The effects of extensive taste preexposure on the acquisition of conditioned taste aversions

Abstract

Animals extensively exposed to water during rearing showed no evidence of a conditioned taste aversion to water following a single pairing of water and lithium chloride (LiCl), indicating that, with sufficient preexposure, conditioned taste aversions can be completely attenuated. Although showing no aversion following a single conditioning trial, the preexposed subjects completely avoided water when repeated water-LiCl pairings were given, indicating further that, on the initial conditioning trials, some association had been established between the taste and toxicosis but that it was too weak to affect behavior, in other words, was a silent association. With repeated conditioning trials, this weak association became sufficiently strong to suppress consumption. The data were discussed in terms of the effects of taste preexposure on the acquisition of conditioned taste aversions.