Successive negative contrast in the consummatory responding of didelphid marsupials

Abstract

In a consummatory experiment patterned after previous work with rats and goldfish, successive negative incentive contrast was sought in didelphid marsupials of two species (Lutreolina crassicaudata andDidelphis albiventris). Half of the subjects of each species were trained from the outset with a 32% sucrose solution and shifted occasionally to a 4% sucrose solution; the rest, which served as controls, were trained only with the 4% solution. The positive results obtained (less response to the 4% solution in the shifted subjects than in the controls) fit the hypothesis, based on comparative work with descendants of older vertebrate lines, that the mechanism of successive negative incentive contrast evolved in a common reptilian ancestor of birds and mammals.