Conditioned taste aversion and traditional learning.

Abstract

The generality of the laws of learning has been questioned on the basis of the results of conditioned taste aversion (CTA) experiments. The results of CTA experiments and of traditional learning (TL) experiments are compared in order to evaluate whether CTA and TL indeed follow different rules. It is shown that (a) most of the observed differences between CTA and TL experiments may simply reflect peculiarities of the CSs and USs used in CTA, (b) that there are conflicting phenomena in both CTA and TL experiments which require further analysis, and (c) that the majority of learning phenomena seen in CTA experiments also occur in TL experiments. It is therefore suggested that the laws that hold for TL also apply to CTA.