Abstract
The present study investigated how rats and humans classify five kinds of “tea” after tasting them. In Experiment 1, rats consumed one of five commercial brands of tea (two brands of green tea, two brands of herb blend tea, and one brand of barley tea) followed by an injection of poisonous lithium chloride. The animals were then tested with the individual teas on successive days (one brand per day) to assess generalization of their conditioned aversion. In Experiment 2, human participants were required to rate the similarity of these teas using visual analogue scales and a blind paired-comparison procedure. Multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis methods applied to these data revealed that rats and humans categorized the teas in the similar way. The green teas were clearly distinguished from the other teas and the barley tea was placed in the same class as the herb blend teas.
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