O.

Nilsson

L-G.

(1985). Contextual control of tasteaversion conditioning and extinction. Context and learning. Balsam

P. D.

Tomie

Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Archer

Sjädén

P-O.

Nilsson

L-G.

Carter

(1979). Role of exteroceptive background context in taste-aversion conditioning and extinction. Animal Learning and Behavior 7, 17–22.

Best

M. R.

(1975). Conditioned and latent inhibition in taste aversion learning: Clarifying the role of learned safety. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 1, 97–113.

Channell

Hall

(1981). Facilitation and retardation of discrimination learning after exposure to the stimuli. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 7, 437–446.

Channell

Hall

(1983). Contextual effects in latent inhibition with an appetitive conditioning procedure. Animal Learning and Behavior 11, 67–74.

Hall

(1979). Exposure learning in young and adult laboratory rats. Animal Behavior 27, 586–591.

Hall

(1980). Exposure learning in animals. Psychological Bulletin 88, 535–550.

Hall

Channell

(1983). Stimulus exposure and discrimination in rats: A test of a theory for the role of contextual factors. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 35B, 135–147.

10.

Hall

Channell

(1985). Latent inhibition and conditioning after preexposure to the training context. Learning and Motivation 16, 381–397.

11.

Hall

Minor

(1984). A search for context-stimulus associations in latent inhibition. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 36B, 145–169.

12.

Kurz

E. M.

Levitsky

D. A.

(1982). Novelty of contextual cues in taste-aversion learning. Animal Learning and Behavior 10, 229–232.

13.

Lovibond

P. F.

Preston

G. C.

Mackintosh

N. J.

(1984). Context specificity of conditioning and latent inhibition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 10, 360–375.

14.

Lubow

R. E.

(1973). Latent inhibition. Psychological Bulletin 79, 398–407.

15.

Lubow

R. E.

Rifkin

Alek

(1976). The context effect: The relationship between stimulus preexposure and environmental preexposure determines subsequent learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 2, 38–47.

16.

Mitchell

Winter

Moffitt

(1981). Cross-modality contrast: Exteroceptive context habituation enhances taste neophobia and conditioned taste aversions. Animal Learning and Behavior 8, 524–528.

17.

Rozin

Kalat

J. W.

(1971). Specific hungers and poison avoidance as adaptive specializations of learning. Psychological Review 78, 459–486.

18.

Rudy

J. W.

Rosenberg

Sandell

J. H.

(1977). Disruption of a taste familiarity effect by novel exteroceptive stimulation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 3, 26–36.

19.

Wagner

A. R.

(1976). An information processing mechanism for self-generated or retrieval-generated depression in performance. Habituation: Perspectives from child development, animal behavior, and neurophysiology. Tighe

T. J.

Leaton

R. N.

Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.