Abstract
This article consists of two experiments reporting conditioned flavor avoidance (or taste aversion) in laboratory rats that swam in the flavored water. A statistically reliable effect was demonstrated in Experiment 1 by using a simple conditioning procedure with sweet (sodium saccharin) water. Compared with control rats that had no swimming experience or those that swam in tap water, experimental rats showed avoidance of the sweet water in the choice test between it and tap water, if they had swum in the sweet water for 20 min over four days. Rinsing the rats off with tap water after the swimming had no effect on this flavor avoidance learning. This finding suggests that tasting the sweet water during swimming was critical. Experiment 2 confirmed the flavor avoidance learning in swimming rats by a differential conditioning procedure with sour (citric acid) and bitter (denatonium benzoate) solutions. Although the effect size was relatively small in the two experiments reported here, this new procedure may contribute to future research concerning Pavlovian conditioning due to its procedural simplicity.
Highlights
This article consists of two experiments reporting conditioned flavor avoidance in laboratory rats that swam in the flavored water
Compared with control rats that had no swimming experience or those that swam in tap water, experimental rats showed avoidance of the sweet water in the choice test between it and tap water, if they had swum in the sweet water for 20 min over four days
The test results indicate that, as expected, swimming in flavored water leads to flavor avoidance learning in laboratory rats, because rats with experience of swimming in sweet water avoided sweet water more than did control rats that swam in tap water or did not swim
Summary
This article consists of two experiments reporting conditioned flavor avoidance (or taste aversion) in laboratory rats that swam in the flavored water. Estimation of the consumption by computing a pre-post difference in the amount of flavored water in the pool is virtually impossible, because the rat sponges the water with its fur and it urinates in the pool Despite such a technical concern, the present research may contribute to the field of animal learning by proposing a simple modus operandi to study Pavlovian flavor conditioning in rats. This procedure turns the setting from conventional, forward conditioning (i.e., a flavor CS followed by a swimming US) to simultaneous conditioning (i.e., a concurrent presentation of a flavor CS and a swimming US). The present research might contribute to existing knowledge on successful simultaneous conditioning
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