| Abstract: | The present experiments, using the latent inhibition (LI) paradigm, evaluated the effect of nonreinforced exposure to saccharin
on the acquisition of an LiCl-induced saccharin aversion as measured by conditioned disgust reactions in the taste reactivity
test and conditioned taste avoidance in a consumption test. When rats were preexposed to saccharin by bottle exposure (Experiments
1 and 3), LI was evidenced only by conditioned taste avoidance (bottle testing), but not by conditioned disgust reactions
(intraoral IO] testing). On the other hand, when rats were preexposed to saccharin by IO infusion (Experiments 2 and 3),
LI was evidenced only by conditioned disgust reactions, but not by conditioned taste avoidance. Experiment 4 showed that LI
of conditioned disgust reactions does not appear to be affected by a context shift from preexposure to testing phases. These
results show that the expression of LI of both conditioned taste avoidance and conditioned disgust reactions depends critically
on a common method of flavor exposure during preexposure and testing. |
